Orwell versus The Financial Post

George Orwell on the word "fascism" some six decades ago:

"The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable."

A Financial Post headline on Wednesday:

"Earth Hour's soft fascism."

It's nice to see that some little nuggets of wisdom simply do not change with the times. I look forward to the day when fascism is even more meaningless. "Oh, it's raining out, how fascist!"

Canada's Newspeak Government

In James Travers' column today we learn that one of the forces impelling Harpers' foreign policy (which, incidentally, was a topic he hardly mentioned on the campaign trail) is a foreign policy book by some guy named Roy Rempel.

Travers describes Rempel's argument thusly:

"Rempel's assumption, shaped by compelling facts about Canada's deteriorated defence, development and diplomatic infrastructure and undermined by his less convincing analysis of Ottawa's foreign policy options, is that this country is in danger of becoming a de facto U.S. protectorate. His answer is not for Ottawa to distance itself from Washington but to move ever closer."

So, in order to have foreign policy independence, Canada needs to be in lock-step with Washington? Canadian conservatives have for the most part (aside from having a strong monarchist streak in some quarters) wanted Canada to act a lot more like the US for a long time. It's pretty convenient that they found someone to justify it by saying that our options are to be dependent on the US or align ourselves with the US completely.

Fealty to the US is an independent foreign policy! Freedom is slavery!

American Fascism(?)

I'm uneasy with comparing movements or people to fascism. One of my hobbies is invoking Godwin's Law in internet debates. The use of the word fascism in today's society is still remarkably similar to how Orwell characterized it 60 years ago:

"The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable.'"

All of this made me uncertain about Chris Hedge's new book, American Fascism. That said, despite my misgivings about the title, I'm really interested in this book after watching a few interviews with Hedges on YouTube. I'm too tired to embed the video, just click the link.