Blind Progress

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There is a word that is being arbitrary'll thrown around often these days, and is used to shut up anybody who questions the currently prescribed narrow definition of progress. Any resistance to the inevitability of prescribed progress is to be interpreted as fear and ignorance. The word used is "Luddite", it is the new weapon in the arsenal of those who don't open dialog but shut it closed.

Luddites came about during the early days of the industrial revolution, in response to owners of the new machines/factories who suddenly excluded the hard working professional craftsmen. What the craftsmen proposed was an approach to progress that was employment conscious and societally aware. It was a common sense approach, it was sophisticated and it accepted complexity and took into account consideration for the other. The factory owners and public institutions didn't listen to this reasonable approach, they opted for the bottom line instead. This resulted in unbearable social and work conditions, poorhouses, huge never before seen slums, labour defined entirely by commerce, violence between authorities and citizens, use of military force against civilians, civil wars, the rise of communism and then fascism! It took society a hundred and fifty years to recover from this!

Now again we are back to a simplistic corporate view of technology, no matter the human cost. The new narrow elite (those who own the technology, professionals, managers and technocrats) accuse their opponents of Ludditism. This is there security blanket, they are scared of a citizen-based society, they desperatly hold onto the simple formula of technological and economic inevitability...ie, the trickle down approach. Expertise and analysis is now the new metaphor for debate, one that does not desire or recognize shared knowledge. Debate should be about common sense, ethics, memory, imagination and intuition.

Instead everything is cut up into separate isolated self referencing compartments. This creates secret languages within institutions and corporations. Introverted language/dialect that only specific experts can interpret, thus excluding the citizenry and debate.

The accusations of Ludditism is a rejection of a careful, prudent, complex and intelligent approach towards progress. What we now have is a steady rise of the continuously poor and homeless and a part-time labour market. A market that only favors companys, corporations and shareholders, while for most it means a need for more than one job per person. We have to stop focusing on the well being a single segment of the population..,.ie the middle class, and consider all within society. If Ludditism means a careful, prudent, complex and intelligent approach to progress, then call me a Luddite by all means!

Sincerely

B Cameron

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Coulter Circus

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Well let's summarize Coulter's visit to Canada, first a stop at Western University. This is where we got to hear her bigoted/racist views on persons of middle eastern decent. Student Fatima Al-Dhaher called her out on the statements indicating we "the west", be sure to create an Us and Them scenario, should kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity, and that they should not be allowed to fly on airlines and should instead use a magic carpet. When Coulter was asked how else they should travel she indicates by camel, to which the students of supposed higher learning laughed. So basically she took a particular group of people and painted them with one brush, yes that's a definite sign of intelligence. And then the whole colonial statement, yes as we've learned from history that has had a great effect on the people of..., let's see Haiti, Congo, South Africa, Ethiopia and the modern version Iraq, this list could go on and include just about every third world nation. In just about all of these examples the majority of people live in abject poverty and the rich elite live an easy life. Internal divisions and strife between the haves and the have not's continue to this day, one can easily see the effects of colonialism and now the perpetuation of that through the current version of global economics. And if Ms. Coulter can recall the killing of democratically elected leaders has been a practice of American foreign policy since the end of WWII. You can draw a direct correlation between those policy's and the dislike that so many have for the U.S.. The U.S. hides behind the veil of bringing democracy to the world when the real reason is self interest in resources, ie...,.oil and lining the pockets of U.S. corporations & share holders! Meanwhile creating a disparity between the rich and the poor of the world. All of this is cause and effect for 911, which someone like Coulter and Bin Laden take full advantage of on polar ends of the hate spectrum. Hate, fear and ignorance seems to be the weapons of choice for Ms. Coulter, I guess she's taking notes from an historic German figure!
The next stop of the Coulter circus was at Ottawa U, where the students exercised their democratic right of peaceful assembly to protest against her diatribe. Her and conservative media will have you believe that this was a direct threat of physical harm, this is just post 911 rhetoric that any descent, ie..,peaceful assembly and protest, is a sure sign of violence and possibly a terrorist threat! We'll that sure is an easy and convenient way to shut people up if they don't agree with what you say or go along with the status quo. And the evidence of this paranoid power structure that Coulter and her ilk prescribe to is evident in Calgary where they changed the venue from the University Calgary to the Red & White Club and added extra security.
Now Coulter and her crony Canadian Lawyer Ezra Levant are going to file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission because of what happened at the U of Ottawa. Wow what hypocritical action, this is the same organization that Coulter and Levant abhor, what they claim limits free speech and now they are going to try and use that same organization to shut up Ottawa U or anyone who speaks out against their bigoted views. It is becoming pretty clear to me how well orchestrated this all seems now, first she leeks the letter Ottawa U sent to her, not very smart on Ottawa U's part, then claim that this document incited the apparently violent protest that prevented her from speaking, this is the height of spin! The University never did shut down the speaking engagement, Coulter and Levant decided to cancel it, claiming, with post 911 rhetoric, that the peaceful protest was a threat to her person! Levant has spun this as a free speech violation, it is nothing of the sort, this is about bigotry that promotes hate and narrow minded views about particular segments of the world population. I don't know how, when or whom hurt Coulter and Levant in childhood to bring them to such narrow and bigoted view of the world, but I hope they can heal those wounds soon and save us their wrath.

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• Coulter gets a lesson in hurling invective (desmogblog.com)