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A User's Guide to Rafe Mair
Ten things to know about the inner workings of your columnist's operating system.
What goes on in there, Rafe?
-
Rafe Mair's Family Secret
My father 'legally' stole assets from interned Japanese-Canadians.
-
WAC Bennett Would Be NDP Today
Who has preserved the Socred premier's province-building legacy? Not Gordon Campbell.
-
How I Changed Libel Law
My victory in Canada’s Supreme Court should free up speech.
I write this column with the uneasy feeling that no one gives a damn, yet I think people who read a columnist have a right to know what makes the writer tick. Or belch for that matter -- something I often do when digesting news from Victoria and Ottawa. And so here's a handy user's guide to Rafe Mair's worldview:
1. Journalism. As the late Denny Boyd said, I'm not a journalist but (particularly in my radio days) have strived to be a cross-examiner. I see my mandate (self-imposed to be sure) as a prod who constantly holds the establishment's feet to the fire.
I know from experience how spinmeisters work -- they lie through their teeth. The media also lies like dogs but their method is to remain silent on things that adversely reflect on their good friends, the establishment. One need only look at the appalling media reportage on environmental issues.
True to form, the media love Christy Clark, Premier Photo Op. When she was threatening an early election, no one challenged Clark making families and children the main election issue. Never mind that this file has been mangled by the Campbell/Clark government for 11 years. Were Clark to have campaigned on families and children, she would have raised the wonderful word Chutzpah to new heights. The reason the spin doctors have encouraged making this the centrepiece of an election is because all the other potential issues are even worse for the government. But corporate media pretty much gave her a pass.
2. Who to believe. I don't believe a word government or the business community says. Not a word of it. They only tell the truth by accident, much like a stopped clock is right twice a day. Whether they are in the business of mining or drilling for oil or extracting some other form of wealth from our precious ecology, profit-driven corporations simply mouth whichever falsehoods people might be induced to believe. I don't believe politicians, especially when they tell me that what they're doing is in my best interests.
3. Why I was a Socred. I'm often accused of vacating the principles I espoused as a Socred minister back in the 1970s. This is partly true since I didn't leave my brain behind when I left government for radio. Essentially, however, I still believe in free enterprise, but a market that is properly policed and includes just taxes.
I am still an environmental activist. As a Socred environment minister I saved the Skagit from being dammed by the city of Seattle, ended the wolf kill and put a moratorium on production of uranium.
I must also say that I made errors, many of them, but my philosophy, if not evident in all my actions, was essentially as it is now. As to any change in philosophy I plead Emerson, who said "foolish consistency is the hob-goblin of little minds".
4. Where my first allegiances lie. I was born, raised and educated in Vancouver. I represented Kamloops in the Legislature. I am a British Columbian first and foremost. When I was the B.C. spokesperson on constitutional matters I was told that once I spent some time in central Canada I would learn that they really cared for British Columbia. I found nothing of the sort and my suspicions of their utter indifference to B.C. were brutally confirmed. I would not take to the streets on this issue but if B.C. went its own way I would shed not a tear.
This commitment to British Columbia causes me to cry out against the BC Liberal government's horrible energy plan that desecrates our rivers while making private producers rich and forcing BC Hydro into a calamitous economic state. In the same vein of wanting to protect the precious natural heritage of this province, I take every opportunity to declare that oil pipelines and oil tankers pose not risks but certain disasters, and if we allow either in B.C. we deserve the catastrophes that are bound to happen.
5. My favourite medium. I love books and am a modern day Luddite when it comes to ebooks. I regularly canvass the big stores and order what I want from the independent 32 Books in Edgemount Village. I hate cell phones and mine is in the glove compartment of my car only to be used in an emergency. I have no idea what my cell phone number is because I am not interested in hearing phone calls which aren't to my home/office.
6. My diagnosis of what ails our democracy. I am for democracy -- of which we have precious little given the way we go about it. In our system, 40 per cent of the 50 per cent who voted are given 100 per cent of the power for four or five years. MLAs and MPs are toothless and must do as they are told. Large identifiable groups in our system are not only powerless but without any parliamentary or legislature voice. Every day I lean towards proportional representation or a version of it.
7. My critique of our current justice system. I believe that sex criminals should not be jailed but treated, not to be released until psychiatrists certify that he is no more likely to offend than the average citizen. As we do it now, these menaces are jailed and let out of prison not because they have been cured but because time has passed. That's very wrong yet somehow we believe that detaining until cured is "mollycoddling."
