We live in an age of deciet............

.........and corruption, on a scale unimaginable only a few decades ago. Politicians are bought like cheap whores and thrown away when a new lot of cheap whores arrives. As such, there is no rule of law in BC as the legal system is in tatters as corruption mounts - the law is only for the poor or those who can't afford it and thus the law is a tool used by the wealthy elites to smack down the lover classes. A prime example of this was the Susan Hayes court case where the Madame Justice overturned the winning verdict because, "she saw no difference in the loss of business caused by a cut-and-cover (with a bloody great trench cut down the street)construction and bored tunnel." A win for the corrupt elites.

With corrupt politicians and a corrupt legal system, the only way to get a politician's acknowledgment is thuggery and riot. Violence will replace debate in BC because the ruling elites use debate as a tool to do nothing - violence and riots will become a political tool.

Just wait for the next riot folks as it will not be a mob of drunken lager-louts torching a few cars, it will be the poor and those so fed up with the current corrupt system who want revenge on the political elites and then watch Vancouver burn.

Guess when that happens, Vancouver will fall from #3 city in the world to maybe #50, on par with London.

Worry about the suburbs!

Vancouver should be fairly safe from the crowd that are fed up with the current corrupt system, because the city is now filled with ass-lickers who feel they are the elite, simply by being able to afford to live there!

All the storm-trooper-police has to do is stop people from surrounding areas streaming in for protests.

When I still could afford to live there, we joked about the citizens of the North shore feeling they were the elite, now that symptom has spread to nearly every corner of Vancouver.

Hey, when you pay in the millions for an old shack, you are bound to feel entitled, I guess?

Elitism

The ruling elites have always resisted democracy. They deeply believe that they are superior to the masses. A hundred years ago, they would have sworn it was because they were descended from better blood lines. Today, it's because they think they are better educated. They fail to acknowledge that the common man's commonsense trumps the formal knowledge they have accumulated through years of schooling. Indeed, they fail to acknowledge that all people's lives are of equal value to ourselves. As such, we demand the right to contribute to decisions that deeply effect our lives.

It is the arrogance (& greed) of the few that lead to the collapse of societies - the "wisdom of the crowd" is not a cliche.

The problem will not be the violence

Canada is a fairly decent society, made up of decent people. If they take it upon themselves finally to throw the scoundrels out, as they do from time to time, it's likely that they will stop as soon as the bad behaviour stops.

This will unfortunately be far too soon to create the change necessary to prevent recurrence and too late to prevent the bankruptcy. If we fail to recreate our economy in a form that permits ordinary people to make a decent life, yet prevents the egregious looting that so obscenely enriches the inside traders who have seized our society, then we may as well not bother.

Violence in a society is always started by the authorities, hoping that the people will respond in a way that allows escalation. Authority is always much better armed than dissenters ever could be, and will count on this to convince them that rabble cannot touch them, and can therefore be ignored with arrogant certainty.

Violence is rarely effective in defending the right. It can only, as the old bumper sticker proclaims, determine who is left.

Ain't gonna hapen

I agree with you, of course. Any sane person would. But I don't agree with your headline that suggests BC voters will revolt, violently or otherwise. We won't. We are too stupid. If CC keeps her head down long enough, we may even forget it all.
The fiasco that was the Campbell government was tolerated. Indeed, it was even celebrated because we all got to hold hands at the Olympics. No one but Cambie stret shopkeepers complained and they only complained because they didn't make money. No, the electorate is dumber than merde.
"But we revolted finally!"
No, you didn't! You revolted because they took an extra penny or two from your wallet. MR. Voter rose up only when his own money was affected. Morals? Fuggedabout it! The environment? Sorry. Corruption, waste, lying, incompetence, greed? Yawn.
Pass the remote, will ya hon? I wanna see the Canucks!

The blame for violence ...

In Canada the best way to silence protest is to feed media something other than the protesters' message to report and have that 'something' be geared to turn public sympathy away from the protest. A handful of goons throwing things and burning cars does that effectively.

Protesters-to-be in BC need to familiarize themselves with the Clayoquot Sound protest of 1993 and other non-violent protests. Methods of countering provocateurs from within and without will be vital.

