Fwd: The Jolly Libertarian

[Trevor Watkins]

What is the point in trying to educate a society of rats?

Trevor Watkins

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From: The Jolly Libertarian <noreply+...@google.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 10:25
Subject: The Jolly Libertarian
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The Jolly Libertarian

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Rats! Posted: 21 Apr 2020 05:55 PM PDT Follow us on Facebook Madame Defarge Knitting at the Guillotine In the Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton blackmails the duplicitous spy John Barsad to let him visit the imprisoned Charles Darnay. He threatens to expose his past and Barsad reflects on the matter. He had been a spy for the monarchy before the revolution, then in true opportunistic fashion, had become a spy for the revolutionaries. He had served the Defarges and feared Madame Defarge in particular. He always remembered with fear and trembling, that that terrible woman had knitted when he talked with her, and had looked ominously at him as her fingers moved. He had since seen her, in the Section of Saint Antoine, over and over again produce her knitted registers, and denounce people whose lives the guillotine then surely swallowed up. He knew, as every one employed as he was did, that he was never safe; that flight was impossible; that he was tied fast under the shadow of the axe; and that in spite of his utmost tergiversation and treachery in furtherance of the reigning terror, a word might bring it down upon him. Madame Defarge is one of the grizzliest and loathsome creatures in fiction. Although her background is tragic, she turns her past into a justification for vengeance that goes beyond the pale of human decency. "Imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she had ever had the virtue in her, it had quite gone out of her." Today my wife and I went for a drive through the countryside, listening to the radio as we went. The disk jockeys went about their usual banter, sharing a laugh about a story that Covid-19 could be spread by passing wind and whether this should be brought up with the provincial health officer. Then they turned to a segment called something like Secrets of the Isolation. People had written in and shared some secrets about what they were doing to cope with self-distancing and imposed isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. One had written how she and their neighbours had black-out get togethers in the back yard. Neighbours would bring their chairs. They would sit ten feet apart and have a friendly chat. Neither of the two DJs thought that was a very good idea. One mentioned that if he saw his neighbours getting together like that in their garage, he'd be tempted to go over, take their pictures and turn them in to bylaw enforcement officers. It made me think of Madame Lafarge. It made me think he was the kind of supercilious schmuck who would have denounced the neighbours that were hiding Anne Frank and her family in their attic. It appalls me how many times I have heard questions asked of health officers and health ministers if there should be snitch lines where you could report on your "bad" neighbours. The National Post reports, "Little national data exists throughout the country detailing how much snitching is happening during these times of enforced isolation. But it has become so prevalent in some cities that local administrations have set up dedicated resources just to take reports from concerned citizens. "Toronto asked residents to call the city’s 311 line because social distancing snitches were clogging 911 emergency lines with hundreds of calls. Just last Saturday, the city said it received 300 complaints involving people in parks. The City of London, Ont., went one step further and opened a dedicated snitch phone line to encourage residents to denounce gatherings." The Post article goes on to note that "Montreal police decided to set up a special COVID-19 snitching Web page." It appalls me that there was a report on CBC the other day about a 17 year old boy in Ottawa who was accosted by a bylaw enforcement officer for throwing a basketball through a hoop in a local park. There was not a soul around. No danger of contaminating anyone, even in the unlikely case that the boy had Covid-19. The boy apologized and said he would leave, but the Gestapo wannabe insisted on giving him a $700 fine rather than a warning. The boy's father calls it a clear case of bullying. In another case, a Toronto man was fined $880 for stopping and doing a chin-up on a monkey bar at a park during his daily run. If the story was disturbing, some of the reactions in the comments section were even more so, cheering on this government over-reach. Some countries have imposed complete travel bans. You need a permit to travel, even to get groceries. Some jurisdictions will invade your home to enforce restrictions. Fortunately, the federal and provincial governments have rejected using the Emergencies Act which would formally suspend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and let government institute a police state. But there are enough petty, paranoid dictators in the country that would revel in a complete clamp-down. Now my wife and I believe that most of the restrictions make sense and we practice social distancing. We only leave our home on occasion, usually to go for a drive or to go to a remote hiking trail to get some exercise. Groceries get delivered. We really don't have any qualms about these temporary measures. But we don't want a police state. We don't want a society where petty functionaries can run roughshod over people. We want a compassionate and caring society, not a vengeful society. The fabric of a decent and civilized society is respect for your neighbours and a live and let live attitude towards one's neighbours. When our society deteriorates into a state where neighbours denounce neighbours, where people hanker for snitch lines so they can rat out their neighbours,  we have ceased to become a civilized society. We will have turned from a society of human beings into a society of rats. Link of Interest COVID-19 Pandemic is Turning Canada into a Nation of Snitches Follow us on Facebook

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