I believe in a massive reformation of the court system so that ordinary people can have the same access that the rich do.
I also profoundly believe in the presumption of innocence, the basis of our justice system for 1,000 years. At this point I especially believe in the presumption of innocence for drivers suspected of impaired driving. Instead, we now make the cop not only the arresting officer but decider of charges to be laid, prosecutor, judge and the guy who decides what the penalty will be. If we will make an exception to the presumption in one case, what next? The reason it hasn't been tested in court is, interestingly, because the driver has no right to go to court!
8. My position on how much free expression should be allowed. I profoundly believe in free speech, even (perhaps I should say especially) the rude versions.
9. My measure of a good society. I believe that the state must ensure that every Canadian is fed and housed and I also support some examples of "affirmative action." These things are opposed by the wealthy class but let me give you my reasons.
I believe that a caring society is judged, and rightly so, by the compassion it shows to the poor. Even those who think "too bad for the poor" must surely feel for children who, through no fault of their own, face daunting challenges to making for themselves a decent life. Many wealthy people I know say 'if I could do it, so can they,' which ignores two things: Not everyone is blessed with the wherewithal to 'make it' and not everyone is as lucky as the rich usually are.
I support affirmative action to help those who have been handicapped by their upbringing. I had huge affirmative action based on whom I was born to, their "social class," and their ability to see I had the very best education and their ability to provide me with a safety net if I were fall on sorry times.
I get myself in a lather about cheating but when I do, I'm not looking at single moms on welfare but rather the rich. With the help of lawyers and accountants, the rich pay far less tax in proportion to their wealth than the less well-off. Let me give you an anecdote to demonstrate. In the U.S., a whistle blower who turns in a tax dodger gets 10 per cent of the tax collected with this proviso -- that pay-off is limited to $10,000,000! In other words there are taxation thieves stealing over $100,000,000. You can forgive a hell of a lot of welfare cheaters for that kind of money!
As you may deduce, then, I have that quaint notion that the rich, individual or corporate, should pay their share of taxes.
10. When enough is enough. Finally, I believe that it's time for me to shut up! ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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- Rick Hansen's Man in Motion anniversary tour concludes in Vancouver
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Who Mowed Down the Premier?
- Canada's Economy, Deconstructed (by a 12 year-old)
- Death in Remand: a Tyee Inquiry
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
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- 'A Gut Feeling'
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- Why Blackberry's Embrace of HTML5 Is Good Karma
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
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- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- How Our Immune Systems Exaggerate Fear
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- Death in Remand: A Jail Crammed with Risk
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- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Should You Run from that Medical Test?
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- Ottawa posts $9-billion deficit in March despite pledge to avoid spending spree
- BC phases out AirCare to focus on fighting bigger vehicle emissions
- Tsunami senors to be dropped into deep sea off of Vancouver Island
- Student groups file court challenge against Quebec protest law
- ...while on the streets, pirates and ninjas put aside mutual animosity to join student protests
32
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Lawrence
35 weeks ago
Excellent rant
I disagree with you on one point.
The politicians I know well on the left don't lie, and they're trying to make their small part of the world a better place.
The politicians I know well on the right, live a life of lies.
Rafe, you are doing very well on The Tyee.
igbymac
35 weeks ago
Interesting perspective on things, RM
Still your opinions always try to work within the framework of the politics with almost a reverence for the established playbook that this same untrustworthy government and business community impose on us all. I realize most of us do, to varying degrees, but why not lead a vanguard for serious political reform?
I wonder why, as spokesperson for Constitutional matters in BC, I never heard you address how the 1982 Constitution was imposed upon Canadians, and upon British Columbians in particular, without broad democratic consultation and a vote/referendum?
Now, for the first time, I learn you would not take to the streets for BC to secede from Canada, but you would not shed a tear. Exploring your statement that you are 'a British Columbian first and foremost', a serious question arises from the dissonance I sense. How can BC be protected 'first and foremost' while also being subservient to the nationalist agenda on the most important of issues: warfare, money and banking, criminal laws and the supreme law of the land, the Constitution?
Does your patriotism extend so deeply that you cannot unfurl the obvious knotted web of deception used in our language between the government's (and the corporate) interests and the people's interests?
But as the incomparable Howard Zinn wrote, "You can't be neutral on a moving train". In Canada, our authoritarian governance seems to leave progressives and dissenters in neutral, if not in jail. I'd like to know your position on invoking substantive change -- how we go about achieving justice through social struggle but without war or violence? Somehow your simply leaning 'towards proportional representation or a version of it' do not soothe my political pains.
