A Modest Proposal for a Cultural Confidence for Canada

The Blip Report for Sunday, June 25th 2023

Today, we have another report from our espresso-enthusiast, and resident sleuth and prognosticator, William Lyon Shoestrap.

[Mr. Shoestrap opines that he unfortunately cannot be referred to as an anti-vaxxer. He reports that his mother laughingly insisted that at one time he must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle !]

A Modest Proposal for a Cultural Confidence for Canada, by William Lyon Shoestrap

There is a wonderful story that when Richard Nixon asked Zhou Enlai what he thought of the French Revolution, Zhou answered that it was too early to tell! Whether it was true, or whether as Chas Freeman said, “there was a misunderstanding that was too delicious to invite correction”, it still makes for a great story and a good lesson.

So, after mulling over Xi Jinping’s thoughts on ‘cultural confidence’, I’ve come to the realization that one of the problems in Canada today is a lack of cultural confidence. And I think that it has also led Canada to lose a lot of its sense of humor, that has decayed from an ironic sense of ‘satire’ into mere ‘sarcasm’ or ‘cynicism’, that’s not really funny. An ironic sense of humor requires an innate ‘moral compass’ to direct the humor in a truly funny way.

So maybe Canada needs something to be its ‘moral compass’ for its cultural confidence, like maybe its own William Tell, or maybe its own King Arthur - like how that ‘unsung hero’, Edmund Spencer, tried to save King Arthur from all that romantic nonsense and sentimental rot, and tried to retell Arthur’s heroic story as a foundation stone in the building of England’s cultural confidence.

A further problem has been that since the imposition of a British Empire’s military dictatorship over Canada in 1763, a ‘false’ history and ‘false’ culture have been imposed upon the Canadian population by the Empire’s managers - with the exception of the occasional rebellion.

Now, it would seem that before we can work to lift our national spirit, to realize our national rejuvenation, to create excellent works of art, in order to give strength to our people on their march towards the future, there is some prerequisites that we must first possess for a cultural confidence!

Step one, would be to at least have an idea of our national culture. But how do we define what our true ‘non-fictitious’ culture is? Because a true idea of culture must be based on the universal human ideas of ‘beauty, goodness and truth’.

Most of the recent history of Canada has been a clash between two other cultures, that of Great Britain and that of the United States. Unfortunately, with the decline of the positive currents within American culture, we see our politicians today rush to portray themselves as the best lickspittle for either the British or the Americans, both of which are currently in lock step towards an oligarchical one world government.

Only on rare occasions has a Canadian leader emerged who could assert an independent Canadian policy.

But an independent nation requires an independent citizenry, and an independent citizenry requires a confidence in one’s own culture, and its role in contributing to those common goals of humanity – beauty, goodness and truth.

If culture is the soul of our nation, then we must understand it, so that we can have confidence in it, because if we abandon our confidence in our culture, then we can’t prosper, and our nation will someday end in tragedy.

Step two, would be to have a history of the development of our culture, both of the striving and of the achievements over ‘thousands of years’ (like China, that talks about at least 5,000 years of cultural history).

The popular ‘misinformed’ notion of Canadian history should not start with the arrival of Jacques Cartier in 1534, or with the ‘purported’ voyage of John Cabot in 1497, or with the ‘unproven’ landing of the Vikings around 1000, but the modern history of Canada should begin approximately 20,000 years ago, when the glaciation that covered Canada began to melt, after which the peoples from the southern Americas began to migrate northwards into Canada, and after which later, a maritime emigration to Canada occurred from Asia and Africa.

This 20,000-year history, before the French voyage of discovery to Quebec, must be included in the modern cultural history of Canada, which has not been truthfully told, or even truthfully recognized.

And also, an honest look at the pre-history of Canada would look at the people living here from prior to the onset of glaciation of Canada (before approximately 130,000 years ago), the people who were part of a pre-historic trans-American continental indigenous culture.

Only a history of artistic and scientific achievements in this modern 20,000-year cultural history of Canada can provide us with a confidence in our culture that we can be proud of. Without this pride and confidence in our culture, no real lasting Canadian contributions to human creative achievements are possible. And without this cultural confidence, Canada will not be able to play its part in contributing to the recovery of the world from the currently collapsing North Atlantean empire.

So … where to start?

Perhaps, it would behoove Canada to issue an exoneration and pardon to Louis Riel - something that Paul Martin once promised, but then did absolutely nothing about.

Have fun. confidently.