Stephen Roney's Blog, page 38

The Reality of Medical Assistance in Dying

 

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Why Now, Rishi?

If only it were Justin Trudeau instead of Rishi Sunak. Unexpectedly, trailing by over 20 points in the polls and with some months to go in his mandate, Sunak has called a snap election for July 4. In the rain.

It has taken everyone by surprise, and it makes no sense in usual political terms. The conventional thing would be to hold on in hopes that polls might improve. As they say, a week is a long time in politics. Even at worst, holding off means a few more months to exercise power and to look for your next job.

It has to be that Sunak knows something we don’t know. The more so since this has all the appearances of being a rushed announcement, as though there is some emergency. Cabinet ministers were summoned to a sudden meeting; some of them had to cut trips abroad. Tory backbenchers were not consulted or informed. The announcement was not well staged: in the rain, without an umbrella, with opposition loudspeakers blaring. Sunak did not seem to have any particular campaign theme or message prepared.

It surely has to mean that something dreadful is likely to drop in the next few months. Sunak needs to get the election over with quickly, or the Tories will fare even worse. 

What is likely to be that drastic?

My guess is, it has to do with the Covid vaccines and the rise in mortality since the epidemic. Something may be about to come out; something worse that we have yet heard. Sunak may have seen a preliminary draft of some report.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Not Light Yet

 

“I've been down on the bottom of the world full of lies
I ain't lookin' for nothin' in anyone's eyes.” – Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet”

Theodore Sturgeon once said “ninety percent of everything is crap.” He was referring to literature; but perhaps everything really means everything.

One explanation for why the world has seemed recently to go so weird is that, with the improved information flow through the internet, the crap that was always there is becoming more obvious. And the liars more desperate to stop the information flow.

Surely ninety percent of all political speech is lies. “Politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”—George Orwell. Almost everything spoken by a practicing politician contains a familiar logical fallacy. Nobody is seeking what is best for the community; only angling for power by whatever means necessary. Most government money seems misspent.

Surely too ninety percent of academics is nonsense. When you read almost anything written by a college professor, you realize that it is written as obliquely as possible, to withhold and obscure information, when the entire point of the academy is to discover and convey information. Someone has pointed out that whenever a major new scientific discovery is made, it takes a generation for it to be recognized and accepted by the academy. The current generation of professors has to retire. They will have vested interests in the previous paradigm. There is a reason why Einstein developed the Theory of Relativity as a patent clerk, the Wright Brothers cracked flight from their bicycle shop, and college dropout Steve Jobs created the first personal computers in his parents’ garage.

Probably ninety percent of organized religion is also fake. The Bible itself says so: pharisaism and hypocrisy.

Everyone knows, of course, that business and corporations are greedy and dishonest and trying to sell you junk. The irony is that this is the one place we have the best protection against such lies and fraud.

In sum, we all live in a world full of lies. 

This is an argument for the existence of an afterlife; C.S. Lewis made it.  We have a yearning for truth. How can we yearn for, or even be aware of, something that does not exist? That must mean it does exist somewhere …

One might suppose that, in the case of science fiction and literature at least, the great mass of crap is due to incompetence. Not everyone can write well.

Perhaps not so. Perhaps everyone can.

Perhaps the artist is really someone who insists on seeing the lies around him, and feels morally driven to speak the truth. Then he will find his medium. He is a prophetic voice crying in the wilderness. He speaks obliquely, in parables, because those in charge are determined to suppress truth. “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant/ Success in circuit lies”—Emily Dickenson.

There are endless stories about how many times this or that famous book or great author was rejected for publication. Why? When it is so obvious to everyone that this is a great book, how can it not have been obvious to all those trained and seasoned acquisitions editors? 

Perhaps the trick is to slip by the censors. Pretend it’s just fantasy. Pretend it’s about sex or thrills. But sneak truths in.

So too for visual artists. I see what contemporary drek is shown in the public galleries. Then I see what fine work appears in internet feeds from amateur artists who cannot sell their work. Great artists of the past were also rejected by the academy and the galleries. Van Gogh never sold a painting. How account for that?

The vast bulk of art is bad not because there are not enough talented artists. It is bad because it is not telling the truth. Like Hollywood movies these days, empty formulae without purpose at best, at worst deliberately lying about the world.

Orwell understood this when he said that his one talent was really in simply being able to face truth. Most people run screaming from it.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

The Trump Veep Stakes

 

No Noem

Trump is cannily keeping speculation going over who he will choose for his running mate. It’s like The Apprentice. Gets a lot of earned media. 

Who would I pick if I were Trump?

Best pick: Ron DeSantis. He has the executive skills to carry forward Trump’s legacy four years from now. I think Trump is right that the VP pick doesn’t move polls much. The more important thing is to groom someone who could take the torch if and when it is passed on.

