A rchive Date
[ 22-05-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Mindless tolerance
Super mom and wife was centre of our lives
By TOM HUMBLE
Calgary Sun
May 22, 2000
The super mind-boggling wonder of the modern age is not cloning, or genetic engineering, or information technology, or space technology, or any of the other mini-boggles of 21st-century science and technology.
The real mind-boggler is how we-the-people tolerate the burgeoning legions of destruction in our society -- headed by the likes of Ralph Nader, David Suzuki, John Seller's "Ruckus Society," and family-destroying feminists.
Certainly, these types have always been with us, but in my childhood days 75 years ago, they were a minor nuisance.
Ordinary folks went about their business, earning a living, personally caring for their families and building a country for their kids and grandkids.
They were far from being perfect, but the net result of their efforts and of their very being was a land that was truly the envy of the world.
Voluntary civil order was a defining feature of "the way things were."
The sanctity of the autonomous family was a paramount feature of the times.
The relatively few functioning malcontents, mostly cosseted in academia and in pseudo-art sub-cultures, were discounted as harmless aberrants.
Their sphere of influence was limited to the louts and ne'er-do-wells of those more industrious days.
The acceleration of their rise to prominence began during the depressed "Dirty '30s" with the advent of "caring" politicos.
James Woodsworth, founder of the CCF, was one of Canada's first "compassionate" socialist politicos of any consequence.
I heard him speak. He converted socialism into a religion.
I joined his "organizers" who came to B.C. from the Prairie provinces. I came to know the CCF politicos in B.C. -- "Gentleman" Ernie Winch and Harold Winch and other lesser lights of CCF-dom.
I attended meetings and spoke out glibly, if not wisely. I floated in the heady upper atmosphere of ideological do-goodism.
But my infatuation with the incipient protest movement didn't last long.
By the time I was 17, I became disenchanted with the whole effort. It was and is phoney from top to bottom.
It was, and still is, fuelled by envy and by a type of diffuse animosity that attempts to convey compassion in a vehicle corroded by a general hatred of the moral and democratic structure of western civilization.
From then to now is quite a leap if taken in one stride.
It's a long leap from the "OBU" and the 1935 "March on Ottawa," to the current anti-World Petroleum Congress protest by the infamous Ruckus Society et al -- but I've watched it develop over my lifetime.
The connection with our abortion scandal, and with our be-kind-to-criminals activism and other cultural abominations may appear tenuous to current viewers, but it appears as a solid continuum to anyone who has not only followed the history, but has also been active on both sides of its march.
I know it sounds far-fetched, but if we, the people, fail to stem this rising tide of cultural anarchy, we will bequeath terror and squalor to our children.
Tom Humble appears Mondays in the Calgary Sun. Humble can be reached at thumble@telusplanet.net.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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