268) Day 36 -- Reason #36 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: FREEDOM, Part 1: We all value Freedom

“God keep our land, glorious and free! Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee…”

“Freedom” is one of the most central rallying cries of…well, pretty much everyone. From the Freedom Convoy and far-right extremists, to gun-rights advocates, to feminists, to separatists, to anarchists, to middle-of-the-road lovers of democracy and human rights, we all believe in Freedom. We might understand it rather differently from each other, we might have different beliefs about what form of government will make us the most Free, but the concept itself, we all rally behind.

It’s what both Canada’s and America’s national anthems are all about.  “The True North Strong and Free”.  “In the land of the Free, the home of the brave.”  Heck, we sing our national anthem — “God keep our land…”, even when we don’t believe in “God”. But we sure do believe in Freedom.

After all, FREEDOM is the ENTIRE POINT of Western civilization.  It’s the ideal that the United States was founded upon — freedom from Monarchy. And Freedom was also why Canada was founded as a nation — so that French-Canadians would have more of a voice in a united country (that was the hope at least), so that the formerly-British colonies would be free from British rule, and so that Canadians could unite against Americans expanding their country to the north, into “our” territory. (I put “our” in parentheses because obviously this was Native land, but from the perspective of the colonialists who founded Canada as a nation, it was the land of the settlers.).

Before Confederation, Upper and Lower Canada were a chaos of rebellion against England, i.e., fighting for our freedom. FREEDOM is the reason we exist as a nation in the first place.

Freedom is exactly what Canadians are rallying behind right now in response to Donald Trump’s threats of economic warfare against us, and his repeated threats to annex Canada and turn it into the USA’s 51st state. Canadians, the vast majority of us, are like “no way in hell”. And if these threats turn into reality, if Canadians are attacked, I have zero doubt that millions of us will resist. From taking up arms to joining militias to becoming saboteurs and revolutionaries, millions of us will resist, and bog the United States down in an economy-draining disaster. Like Vietnam. Like Afghanistan. Like Iraq. None of us WANT this. It would be devastating to all of us. But this WILL be the result of the previously-unthinkable scenario of an American invasion. We will resist. We will resist for decades if that’s what it takes. We will never give up this country. We will never give up our freedom.

Freedom is what we celebrate every Remembrance Day, honouring the sacrifices our soldiers made. “They died for our freedom” is a phrase I have heard every year for my entire life.

Freedom is one of our very, very deepest, most sacred values, as a society.  And as individuals, we sure as hell value our Freedom.  Freedom of speech.  Freedom of association.  Freedom to vote.  Free choice.  Freedom to live our lives as we please.  Freedom to believe what we want.  Eat what we want.  Spend our FREE TIME how we want.  Have sex how we want.  Read what we want.  Watch whatever movies we want.  Play whatever games we want. Freedom, baby!!

Just think of the opposite of Freedom — Prison. Concentration camps. A police state. The Handmaid’s Tale. Nobody wants to be subject to those situations. Removing freedom from a person is one of the worst nightmares we can imagine.

With that in mind, I hope the rest of this mini-series really, really pisses you off.  Not because I want to piss you off, just to be a bitch or something. But because, like you, I want to be Free. And I want you to be Free too.  

So if we’re not actually Free, if we’re just living in a fancy cage that gives us just enough toys so that we don’t realize we’re in a cage, then even though it sucks to learn that, even though it might be depressing, even though it might be enraging, it’s necessary.  It’s like waking up to The Matrix. And until one sees their cage, sees directly and clearly their lack-of-freedom, they won’t fight to get out of it and regain their sacred Freedom.

And let me tell you, if given the choice between being Neo, Trinity or Morpheus fighting for true freedom, or Cypher backstabbing his friends and siding with Agent Smith so he can eat fake steak, then for me, that’s not even a choice. Cypher is a villain, a sell-out, a coward. Who wants to be that? No, we want to be heroes, fighting for Freedom, even against-all-odds.

So here we go.  And as a true Canadian, I have to say first of all, I’m sorry.  This is going to hurt.