Cant

No, not the can’t as in cannot. The OTHER cant. The one that means words that you repeat without thinking, because someone told you so. The words have an idea behind them that are not supposed to grasp entirely or you would never use the words. 

Another name for cant, is propaganda. I just watched the so-called conservative leader interviewed as a “get to know you” feature on the news. The media personality swiftly asked him if he was vaccinated, and if everyone in his caucus was vaccinated, and if he would oust “anti-vaxxers”. The leader calmly assured the interviewer that he was in step with all these (seeming) requirements. I quickly assumed I was watching state sponsored propaganda. The thing is, the leader readily kowtowed, which doesn’t make him much of a leader. 

He did not tell the interviewer that his medical history was his own business. He did not say anything about the scandals of the government in power, the lack of sitting parliament, the ill-premised budget that is creating run away inflation. He didn’t ask about money laundering or organized crime at the government level. He did not question foreign policy and with whom the government is in bed. 

He did not say much at all apart from seeming agreeable, which is not his job. Criticism of this government is a gimme but he passed it by in favour of cant. He just said what they wanted to hear. Why? Because some people don’t know how to say NO. 

I had to teach my youngest daughter to find her sass. Her older sisters were running ram-shod over her, treating her like a servant and telling her to do stuff. I told her she had an option to say no. She was transfixed. She shortly thereafter told her older sister NO and the rest it history. Her older sister said “Bite me”. She relayed this back to me as if asking for permission. “Go ahead” I said, before I heard a scream emanating from the adjacent room. My youngest daughter was emancipated. She had discovered the power of NO.

I kept on watching the news. Following the so called conservative leader, was a report that vaccines for five to eleven years olds had arrived in Canada. Yay. Parents Canada-wide should rejoice. They could now get their kids vaccinated in time for Christmas. Following this, with no sense of incongruity and a total coincidence, a report of an eleven-month-old who suffered a stroke. The report merely said that hey, accidents happen, and I wondered if the weird juxtaposition of stories was to normalize the idea of child strokes prior to vaccine rollout for that age group. 

What passes as news these days troubles me. We have a sacred duty to ask WHY of our leaders. It’s our tax dollars that float their agendas. I remember when the course “CIVICS” was mandatory in high school. It was to teach you to be a thinking citizen. I am not sure whether that course exists any more in the rush to teach the 23 genders and such. There is a lot of cant going around - historic levels of foolishness buoyed by government insistence, scientists and other gurus we are not supposed to question. 

The words “NO” and “WHY?” should be revived, because cant is dangerous. Catherine McKenna, former Liberal MP for Climate Change spelled it out loud while drunk in a bar. “If you actually say it louder, we’ve learned in the House of Commons, if you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that is your talking point, people will totally believe it.”

I’m sure there must be a special spot in hell for people who say things like that. It backs up CS Lewis’ assertion that Hell is populated by bureaucrats in beige suits shuffling paper back and forth across a desk. One thing, I’m certain that governments work hard for their place in hell. The people are merely stupid if they get duped. Hence the importance of civics and a citizenry empowered to say NO on occasion. The police are not always right. The experts are not always right. The scientists are not always right. The courts are not always right. People can be bought and sold. In the end you have a brain and a conscience that you must dust off occasionally.

Catherine McKenna sounds an awful lot like the propaganda minister of a certain very short leader with a pencil moustache who shouted a lot to get his point across. The short lesson of his success was, “THE PEOPLE SHOULD ASK QUESTIONS”. 

But... they were historically stupid enough to obey without questioning anything. Debate is hitting hard times in Canada. “We’re not living in a very liberal era when it comes to speech. We’re living in an era that has many anxieties verging on hysteria about the dangers of unfettered discussion.” So says former CRTC commissioner Timothy Denton. 

You’re not supposed to question their CANT. You’re supposed to blindly obey. There is a name for the state of politics when questions are not allowed, and it’s not democracy. If you are silent when the government lies to you, you are a sheep and deserve the fate of a sheep. If you blindly repeat the cant, you are complicit. Repeating their lies rots your resistance, your moral fibre, and your God given senses. 

I’m polishing off my “NO” meanwhile.