Triumphalism of the Perpetually Aggrieved
They're a sad and sorry lot, those Quebecois intent on forging a sovereign country for themselves, leaving behind Confederation, their place within Canada, an honoured and storied place. Yet the continually-aggrieved pur laine brush aside the very notion that the rest of Canada has any regard for them. Instead they cleave faithfully to the infuriated belief that Quebec is belittled, unappreciated, by those who, two and a half centuries ago, conquered New France to absorb it into an English-speaking majority.
A situation and condition that had its stresses and its obvious unpleasantness, but that time has long since passed. Canada has been all too glad to see Quebec come into its own, to passionately reclaim its language, to govern its businesses, claim its politics, flaunt its cultural successes. Quebec, at one time not that very long ago, was weighted with the exploitation that the arrogance of the English brought to them, and harnessed in backwardness thanks to the heavy hand of the Catholic Church. But no more.
Isn't it just so, that when people consider themselves to have been historically abused, they become incapable, through long inculcation of victimhood, of advancing themselves without continually breathing the fire of accusation at their one-time oppressors? And through the remorse born of guilt, those one-time oppressors seek to accommodate the grievances at every turn, hoping that one appeasement after another will finally help them turn that last page of the historical document.
It doesn't work, it never does. Appeasement simply validates the reason for the misery in the first place, feeding the embers of bitterness. And there comes a point of no return where nothing, no overtures, no promises, no self-abnegation, no amount of generous funding, no praise and protestations of goodwill and earnest demonstrations of appreciation will pacify the aggrieved beast.
And here is Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Quebecois at one of their self-congratulatory meetings, basking in the success of the stare-down of the planned Plains of Abraham commemorative re-enactment, cooing with pleasure. Chalk another victory down for the separatists. "It is time for Quebec to take charge. When we need to make sudden changes of course ... do we really have the means to deal with the incoherency of a federation?
"We must finish with being wards of another nation. The context proves it. Sovereignty is urgent!" For to secede from Canada would bring monumental benefits to an independent Quebec. For one thing, they would somehow have to replace the transfer payments they receive from the federal government, amounting to some 40% of the total transfers allocated to all provinces. That whopping transfer enables the province to provide sweet services to their population on the backs of other provinces.
Canadians have borne Quebec's dissatisfactions, complaints and constant urgings for autonomy, for representation at the international level in competition with that of the federal government, and the province's ever-increasing groans that not enough federal support for their industries is being expressed. Patiently at first, then with increasing exasperation. The country is officially bilingual, but not so in Quebec, where the French language dominates and English is nowhere.
"If Quebec were sovereign" she claims, "we would have all our taxes. We would have more manoeuvring room to develop an economic strategy, to support families and workers. If Quebec were sovereign, we could support our industries in the manufacturing and forestry industries. Our aeronautical industry would not be rejected in favour of outdated automobile manufacturers in Ontario.
"If Quebec were sovereign, we would be seated at the big international tables where nations work together to lessen the effects of the crisis." If Quebec were sovereign, in point of fact, they would be in a similar position to the French, the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, with collapsed economies. If Quebec were sovereign, her taxes and her industries and her GDP would fall short of her needs - and oh dear, no more transfer payments.
This woman is delusional, but then no more so than her colleagues in the Quebec movement to become a distinguished country, a success story beyond the imaginings of English Canada. Her synapses don't appear to be hitting on those frontal lobes. She hyperventilates at the thought of the glory that could once again become New France, as though the Battle of the Plains of Abraham had upset God's design.
A proudly independent Quebec would even have a solution for the Islamist jihad menace facing the world. Simply play fair with the peoples of the world, those who agitate for their freedom from oppression, eager to become nations unto themselves. Merely avoid the 'deep bitterness' that people suffer as a result of their colonialist exploitation. That would melt away aggression.