Violent protest by well meaning people occurs out of feelings of powerlessness. One hopes that these people will connect with others who can show them that they are not powerless and help them to take effective non-violent action. That is the path to beneficial change.

The sheeple of BC will at

The sheeple of BC will at best whine for a minute then go back on their day. They have had ample reson to take to the streets during last 10 years and they just got their fat asses in their suv, drove to the driver thru, came home and parked their butts in front of the computer or tv with 200+ channels. As long as people can buy food, go online, get gas, drive their car, buy booze on the weekend they are happy and could care less about anything else or the bigger picture,plus the pro Liberal 6 pm newshours do the dirty work of conditioning and brainwashing people to believe the party's spin..

If the so called mainstream media told the truth Harper would lucky to of won 6 seats in BC last time and the BC Libs would be lucky to win just as many next election. But they keep it quiet and the sheeple think all is well....

Pretty bad and it is not BC only either, the rest of Canada (hell Alberta has been baa ing away fro years electing the same old time and time again) and the US. They buy the spin and bs the media sells them and until people get their heads out of their buttocks nothing will change.

It is embarrassing

The Cohen commission revealed that DFO knew that fish farms adversely affected salmon runs and they have known about it - clearly - since the graph depicting the decline was compiled by their own staff. The graph was started in 1992.
They did nothing.
Now we know that they are the liars and crooks that we have always suspected. And what are we gonna do about it?
We'll do nothing.
The BC LIBS gutted, eviscerated and all-but-killed BC Ferries and BC Hydro. We've all seen it. What are we gonna do about it?
We'll do nothing.
And maybe that is the right way, grasshopper......

There is only one thing to do about all of it and remain sane and that is to 'check out' and passively disobey in quiet civil disobedience in every way you possibly can. Don't use credit cards. Get off the grid. Ride bikes. Eat local. Pay cash. Barter. Consume less. Grow more food. make your own wine. And resist everything. Passively. As much as possible take their power over us away from them.

You can vote in the NDP, of course, but they are as integral to the system as the LIBs. That 'game' is just good cop/bad cop obfuscation.

If you want to revolt and not shoot people, do a modern Ghandi and opt out.

Separation of Corporation and State is what's needed

People can riot all they want but unless they realize what the real problem even small changes aren't likely to happen. To me, the real problem is that we've become a corporatocracy - our institutions, governments, and all decisions are based on what's best for the corporation, on demand of corporations. The corproations, run by the corporate elite, have been infiltrating government since at least the 80's, passing laws that prioritize their interests. This is why poor President Obama can't do sh*t to fix his country - government doesn't matter anymore, only the corporation does. Overthrowing this insidious power won't be easy, but it's inevitable. Screw over enough people and they will revolt. Period.

The problem are not the

The problem are not the politicians, but the universities, where the garbage of neoclassical market economics, or market capitalism, is being taught, unquestioned, as a "science" justifying the deregulated money creation powers of private banks, licencing enslavement and destruction.

The same way as religious theories in the past and present licenced colonization and mass murder.

Until this crap is being seriously questioned and proven as the biggest crime wave in history, nothing will change and we'll face more and more violence and destruction.

I've been researching this since 1945 and am still astonished that the idiocy of destructive theories is still permitted to go on, without any serious opposition.

Look at the history of the Roman Empire, or of any other, and compare them with the USA of today.

Ed Deak.

Problems & Solutions

Do not forget that governments and universities today are all just other forms of the 'corporation' - the same type of people run them as run the for-profit companies; they are interchangeable & do move around (check their biographies). They share the same mind set, believe the same economics, despise democracy & fill their pockets.

Ed Deak is right about the private banks: read Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt" to see how the money game is played. Abolishing private banks would be the greatest step in the transformation of society - leave retail banking to the local credit unions.

Many universities, today,

Many universities, today, are weeding out professors who're not willing to teach the theories and studies demanded by the corporations, who virtually own whole departments, because of government cuts.

I was on the U of Colorado's ecological economics list some 16-17 years ago, saying basically the same things I'm saying now, and received offlist notes from students in the USA, Canada , Europe, saying that they knew that what they were being taught for economics was a fraud, but had to give the "right" answers in their term papers and exams to pass.