Maybe the problem is my own. I get hopeful, through some of your causes and erroneously conclude, that you are seeing the bigger political-social picture of what needs to be done to save BC or even Canada. But then I realize I am simply projecting my desires onto your capitalistic socred world view.
Nonetheless, I've enjoyed a lot of your commentary over the decades, and I graciously offer you a sincere 'thank you' for your contributions, particularly in bringing important issues to the mainstream audience during your CKNW years.
Skywalker
35 weeks ago
Rafe.
I agree.
oceantor
35 weeks ago
User's Guide to Rafe Mair
Great precis Rafe - I to feel much the same way
"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."- Edmund Burke
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."
Or-well
stver
35 weeks ago
Rafe
I too believe in the absolute necessity for proportional representation, whether it be STV, MMP or unconditional PR. Before this country can be called a democracy, it has to implement a voting system that reflect the will of the people.
It is well worth noting that the Alberta Conservatives are in the middle of a leadership vote, but because the person with the most votes, Gary Mar, did not get 50% + 1 of the votes, they have to go into a second ballot, possibly a third, before they declare a winner.
In the last Federal election, the Tories got 39% of the overall vote and yet they govern with a majority!!
I am constantly disgusted by politicians who demand that the leaders of their respective parties receive the endorsement of a majority of their members, but they refuse to consider a change in the voting system to give the people the same rights.
rumrunner
35 weeks ago
A User's Guide to Rafe Mair
I know where Rafe can take over as leader of a party that fits him like a glove.
I would also garantee that he would cause an electoral revolution plus get elected!
Coastalhermit
35 weeks ago
Suggestion
Rafe, you 'dance' on the edge of endorsing a party platform. Understandably, as they all have planks missing or some that are just plain rotten. The closest you got was advising us to 'hold our nose' and vote NDP simply to rid ourselves of the Liberals.
Sorry. Not good enough. That kind of 'best of the worst' has been politics too long. Methinks you have to do better, old man. Time to actually form the best party, write their constitution, draft their rules and, basically, hand-feed the pablum to the innocent, bleating public.
We can't seem to do it ourselves. Start with Proportional Rep and inject a lot of Environmentalism, justice reform and, well, you know.............
And Lawrence: you are wrong. The 'left' is no better. Less motivated by greed, more motivated by ego. I should know - worked for them for decades. Bunch o' spoiled elitists who are more incestuous than the greedy, dog-eat-dog capitalists who, at the very least, are easier to spot.
Like Christy Clark is to Sarah Palin, you can at least see the lipstick on the pig. The high-lefties are too much 'the end justifies the means' and 'it's our turn now' types. Them and us!
Neither puts the citizen of BC first.
kasi_visvanath
35 weeks ago
go Rafe!!
great column Rafe....i must say that as i read it, i felt like you were mostly expressing my own views, even though i have been voting NDP my entire adult life, and will likely continue to...your views are NOT inconsistent with Social Democratic values...which also believes in Free enterprise, but with, as you said, a "market that is properly policed and just taxes.'
i also totally agree that the rich need to pay some taxes for a change, and not expect to get a free ride off the working poor taxes...which they do constantly.
when you say you don't believe a word that government or business leaders say, you've got my vote again, because i've been raving about just this kind of double dealing for a while now on the Digital Journal in some of my op-eds...recently i wrote one on a hot topic (especially in B.C. and the US) on the "right to work" lobby...and how they lie through their teeth, claiming that this is good for workers, so that they don't get oppressed by unions!!!!
as if unions are the problem...but their constant spin and lies propagandise people so much that they don't know WHAT the truth is...the same goes here, for the issues that you so bravely raise, through which our B.C. Liberal/fascists (a clone of the Federal Conservatives i believe...i betcha that Campbell is bosom buddies with Harper (in so much that anyone CAN be bosom buddies with that Fascist robot)), continue to this raise to rape and pillage our fair province whilst claiming it's all good for British Columbians...
i don't understand why they keep getting re-elected, because certainly the business community is not large enough to counterbalance all the rest of us....is it? but i guess the spin and propaganda convinces average voters that ANYTHING is better than those Commie Pinko Socialists...the NDP....Horrors!!! (Shuddering dramatically)....
unlike you, though i am still a loyal Canadian, even though like you, i agree that central Canada doesn't give two hoots about the rest of us, except when election time rolls around...or they want some money out of us...
