Culture News

A new book, MAKING WAVES, attempts to canvas the literary community in British Columbia for the last fifty years.  It fails, however, to reveal that "culture" (quite amazingly) was the site of a major battle to take B.C. out of Canada into the heart of the U.S. Empire.

The recession seems to have penetrated a profession long seen as recession-proof. Superintendents, education professors and people seeking work say teachers are facing the worst job market since the Great Depression. Amid state and local budget cuts, cash-poor urban districts like New York City and Los Angeles, which once hired thousands of young people every spring, have taken down the help-wanted signs.

The Canadian military plans to hire a Colorado woman to teach some of its soldiers to speak French _ one of Canada's official languages.

Trolls And Bullies Are
Debasing The Internet
By Michael Goodspeed
 8-5-9
 
As many reading this know, I have participated in the alternative media for many years, mostly as an essayist, occasionally on-air as a radio guest and co-host, and more recently as a video maker. I literally thank God every day for the Internet, and people like Jeff Rense and many others who have allowed me the opportunity to share my work with the public. The vast majority of alt media denizens understand just how gravely important is the health and vibrance of this medium; the Internet represents the most crucial database of independent, uncensored, worthwhile information in human history.
 
I shall now speak as briefly as possible about the darkest sides of Internet communication. Most Internet users today are familiar with the inane, abusive activities known as "trolling" or "flaming." Internet "trolls" are generally anonymous provocateurs who invade forums and comment sections for the primary purpose of disrupting discourse. Some "trolls" wish to defame people and damage reputations, some wish to discredit certain ideas and concepts, and others simply want to make spectacles of themselves through brute heckling.

Some poor guy , a public school principal in New Brunswick, is getting death threats because he

cancelled the every day singing of O Canada.

 A few years after I was born, my dad met a
 stranger who was new to our small town. From the
 beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting
 newcomer and soon invited him to live with our
 family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was
 around from then on.

Joseph Plaskett, at ninety, one of Canada's most accomplished artists, has a huge following which does not include operators of a single major Public Gallery in Canada. I call it "Special Rejection". 

 Margaret Atwood will be delivering the "Mel Hurtig" lecture at the University of Alberta this week.  The Globe and Mail recently printed an article adapted from her upcoming lecture on culture in Canada.  Here are all the details...

"Education in a scientific society may, I think, be best conceived after the analogy of the education provided by the Jesuits. The Jesuits provided one sort of education for the boys who were to become ordinary men of the world, and another for those who were to become members of the Society of Jesus. In like manner, the scientific rulers will provide one kind of education for ordinary men and women, and another for those who are to become holders of scientific power. Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented. Of these qualities probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviourism, and biochemistry will be brought into play."

This article will examine the use of scientific technique to increase the power of an elite scientific minority over the unscientific masses as discussed in Bertrand Russell's 1931 book The Scientific Outlook. The basic theme of this book is to describe a society, partially in the future, partially currently in place (circa 1930s) dominated by scientific thought and technique. This includes a drastic redesign of education and human reproduction as well as the elimination of competition in production of goods. Other topics covered in this series include: forced labour, a society of scientific experts, changes in freedoms, education and Hollywood as propaganda, the use of behaviourism, psycho-analysis and physiological manipulation in schools and two examples of artificially created societies, Japan and Soviet Russia.

James Reaney, poet and dramatist, ws not a political writer.  But he was used politically in a way he probably never realized.

"The scientific method has firmly established itself as the only reliable means by which we can increase both our knowledge of and our control over objective natural phenomena. It is now being increasingly applied, though with modifications made necessary by the different nature of the raw material, to the study of man and his ways and works, and in the hands of the social sciences is likely to produce an increase in our knowledge of and control over the phenomena of human and social life, almost as remarkable as that which in the hands of the natural sciences it has brought about and is still bringing about in regard to the rest of nature"

"Atomic and political scientists from Harvard University and MIT meeting in November 1975 concluded that an atomic war will certainly occur before the year 2000. This, they believed, could only be prevented by the decision of all nation-states to surrender their sovereignty to an authoritarian world government, a possibility they viewed as unlikely."

The gritty CBC drama Intelligence might have been dropped because it came to close to the truth about the SPP and the loss of Canadian water.

Mar 20, 2008 09:36 ET
The Government of Canada Releases Report on Consultations on Linguistic Duality and Official Languages

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 20, 2008) - The Honourable Josee Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, today released the Government of Canada's Report on Consultations on Linguistic Duality and Official Languages, by Special Advisor Bernard Lord.

"These consultations allowed us to gather the views of Canadians and key stakeholders on issues related to linguistic duality and official-language minority communities," said Minister Verner. "I would like to thank everyone who participated in the consultations and shared their views with Mr. Lord. Our government will consider this report in developing a strategy for the next phase of the Action Plan for Official Languages."

In his report, Mr. Lord presents the results of regional consultations, online consultations, and the wrap-up event held on January 24. The report reflects the main issues and ideas raised during the consultations, which include support for linguistic duality and the commitment of Canadians to promoting this value.