Quebec should know. She will undertake to appease the violently engaged Islamists, to empathetically demonstrate that the wellsprings of their disaffections are understood. Appeasement would gain trust, camaraderie, co-operation, and lead the jihadists to lay down their arms. A reprise of the Canada-Quebec situation.
A situation and condition that had its stresses and its obvious unpleasantness, but that time has long since passed. Canada has been all too glad to see Quebec come into its own, to passionately reclaim its language, to govern its businesses, claim its politics, flaunt its cultural successes. Quebec, at one time not that very long ago, was weighted with the exploitation that the arrogance of the English brought to them, and harnessed in backwardness thanks to the heavy hand of the Catholic Church. But no more.
Isn't it just so, that when people consider themselves to have been historically abused, they become incapable, through long inculcation of victimhood, of advancing themselves without continually breathing the fire of accusation at their one-time oppressors? And through the remorse born of guilt, those one-time oppressors seek to accommodate the grievances at every turn, hoping that one appeasement after another will finally help them turn that last page of the historical document.
It doesn't work, it never does. Appeasement simply validates the reason for the misery in the first place, feeding the embers of bitterness. And there comes a point of no return where nothing, no overtures, no promises, no self-abnegation, no amount of generous funding, no praise and protestations of goodwill and earnest demonstrations of appreciation will pacify the aggrieved beast.
And here is Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Quebecois at one of their self-congratulatory meetings, basking in the success of the stare-down of the planned Plains of Abraham commemorative re-enactment, cooing with pleasure. Chalk another victory down for the separatists. "It is time for Quebec to take charge. When we need to make sudden changes of course ... do we really have the means to deal with the incoherency of a federation?
"We must finish with being wards of another nation. The context proves it. Sovereignty is urgent!" For to secede from Canada would bring monumental benefits to an independent Quebec. For one thing, they would somehow have to replace the transfer payments they receive from the federal government, amounting to some 40% of the total transfers allocated to all provinces. That whopping transfer enables the province to provide sweet services to their population on the backs of other provinces.
Canadians have borne Quebec's dissatisfactions, complaints and constant urgings for autonomy, for representation at the international level in competition with that of the federal government, and the province's ever-increasing groans that not enough federal support for their industries is being expressed. Patiently at first, then with increasing exasperation. The country is officially bilingual, but not so in Quebec, where the French language dominates and English is nowhere.
"If Quebec were sovereign" she claims, "we would have all our taxes. We would have more manoeuvring room to develop an economic strategy, to support families and workers. If Quebec were sovereign, we could support our industries in the manufacturing and forestry industries. Our aeronautical industry would not be rejected in favour of outdated automobile manufacturers in Ontario.
"If Quebec were sovereign, we would be seated at the big international tables where nations work together to lessen the effects of the crisis." If Quebec were sovereign, in point of fact, they would be in a similar position to the French, the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, with collapsed economies. If Quebec were sovereign, her taxes and her industries and her GDP would fall short of her needs - and oh dear, no more transfer payments.
This woman is delusional, but then no more so than her colleagues in the Quebec movement to become a distinguished country, a success story beyond the imaginings of English Canada. Her synapses don't appear to be hitting on those frontal lobes. She hyperventilates at the thought of the glory that could once again become New France, as though the Battle of the Plains of Abraham had upset God's design.
A proudly independent Quebec would even have a solution for the Islamist jihad menace facing the world. Simply play fair with the peoples of the world, those who agitate for their freedom from oppression, eager to become nations unto themselves. Merely avoid the 'deep bitterness' that people suffer as a result of their colonialist exploitation. That would melt away aggression.
Quebec should know. She will undertake to appease the violently engaged Islamists, to empathetically demonstrate that the wellsprings of their disaffections are understood. Appeasement would gain trust, camaraderie, co-operation, and lead the jihadists to lay down their arms. A reprise of the Canada-Quebec situation.
Labels: Canada, Human Relations, Realities
posted by Pieface @ 6:03 PM
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