It’s gonna be a tough freaking week what with the election campaign now beginning in earnest. I am starting to hope that the PQ gets its majority and gets on with governing in that capacity. With support for the sovereignty option low (under 40%), I don’t think concern among Anglophones about independence being a real possibilty right at the moment or in the foreseeable future is really that legitimate based on reality. So just chill. Take a step back and watch the Marois government self-destruct before our very eyes.
Politics can be defined as a struggle for power. So that is what Marois is doing … trying to form a majority government and she has shown herself to be willing to go to any lengths to achieve her goal and that of the Parti Quebecois which, we all know and have been listening to and hearing about off and on since 1976 – a period of almost forty years is an exceedingly short time in history – is the establishment of an independent Quebec state.
Let’s face it. What me worry? I think that there is panic beginning to set in among the opponents of separatism and emotion is not a foundation on which the making of rational decisions is based.
What is the answer? Couldn’t tell you but I see at least three possibilities (see below) for how Quebec politics breaks between now – 2014 – and 2035 when I shall fairly certainly be dead as a door nail. If Scleroderma doesn’t kill me, then some other disease or accident will. For sure. Another twenty years would be nice but I am under no illusions that the chances of that actually coming to pass are, I’m afraid, slim and none.
So buck up and stop worrying about the separatists having their way in Quebec, over the next twenty years or so anyway. Not going to happen. How much can and will all Québécois buy into the identity politics game when the results of playing that gambit prove to be destructive for our economic futures and for the degree of seriousness with which Quebec is taken in political, economic and social circles, both internationally and at home. Surely, we are a laughing stock. (See “pastagate”, etc.) Not even the Scots would have anything to do with us.
As for the three possible scenarios for the evolution of Quebec politics in the wake of next month’s provincial election and for the next twenty years or so:
Possibility #1
Marois wins the election but once again is refused the majority government which she called the election to get in the first place. No referendum, no separatism at least in and for the foreseeable future. Not time to exhale. Not just yet.
Possibility #2
Marois is defeated by the Liberals and Couillard becomes our Premier. Same scenario as #1 in terms of progress to some form of endgame or something, that is there is no referendum, no separatism at least until a future election which the Liberals do not win.
Possibility #3
Pauline, Chairman Mar, wins the election and forms a majority government. Bills 14 and 60 become law and the third referendum on the issue of the independence of Quebec is set … a scenario too upsetting to even contemplate right now. This possibilty brings The Gazette’s Josh Fried’s “Neverendum Referendum” ‘endgame’ – which is in fact no endgame at all actually – into play.
So start our JuicyLesson week by listening to the words and music of Roy Harper’s I Hate the White Man … And the man who turned him loose.
I have also set the lyrics down separately from those which have been integrated into today’s musical interlude. I find the lyrics to be more impactful when viewed as a whole rather than line by line.
Far across the ocean
In the land of look and see
There once was a time
For you and me.
Whee the winds blow sweetly
And the easy seas flow still
And where the barefoot dream of life
Can laugh and cry it’s fill
Where slot machine confusions
And the plastic universe
Are objects of amusement
In the fiction of their curse
And where the crazy white man
And his tear gas happiness
Lies dead and long since buried
By his own fantastic mess
For I hate the white man
And his plastic excuse
I hate the white man
And the man who turned him loose …
On the reins of coloured thunder
Of the stallion of the dawn
Ride ride the coalfire morning
On the beach where all is born
Where the Emperor of meaning
Is burning up his forts
And sits to warm his toes around
A fire made up of useless thoughts
When the children tempt him
With the riddles of their trance
He brings the flames of solstice
Casting laughs into their dance
And while a crazy white man
In the desert of his bones
Lies as bleached as the paradise
He likes to think he owns
And I hate the white man
In his evergreen excuse
Oh I hate the white man
And the man who turned him loose
And far across the reaches
Of the drifting yellow sands
The living carpet wilderness
Forever joins its hands
With heaven hell’s attainment
In a surging crest of fire
Where more than all is thrown upon
The everlasting pyre
And through the countless canticles
Of Jason’s charcoal fleece
Are sung the songs of nothing
In the timeless masterpiece
And there stood in the middle
Guess who?
It’s the everlasting bust
Built by God’s very own white man
As he tries to rule the dust
And I hate the white man
In his doctrinaire abuse
Oh I hate the white man
And the man who turned you all loose …
And the bowels of his city
Have been locked into a safe
Where the spew stains on the sidewalks
Are defenders of his faith
While back inside the kitchen
The bowler-hatted long-haired saint
Cleans with soap and water
But it’s really just white paint
While his golden-headed scandal sheets
Present its daily bite
To give their righteous news-bleeders
Drugs to keep them white
While outside in the whitewash
Where the guns are always, always right
A shooting star has summoned
It’s dark angel from his night
And I hate the white man
And his evergreen excuse
Oh I hate the white man
And the man who turned you all loose
And the man who turned him loose …
In tomorrow’s Juicy Lesson, I want to discuss an image or two from the video, specifically the one very near the end with the screaming, crying Vietnamese children running from a napalm bomb explosion. I would do this right now but I feel this JL is already on the long side and this is too important to hurry through.
One more thing … as far as the rich are concerned, they love this whole separatism distraction because it takes our minds off who our enemies really are – themselves.
As Steve Tyler sings “Eat the Rich” … And then come back for another bite.
Peace. Out.