The most pathetic note I received was from and instructor from a Canadian university, who claimed that they were forced to teach neoclassical market economics, or lose their jobs, even though some of them knew it was a false theory.

Then there was the French students' revolt against the exclusive teaching of that garbage, but it too was forced down and out.

Look it up on Google.

I'm not particularly against private banks, but they should be strictly regulated as any vehicles on the roads.

Ed Deak.

Government Protests

I agree with Coastalhermit, but unfortunately, we're in the minority. British Columbians, or for that matter, the majority of all Canadians will never stop using credit cards, get off the grid, etc., etc. They have grown up being coddled by their parents and/or the government. They do not know how to fend for themselves.

They will neither violently protest the injustices thrust upon us by an increasingly corrupt government nor passively resist in quiet civil disobedience. Therefore, unless we can somehow change the way the next generation thinks, teach them the values that we were taught at an early age, the status quo will remain.

Sad, but true.

What bothers me the most

in this whole scenario is that if those with the heart in the right place should lose the fight over tankers and pipelines, then we will also have failed to have secured some standards at least being place so that the 'mathematical certainty' can be overcome. I do not agree with Murphy's law as is so often touted with a little vindictive smirk, for things do not have to go wrong if we bother to do them right. I can hear the 'good luck with that' already, but the point is: it has nothing to do with luck, but with competence and the will to apply standards. I think that Murphy's law represents an abdication of responsibility for how things turn out and we should be ashamed of flinging it around. Rather than try to hit the proverbial brick-wall and go up against massive human greed and demand for comfort, why don't we set rules for how it may operate? Why don't we work on taming the beast rather than killing it, which is the same as chopping heads off the hydra! Where and what next? We haven't, unfortunately, yet managed that added piece of our own evolution. The sickos are still with us, and we can't do them all in, as we continue to produce more. I would even claim that the desire to overpower completely the aspirations of them rather than initiate dialogue springs from the same elements of our culture! It is our habit to shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe we could profit from trying the other way...Quite aside from the inescapable truth that we DO have a strong interest in seeing North America get somewhat out from under dependence on Middle East resources. Am I right?

Agree with Rafe, great article; let's look at all options

Nothing wrong with Coastalhermit's opt-out strategy, I've been doing that most of my adult life to the extent possible at any given time. Unfortunately, along with all of the other species, habitats able to sustain the human species are disappearing.

At this point I think we need to organize ourselves outside of the conventional political options. Self-governance is a big part of the answer. We've got to resist and reject the easy assumption that we're stupid just because we haven't solved this problem...yet. We need self-respect to empower ourselves and that can lead to collective self-confidence and effective action.

We can do this. We have got to elect only, or at least as many as possible, Independent MLAs at the next election. Bob Simpson set the example by withdrawing from the political party system and speaking out the truth. Political parties are not required, they're just another one of those 'it's always been done this way' tricks that keeps us from thinking outside of the box they want us to stay shut up in and out of their way, so they can have their way with us. With Independent MLAs, they can't.

We need to be proactive and begin to find, starting now, before the election is near, Independent Candidates who will empower us by bringing in electoral reform to make them accountable to us. That would at least give us a fair chance at getting accountable representation not completely controlled by invisible strings tied largely to huge foreign corporations and governments who 'represent' their citizens no better than our own does.

I've outlined my suggestions for the details previously, but basically we need permanent local electoral offices, so we're in charge of our own information, can share ideas freely and negotiate collaborative solutions amongst ourselves, and the ability to choose representatives responsible directly to us. We need to elect them with a vote we can each place and change when we choose. The offices would make Citizens' Initiatives and (preferably binding) Referenda accessible and affordable for everyone to participate in, not just those already having power or media connections or whatever.

Just a practical, simple plan for a peaceful transition from what we have now to meaningful self-governance. Not easy, not perfect, but a step in the right direction. If not now, when?

