1. Disdain for the environmental movement
2. Distrust of mainstream science in general
3. Distrust of the mainstream media
4. Loyalty to the party
5. Libertarian economics as God's will
6. Misundertandings of divine sovereignty - God won't let us ruin creation
7. Unreconstructed Dominion theology - God calls all humans to subdue and rule creation
If you listen to the Harperites, and Harper himself, on almost any subject, they and he express those seven points, particularly since they formed a majority government. They have neatly avoided any reference to "God", but the underlying message originates with those seven points.
Those seven points were presented by Dr. David Gushee, a renowned ethicist and Holocaust scholar. He was referring to the U.S. Conservative religious resistance to climate change science. He could easily have been describing the Harper regime.
Now go read Andrew Nikiforuk
Almost daily, more evidence surfaces that Canada's government is guided by tribalists averse to scientific reason in favour of Biblical fundamentalism -- or what some call "evangelical religious skepticism."
First came Canada's pull-out of the Kyoto agreement without any rational or achievable national plan to battle carbon pollution.
Next came the hysterical and unprecedented letter by Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver, an investment banker. It branded local environmentalists and First Nations as foreign radicals because they dared to question the economic and environmental impacts of a Chinese-funded pipeline.It just gets better, so do read the whole article.
Now consider this: If Andrew Nikiforuk's assessment is accurate, it means that Harper is on a crusade.
Religious crusaders believe God is on their side and that whatever they do to promote the will of God, (as they define it amongst themselves), is fully justified. Whether it's medieval massacres of the defenceless or the modern subversion of democratic rights, the end justifies the means. Opposition must be crushed since it is composed wholly of lost non-believers.
So, to what level would a modern-day crusader sink to fulfill God's will and gain power?
10 comments:
Stevie will do whatever it takes to keep power, until the political ziggurat he has built collapses — which it will — and that will be the end of the conservative political movement in Canada for the next 35 years. We have to be active in resistance, and patient — Stevie will self-destruct, with our help.
Unfortunately Ed, that's quite a few years off. Nothing resonates on this guy, not even the spectacle that "he" cheated to get this coveted majority. Will be interesting to see throughout the remainder of this session of parliament if we actually have an opposition, not that it will do much good in this environment, but at least if the heat is turned up a couple of degrees, harper will see that his reform values are not Canadian values.
"So, to what level would a modern-day crusader sink to fulfill God's will and gain power?"
To paraphrase a former P.M., whose ass Stevie ain't even qualified to wipe. "Just watch the asshole."
Edstock, hopefully, you are being too pessismistic, if not I will be looking to relocate before long.
I saw an encouraging doc on Frontline last night about how in spite of the Murdoch Empire of Evil controlling the media, the police and the government in the UK since Maggie herself, the web grows tighter and the empire grows more vulnerable almost weekly, on every continent and maybe it won't be that long until even the US DOJ gets involved. The Obama DOJ won't go after the bankster fraudsters, but Murdoch's threat to kill off the NYTimes might bite his ass in the end.
Over forty former News Corp execs in the UK have already been arrested and the rot keeps leading up the food chain. Resignations have been forced from the top of the Met Police and #10 Downing Street already and Camerooooooon can't seen to distance himself from the Asshole Aussie fast enough and prolly needs meds to get a good night's sleep.
The evil Rupe next has to appear before Parliament next month......
ed, sorry, it was bcwaterboy's pessimism that creeped me out, your attitude is more like what I'm trying to hold on to.
I remember the chill that went down my spine a few years ago when someone I know very well, working in local government, discovered that a disproportionate number of colleagues were evangelical Christians.
I've never been able to decide if Harper is a believer in the church he joined, or if it's just something that is useful to him. Not good either way, though.
I'm with you there, Holly. Harper is a curious creature. He has convictions, I think that much is clear, but whether they're sourced in some religious apocalypse-cult or some authoritarian psycho-pathology, I likely favour the latter to which the former is a convenient vehicle. At the end of the day, the man is dark in a way that is better described by poets than conventional political commentators.
Harper has always been on a crusade, I've been saying that since well before Martin lost power. I don't know how much of it is religiously motivated or whether they are fellow travelers for him, and in practical terms it doesn't matter. I spent many years warning about just how far this man was outside of the norm for our political culture, what extremist positions he held not merely in terms of ideology and policy but more importantly on process issues dealing with fundamental laws and such only to be branded a hysteric by many (and a partisan by too many others who should have known better). This was why I got more and more angry with Layton and the NDP because I do not see myself as so much more brilliant and perceptive about Harper and politics than those that live it and are paid lots of money to understand, advise and strategize at this level, so I know they had to see this but felt it was worth it to get a leg over their real enemies the Libs.
I stopped blogging over the past couple of years because it hurt too much to be Cassandra and it was actively harming my already fragile health. How far will Harper go? So far that I really do not know if this country will survive him in the end, which was why I kept pleading with everyone to make stopping him from ever getting this far the priority. Well, we are here now and all I have left to hope for is that I prove out to have been seriously wrong, yet so far about Harper I've been rarely wrong and then usually not by all that much. I both weep for our future (because I do understand how our system of government works and he *IS* staying in power as a near dictator unless his own party revolts for the next 3-4 years) and am very angry/bitter towards those that now suddenly seem to see Harper as something different than what we used to deal with instead of equating Libs and Harper together like I heard for years prior back when revealing Harper still might have prevented this horror from befalling us all.
Yes, I'm a broken record, I know it. Guess what, I don't really care, I did try to warn everyone, I did so not with wild baseless rhetoric but with well documented facts, because this really hasn't that deeply hidden an agenda all along. I always said the hidden agenda to fear was not the ideological one it was the process one, but since process isn't sexy or important to most people (until it starts getting destroyed, then people start paying attention to it, too late to do anything about it of course...SIGH) few listened or even understood the real threat of Harper. At least my conscience is clear, I know I tried with all I had in me to do, small comfort though when watching the work of generations of decent people from all walks of life and the political spectrum being destroyed by this crusader.
Harper is no Conservative. He is a Neo-Nazi Reformer, of his Northern Foundation Party from 1989. The skinheads assisted to organize, that crud of a party.
All dictators have the same typo, sort of personalities. Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini, all had the same type of character. Harper has the same character flaws to perhaps, a lesser degree. Never-the-less, Harper is a sociopath too. He is far too evil, to call himself a choirboy. He is no Christian. Decent people, do not behave as Harper does.
Dictators such as Hitler, had his henchmen do his dirty work for him.
The first thing a dictator has to do, is control the media. Then they grab control of, police, courts, ministers, ministries, CWB and food crops, judges, and everything they can get their dirty hands on. Harper's ranting and raving henchmen ministers, are common in a dictatorship.
Harper appointed Marc Mayrand to, Chief Electoral Officer, of Elections Canada. Mayrand will not oppose Harper. He will lose his job if he does. This is another very good sign of a dictator. They also control by threat.
Harper has made Canada into a cesspool of corruption. We live in a fascist dictatorship regime.
Meadowlark you nailed it, we must never forget harper's background in all of this.
KootKoot, I'm usually an optimistic fellow but when it comes to harper, he has way too many supporters and fence sitters to disappear by/after the next election. I think we're stuck with him for another round or two. He will not give up leadership either so that's not in the cards. It will take someone who can beat him at his own game and right now, there's nobody in the Liberal or NDP ranks who could pull that off. I have hopes for Mulcair but harper's spin machine I think will chew him up and spit him out within 6 months. Sure hope I'm wrong about that.
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