Next: RFK Jr. Could blow a permanent hole in the Democratic Party. That cold be an important legacy too. It would also be a unifying pick, and America needs that. I believe Kennedy has already been offered the slot, however, and has turned it down.

Next: Tulsi Gabbard. Again, pulls in independents and independent-minded Democrats. Also a unifying pick. 

Next: Vivek Ramaswamy. Like a younger Trump; therefore, good for passing on the legacy in four years. He’s great at getting out the message, great in tussles with the media. After four years as understudy, I think he could handle the presidential job. 

Next: Tucker Carlson. A straight talker; having him on the ticket would help reassure the public that the corrupt cartel is no longer in control. The only problem is, I think he might be of greater value as a media voice than silenced as VP.

Next: J.D. Vance. A voice for all those overlooked and neglected working class whites.

Next: Ben Carson. He lacks political experience, but projects a sense of being utterly sincere, calm and responsible, without being weak. He does, to my mind, give off presidential vibes.

I could get really excited about any of those picks. Below this level, I would feel at least a twinge of regret at lost opportunity. The current rumours are that it will be Marco Rubio. That makes sense in terms of cementing the support of Hispanic voters, but that also means Rubio is being picked largely because of his race. Bad practice, bad example for the nation. There is also something about Rubio that makes it hard to picture him as president. Some people got it, some don’t. He has a bit of a reputation for pandering, too. 

Christie Noem is surely definitely out by now. I would never have been happy with her selection. She doesn’t have the resume, and would only be on the ticket because she’s a woman. Same with Kari Lake.

Doug Burgum? Why is he being mentioned?  He has no charisma, and is not eloquent either. Make him chief of staff, maybe.

Tim Scott? Again, lacking in charisma, and like Rubio, he does not have the presidential aura. He feels like an empty suit.

Of course, there are other possibilities. But these are the names most commonly mentioned.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Who Killed Raisi?

 

I have no inside information here, but I asked an Iranian friend who is deeply involved in the democratic resistance here in Canada for his view of the death of Iran’s president and foreign minister. He says they generally think it is an assassination, and an inside job. Part of a power struggle at the top. It may be because Raisi was too obvious a candidate to succeed Khamenei as Supreme Leader. Not pro-democracy forces, not the Israelis, and not the weather.

Will the death of Raisi bring good news for the Iranian people and the pro-democracy forces? Unlikely, he thinks. 

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

The Evils of Supply Management

 

It has always been a cruel transfer of wealth from the poorest Canadians to big corporate operations.It has always been a cruel transfer of wealth from the poorest Canadians to big corporate operations.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

The Veil Has Been Torn Open

 

The reaction on the left to Harrison Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College makes clear that we are dealing in modern political life with a straight contest between good and evil.  How dare he publicly praise the benefits of home and family life? Of motherhood and apple pie?

This might sound extreme; but the same was true in 1933-45, from the perspective of Western Europe. Wasn’t the same true during the Cold War? Wasn’t the same true during the fight in the US for Civil Rights? The fight against slavery? Isn’t it the usual or even eternal condition of man?

The president an foreign minister of Iran just went down in a helicopter crash. Search efforts have been hindered by snow. In May. 

God is in His heaven. The Devil is powerful, but everything must turn out well in the end.

All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Waterloo Village

 

This is a video by a local YouTuber about the slums of Saint John. Locals claim it is the worst slum in Canada, although I doubt that.

What most prompts my reaction is the interview with “front-line worker” Melanie from a non-profit. She stresses that the real problem is poverty; she repeats this for emphasis. Yet she also says, correctly, that homelessness, drug use, and mental illness are a growing problem everywhere, “around the world.” Is poverty growing everywhere? According to the statistics, just the reverse.

Why then does she say such a thing? 

Firstly, because she is ideologically motivated. The system is not broken, she explains. The system was designed wrong from the start; it is all about colonialism, oppression and misogyny.

But where does this ideology, in turn, come from?

Melanie reports with satisfaction that at last the government seems to be listening to the front-line workers, that the solution is to “bring us to the table,” and hear what these workers say they need.

Not the addicts or the mentally ill, note. The front-line workers.

In the real world, this is probably a bad approach. The jobs and power of the front-line workers depend on there being a continuing problem and “clients” to “serve”; their interest is to ensure that matters never get better.

Hence they usually turn to ideology about “the entire system.” That guarantees permanence of employment. Poverty as explanation works the same way. As Jesus rightly says, “the poor you will have always with you.” At least in relative terms, poverty can never be eliminated. So, a good job until retirement.

They will also have incentive to exaggerate the problem; and gradually redefine terms to make everyone officially poor, addicted, and mentally ill.