Conservatism

Conservative policies are going to the tipping point that provokes riots in my opinion. In BC, Campbell/Clark's Liberals are actually conservatives. Added to Harper's far right wing conservative agenda they'll do enough damage to the ordinary citizen to provoke riots. They are taking away descent wages, pension benefits, privatizing medicare, driving up the public debt to unheard of levels, making education unaffordable for most people, allowing the environment to be destroyed, all while they give away the store to filthy rich corporations.

This cannot stand. This will not stand for long. This is not representative of true Canadian values.

The true test, once the protests and riots start, will be whether or not our Canadian police and Canadian armed forces will act like Gadaffi loyalists and shoot to kill other Canadian citizens on Harper's command.

Violence. To Be or Not to Be?

Alive and Bailey, and many others, make many good points. The issue of violence however is a complex one, certainly largely out of the hands of the ordinary citizenry.

First, it is the ruling class controlled State that largely has a monopoly of the means of mass destruction and "crowd control"...in the form of police, army and security spooks (who not infrequently use outright criminal elements to assist their "control" work...as things get more serious.)

For most of their busy daily lives, "the people" never even consider the issue of violence. they are neither particularly violence prone or passive. It is most often something foisted onto them by the circumstances of capitalist theft, democratic change opportunities being made too bureaucratically complex or outright impossible by the systems of checks and balances which favour ruling class and their allies cronyism. (In the final Chamber of "Sober Second Thought" that is the Senate in our System, the Electoral College in the US etc.)

But especially it, violence or not is presented to the working class masses as more typically State violence, as in the case of the Winnipeg General Strike historically, and the Vancouver Island coal barons bringing in the Army to violently put down an early miners strike, or to a more current example such as the police riot at the G20... etc ad infinitum. It is then up to "the People" to submit or reply in kind, with their own kind of "defencive violence" or other actions, in which they can only have the advantage, hopefully, if, if, if, of their own overwhelming numbers and capacity to bring everything to a halt.

The issue of violence or not is a complex issue in many other ways as well.

But let it be said, especially in this country, if there is violence, it will largely come from the explosive frustrations of the young facing precisely the kind of jobless, benefitless, lack of pensions and proper medical care etc that they do right now already. However, and around whatever form or excuse it manifests itself. But of far greater likelihood to make the coming struggle for real economic, democratic and societal change violent, will be the actions of the ruling class State... No different here than anywhere else, including the current Middle East.

continued next post...

Violence. To Be or Not to Be?

From previous post...

If you are concerned to know whether there is a greater or lesser likelihood that the coming period... And we all know it is coming/ already underway ...will assume a violent character, simply keep your mind's eye on the policies and actions of The State, and the attitudes and demands that arise out of the economic ruling class elite. That will tell you much... certainly more than a drunken hockey riot. (That just indicated that something, a frustration and rage is bubbling away there, just beneath the surface of Law and Order appearances of things.)

A coming period of social and economic agitation is coming, is already here, as sure as Nature made little green apples. How it will go, is still too early to tell with certainty.

Seriously?

"This is why poor President Obama can't do sh*t to fix his country - government doesn't matter anymore, only the corporation does."

Except Obama is, and has long been, in their corporate pocket. He's never had any intention of the US government being operated any other way that as it is. Look to his immediate appointments, a reflection of GW Bush members essentially. He immediately refused to 'look back' and prosecute the outgoing regime for its war crimes. He is a colossal failure for the people, and a resounding success for the inner elite.

I think comedian Bill Hicks may have been onto something when he joked:

No matter what promises you make on the campaign trail, blah blah blah, when you win (the U.S. Presidency), you go into this smoky room with the 12 industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down...and its a shot of the JFK assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously like the grassy knoll, and then the screen comes up and the lights go on, and they ask the new president "any questions?

It is high time to stop thinking or believing that there is anything good that can come from just a little more persistence on our part with our proven illegitimate system of politics.

How are things really that much different that what Arundhati Roy said about India, where "the opposing force does not blink at the moral challenge and responds with murder"?

Our own Canadian (and provincial) government has failed to fulfill its inherent obligations to the public. The preamble says Peace, Order and Good Government. Its current involvement in reprehensible war crimes in the middle east voids its very basis of existence. In this act and much, much more, it has lost its legitimacy. So, aside from the ever-present coercive force of state, why should any of us feel an obligation to obey?

