Permit me to begin this entry with Marcus Tullius Cicero's quote about Tyranny.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague...”
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These are the words of warning from the outstanding Roman orator Cicero. He was a tireless defender of the Roman republic and fighter for freedom. At the time of great crisis after the assassination of Caesar that is, the Roman republic was imperilled by the despotic Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius), who sought to aquire dictatorial powers for himself. In response, Cicero seized the attention of the Senate and in a passionate elocution known as the “Second Philippic against Antony” denounced the threat of autocratic rule in his “attack on the enemy of freedom”. It’s really worth a read as it reminds us all, how we must remain eternally vigilant, against all forms of tyranny whenever or wherever they occur.
Now back to more prosaic matters. On this, the fourth anniversary, of our great leader’s rule over his people, how ironic that this occasion is marked with great fanfare, while parliament is closed and all debate is silenced. The "Prince of darkness” is meanwhile preparing to leave for Davos to reassure the world’s corporate elite, that his latest prorogation -abomination hasn’t yet plunged ( like the Conservative’s poll numbers) this country to a prolonged political crisis. As this would indeed upset or spook the markets. But he’s mistaken. It has already done so. Like, I said in my previous posts, our great ruler misread the mood in the country and underestimated the citizenry's ability to respond to the threat of tyrannical one- party, one- man rule. This most recent prorogation, has roused the dormant populace and electorate into defending our embattled democracy and protect parliament from would-be traitors and wannabe usurpers.
On a cultural note, if I were Yann Martel ( the author of ” Life of Pi” and "What is Stephen Harper Reading?"), I would probably recommend to our great leader that he reads the political writings of John Locke (1632-1704) in order to enlighten himself a bit. I would especially recommend a certain passage (227) from the "Second Treaties of Government." In it, the 17th century British political philosopher, writes a passage which is strikingly prescient and relevant to the current parliamentary crisis which we are witnessing today.
It is worth quoting him here at length:
“For if anyone by force takes away the established legislative of any society [such as our Canadian parliament], and the laws by them made pursuant to their trust, he thereby takes the umpirage, which everyone has consented to for a peaceable decision of all their controversies, and a bar to the state of war amongst them. They who remove or change the legislative take away the decisive power, which nobody can have but by the appointment and consent of the people; and so destroying the authority which the people did and nobody else can set up, and introducing a power which the people hath not authorised, they actually introduce a state of war (sic), which is that of force without authority.
"And thus by removing the legislative established by the society (in whose decisions the people acquiesced and united, as to that of their own will) they untie the knot, and expose the people anew to the state of war. And if those who by force take away the legislative are rebels ( sic) , the legislators themselves, as has been shown, can be no less esteemed so when they, who were set up for the protection and preservation of the people, their liberties and properties, shall by force invade and endeavour to take them away; and so they, putting themselves into a state of war with those who made them the protectors and guardians of their peace, are properly, and with the greatest aggravation, rebellantes ( in italics): rebels.”
Indeed.... to paraphrase the words of Locke, the rogues and "rebels" who reign over us, are therefore operating beyond and above the rule of law. This minorty government has illegitimately (and without the consent of the majority of elected members within the House fo Commons) usurped inordinate and unconsitutional powers and has thus declared war on the people (the citizenry) and endangered parliamentary democracy in the process.
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