In sum, if you want to make sure a problem never improves, set up a government bureaucracy to fix it. Witness the troubles of indigenous Canadians.

So what is the solution? 

The veteran in the video seems to think the need is for more money for mental health. But Jordan Owens, the interviewer, hints at the problem: mental health treatments have not worked. They are also hugely costly, when our heath system is in crisis. Just a wealth transfer from average taxpayers to highly-paid medical professionals.

Given that the immediate problem, and the problem that is growing, is drug addiction, how about attacking that directly? Make it illegal, and throw them all in jail. Thus the current controversy over whether hard drugs should be recriminalized in B.C.. Although “decriminalization” has clearly been a disaster in BC, I cannot support making drugs illegal, on the grounds of bodily autonomy and the right to the pursuit of happiness. As a practical matter, I also don’t see how it does much. In N.B., and elsewhere, police have largely stopped enforcing the laws anyway. They do not have the resources. They arrest some junkie, the matter works its way through the court system, they perhaps spend some time in jail—they can’t pay a fine—and then are back out on the street. All at great taxpayer expense. Given that many of them are mentally ill, with delusions of persecution, having the police harass them is not a great idea in order to achieve compliance. It is almost sure to create an escalation of tensions and public disorder. And certainly not good for homeless, mentally ill, addicts.

The problem is that the real problem is despair. How do you cure despair? These are people who have given up on life, on the world, and on themselves.

If I were in government, I would set up a sanatorium away from the city, and so away from kids and temptations to steal—as well as from their problems. Maybe convert some of the many motels that are no longer prospering since the road trip declined in popularity. I would send these people there for as long as they want—any who wanted shelter. No medical interventions, no pokes or prods. Three squares and beyond that left alone, in a quiet room to themselves. But no drugs on the premises. Art supplies, writing materials, Bible, Talmud, donated religious literature. Chaplains encouraged to visit; a common room for services.

The mad thing is, this is just about exactly what we had two hundred years ago, sitting on top of a pastoral hill overlooking the Reversing Falls. And the cure rate was quite high. We abandoned that for a materialistic medical model. Things have been going downhill ever since, and we are now in the maelstrom at the foot of the Falls.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

The Balance of Nature

 

A student recently lamented how human technology can disturb the balance of nature. This is a widespread idea, the balance of nature, that mankind upsets by his existence. Yet this is a nonsensical idea.

Nature without man is not steady state. One wet spring, a given species will proliferate. This will provoke some other species to reproduce with abandon. Next year, conditions will change; there will be mass die-offs. 

The one factor that creates balance in nature, year over year, is man. Man gardens, or farms, or manages nature, mending eroding riverbanks, irrigating, making it predictable and preventing sudden shocks to the ecosystem.

We speak of environments being “damaged” or “destroyed.” Barring some disintegrator beam, what we mean is environments changing suddenly and dramatically. Man sometimes does this, to make some environment more suitable for man; but it also happens more often in nature.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

The Depopulation Bomb

 

The lack of children being born is an emergency situation worldwide. Entire nations are dying out. Economies are stalling and descending into unsupportable debt to pay for social services.

At the same time, governments are still enacting policies to discourage people from having children, making the situation worse.

What measures could reverse this?

Some are obvious, but politically unpopular.

Ban abortion.

Ban birth control. 

Ban pornography.

This presumably pushes people to get married, stay married, and anticipate children in order to have sex. Nature meant it to work this way. We messed with that at our peril.

Encourage women to choose childrearing instead of some career outside the home. For sixty years, of course, we have done the opposite. One way to do that is to ensure that men make more than women for doing the same job; ideally double, so they can support a wife at home.

End no-fault divorce. Put a cap on child support, alimony and property division, favouring the chief wage earner. It should never be in a woman’s financial interest to divorce. This would encourage childrearing by removing a major factor preventing men from marrying in the first place

End requirements for car seats for children. This sounds trivial, but it limits many families to two children. There is no room for a third car seat in a typical automobile.

Repeal laws against spanking and other traditional forms of child discipline. The danger of being hauled into court for assault, or, conversely, being unable to control your children, is a disincentive to having kids. Of course, real abuse should be illegal, but spanking is not abuse; our grandparents were not sadists.

Allow parents to choose their children’s school. This will prevent the schools from working against the parents’ interests, as the public schools do now. People are unlikely to have children if they are likely to function in the family as a fifth column imposing state control.

Promote and defer to religion and religious organizations. This can be done without favouring one denomination or another, and so is in perfect conformity with the right to freedom of conscience. Religions promote responsible parenthood and discourage seeking sexual pleasure in the moment.

This is no doubt all highly controversial, and I may be called names. But, put simply, we do this or we die.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.