So?

Just how many people does it take to make a SIGNIFICANT violent protest? 10? 35? 100? Maybe 1000 or 100,000? Maybe just 10 or 15 shit disturbers?

In Canada when people get pissed off they can always vote against those that piss them off. If enough of them get out to vote then things happen otherwise quit yer bitchin'.

Self governance and work

Self governance and work toward self sufficiency to the highest degree and then genuine trading for resources and products we can not make on account of the climate etc., are definitely the ideals of true democracy, but will remain impossible dreams under the presently ruling , criminal economic theory that forced us under the yoke of fraudulent "free trade", and the WTO, set up to permit foreign corporations to rule and exert dictatorial powers.

Am I suggesting "protectionism" ? Damn right I am, and the more the better to save us from criminals out to steal and destroy us.

Some of us can remember the days of "protectionism" and wish we could have the same living standards we had then.

Ed Deak.

View From The Grassy Knoll...

"No matter what promises you make on the campaign trail, blah blah blah, when you win (the U.S. Presidency), you go into this smoky room with the 12 industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down...and its a shot of the JFK assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously like the grassy knoll, and then the screen comes up and the lights go on, and they ask the new president "any questions?" comedian's quote presented by igbymac.

Oooo, now that cuts just a tad too close to the bone. And is about it all in a nutshell/corpse.

Protectionism.

"Am I suggesting "protectionism" ? Damn right I am, and the more the better to save us from criminals out to steal and destroy us.

Some of us can remember the days of "protectionism" and wish we could have the same living standards we had then." Ed Deak

Hear, hear! Goddamn, you have that unique ability to hit the nail on the head... you old carpenter you. :-) I agree 100%.

The battle cry that needs to be raised to protect this country, its people, resources and environment is, "Protectionism NOW!"

We have dithered too long already, Even the so-called "Environmental Movement".

But more, to get into what "I think" my esteemed friend means, certainly I: We need to be "husbanding" those resources, developing and UTILIZING them ourselves, as we plan and act, at the same time, to determine and maintain "rational" population levels, to develop the "economy" that WE need, first, to meet all our own needs that we can. This to be as "self-sufficient" and long term "sustainable" as we possible can.

After that, we determine what we can "rationally" and "sustainably" trade with other folks in the world, for those things we need to get from them. The focus being "the rational needs of the people" and that of "our corner of the planet", not mindless, endless growth "wealth creation" of ruling elites, and their insatiable GREED.

It is not about violence or not violence... or should not be from the perspective of our citizen selves... but "enlightenment/rationality" applied to our attitudes and behaviours as a people.

Let them, these ruling elites decide how they choose to respond to that, and we will simply deal with it, as we will have no choice. We simply need to determine and act that, "It shall be this way." Period.

Rafe, some of us like Ed

Rafe, some of us like Ed have been observing long enough to see the inevitable: jack boots. Protests on the street is all we have left, and it looks like the elite's police will do their bidding and fire upon us because they can't stop us any other way. More and more of us are waking up from the corporate media fantasy and facing the stark reality of what's happening on our planet.

A few comments above have mentioned the money scam. My question is, why don't we get a good series of articles about it here at the Tyee? How important is it, when money rules our lives, we're all debt slaves, and virtually every human endeavour is "costed" out? A little scrutiny would be nice.

It behooves us to understand the money and banking scam because it is the source of elite power, and our ignorance is perpetuating that power.

http://www.monetaryreform.com/MR/videoPage.htm

Ordinary Canucsk......

.....have to demonstrate, protest (and riot) for what they perceive as discrimination because the only other alternative is to go to court (that's what the 'establishment' wants you to do), where the ONLY guarantee is that it will cost more money than Scrooge McDuck has in his vault.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation

Jerry.... Remember, I have a

Jerry.... Remember, I have a few decades experience in fighting communism, when it was a life threatening task.

Fighting their idiot twin, capitalism, is a piece of cake in comparison.

I just don't like dictators, regardless under what new names they happen to creep out from under the stones.

Ed Deak.