-- Download Harper, Toyota Show How the Public Is Eager to Be Appeased as PDF --

Harper prorogues parliament, drops in the polls, then cancels House breaks, and rebounds. Toyota recalls a quarter million cars in Canada, apologizes and spins around the clock, then has a massive rebound in sales.

The public is apparently very eager for excuses to forgive corporations and conservative governments. Does this eagerness extend to groups not so favourably supported by the corporate press?

I think a core element in the public’s smooth road to appeasement is a combination of political and socio-economic burdens, and apathy. Who has the time and energy to care about the consequences of actions like prorogation or massive design flaws in cars? Those consequences reflect systemic regulatory weaknesses that need to be addressed.

The public seems to want a quick fix and if someone nods in our direction, we forgive and all too easily forget.

That’s why I’m happy that the anti-prorogation group in Facebook is reframing itself as a pro-participation NGO to combat apathy. Apathy is a core ghoul that has a negative feedback loop with cynicism and encourages miscreants to enter politics. CanadaParticipates.ca will help pull democracy out of the tar pit.

It’s just very tiring.

And we need all the energy we have to get over the Olympic hangover exacerbated by the budgets today in BC and in Ottawa on Thursday.

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Stephen Elliott-Buckley

Post-partisan eco-socialist. at Politics, Re-Spun

Stephen Elliott-Buckley is a husband, father, professor, speaker, consultant, former suburban Vancouver high school English and Social Studies teacher who changed careers because the BC Liberal Party has been working hard to ruin public education. He has various English and Political Science degrees and has been writing political, social and economic editorials since November 2002. Stephen is in Twitter, Miro and iTunes, and the email thing, and at his website, dgiVista.org.

Latest posts by Stephen Elliott-Buckley (see all)

• Goodbye, Politics, Re-Spun! Hello, WePivot.net! - October 21, 2016
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