I knew a German who was quote young during the war. He used to man anti-aircraft gun with some women in Friesenland. I suppose boy a gun is more appropriate. One day they managed to shoot down a Spitfire pilot late in the war. The pilot was brought by their station and they managed to get a good look at him. They were quite surprised to see this pilot. He looked so normal. Just like them. There was no evidence of savage origins or special cruel or subhuman traits as they had come to expect of the enemy as they had been led to believe by the information the government had given them.
In meeting groups of Iranians in Vancouver who were mostly merchants I must say I was quite impressed with their graciousness, civil behaviour, good appearance, really good English, intellectual bilities and broad mindedness. They patiently explained to me that they were the Persians of old and had an advanced culture that had been somewhat degraded by European and other politics. I am not sure what I was expecting but I decided to downgrade a good deal of literature I was foolish enough to let form my overview of people.
Most of what we read and think from the popular press and books about other countries is crap. It is blatant CIA distortion. As realistic as a Time Warner compendium on hippie communes.
Having said that, my experience with french politics or Quebec federal politics and Quebec attitude is sub judis. I have been there. For 40++ years. One could easily mistake my distaste for these political imperatives of some french with my attitude with people I have met. They are not the same. there is a group in Quebec and elsewhere with aims of dominance. They want to be the boss. They want their ideals to dominate and all else to be morally repugnant or labelled so. I believe their politics to be fundamentally divisive and scary. I believe in negotiation. I believe in ideals of protection of liberty of the individual. I believe the governed must consent to be governed.
I think that the mass of society needs no statute law, that right and wrong can be seen at a glance. I think that a group of Normans in Montreal want to rule Canada by ideals and edict and political gerry mandering and backroom political deals. It has no relation to democracy. I believe that while they do not believe they are evil their brand of cynicism is as dangerous as the national socialist party was to freedom in Europe.
Canadian Politicians fear democracy. They fear freedom. So do the Americans. They fear it so much they rode it down with horsed in Chicago, shot it in the Ford theatre, murdered it on the lawns of Kent State and lied about it every day in the national press.
If Canadians had a free vote of a majority of the people without this abomination of representaticve gov't they would have elected a conservative party for the past 130 years. But they are ruled since the second world war by fear. So they elect the leader the Quebecers will accept for fear they will leave and spoil the party.
Time to call their bluff. The rest of Canada wants some representation for a change. And not another GD lawyer. I don't believe those who
want some change are naziis. I don't believe the Quebecers are either. But while I may be concerned about their freedom and their freedoms, not sentimentally but needfully, I am sure not many of them are worried about mine. Let's hear less rhetoric from them about language rights and protection of culture. What are they leading up to? I look around Quebec and ask, what do they need protection for and who protects them?
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