kasi_visvanath
35 weeks ago
continued comment from above
i have to say, though, Rafe, that although i wasn't a big fan of yours when you were a Socred cabinet minister, i now see that really you and your Socred government buddies were one thousand percent better than these current Liberal/fascist crooks...at least the Socreds, while skimming off the top, still tried to do what they thought was best for B.C....and they DIDN'T sell us down the river...it was the Socreds who built all those huge power dams, thinking of the future (wisely i believe)...they were the ones to nationalise B.C. Rail, and B.C. Ferries...and they set up a povince wide system of Ferries...B.C. Hydro was one of their crown jewels of a "crown corporation"...
when i look back i see that your old Socred party did a tremendous amount of good for our fair province, and i want to thank you and all your predecessors, like WAC Bennett, and his cronies...despite that they were typical politicians, still they tried to do what was good for our Province insofar as they were able.....
kasi_visvanath
35 weeks ago
continued again
in case anyone is interested in that op-ed i wrote, along similar lines to what Rafe has been expressing, only this time on the ideas of "right to work"...here's the web address for the story...hopefully i'm allowed to put links in these comments...
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/311446
perhaps, Rafe, you could write a column some time about this issue, which appears to confuse so many people...again because of the lies that governments and corporations, and the lobbyists for Big Business of Fascist kind, constantly spin out...such that folks can't tell the difference between the truth and their lies...
Jeffrey J.
35 weeks ago
We Love You Rafe
Rafe, thanks SO MUCH for doing what you do. Thousands of us care about what you say and think, and why. You remain a powerful voice in a sea of conformity and corruption.
You remain a beacon of independent thought and opinion in a corporatized world of money without soul.
The very best of western democracies have always been led by free thinkers: Gandhi, trained as London barrister, epitomized this well. As did Bertrand Russell, whose works are still worth reading today. MLK is another great mind, and we will never forget Tommy Douglas (though our current authoritarian, anti-democratic regimes dearly wish that we would).
Read any of the works of these voices and you will recognize the same clarity and candor that we receive from Rafe Mair.
A rare commodity indeed. Which makes Rafe that much more valuable.
We love you Rafe. Keep publishing. Your essays are the highlight of my day.
Lawrence
35 weeks ago
@ coastalhermit
I've worked with a bunch of folks on the left, including a whack of environmentalists.
They are honest, caring people, to suggest differently, simply indicates you ran into the wrong crowd, or perhaps, you're the wrong crowd.
Ego drives everything.
An ego-less person is one without joy in their heart.
The trick is to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and realize you may have done some helpful things in the past, but your job is to keep doing them, no matter how tired or discouraged you get...
Lawrence
35 weeks ago
Actually
that was an unfair remark about the wrong crowd.
At times some of the folks in the NDP have become quite defensive.
After Glen Clark was clearly set up like a bowling pin by the MSM and others,and nobody seemed to care, people on the left were really in a bad mood.
macsasquatch
35 weeks ago
They may be shibboleths, but they're MY shibboleths...
A list like this suggests to me that it might be useful for anyone to try to work out a list of 8 -12 of her or his basics, to see what maintains, what has been added, and what could be left behind.
the real ODB
35 weeks ago
right on!
I enjoy reading you almost as much as watching you give one of your "fired up" speeches (or rant if you prefer!). Keep up the good work.
igbymac
35 weeks ago
Jeffrey J, you are over zealous with your love-in for RM
Aligning Mr Mair's thinking and approach with the progressive minds of Gandhi, Russell, Martin Luther King or Tommy Douglas is, frankly, absurd. The reasons should be blindingly obvious to you.
But in case you cannot see the difference, understand this: These other progressive thinkers all worked for a fundamental shift in the political paradigm, whereas Rafe Mair is content to rail within the status quo.
Mr. Beer N. Hockey
35 weeks ago
Number 8
Numbers 1 through 7 and 10 are all fine and good but it is Number 8 that is the one worth fighting to the death for.
Vox.Pop
35 weeks ago
360 Vision
Great column, Rafe.
BC is lucky to have someone like you writing on politics in an open & informed manner. Very few people have been on all sides of the political game - real 360 degree vision.
Keep up the great work.
zalm
35 weeks ago
Good thing it’s not my week in the “God chair”
Are we all done with the beatification and sanctification of St. Rafe yet?
Rafe, aren’t you the guy who held Mike Harcourt accountable for violence on the logging lines when the rat unions decided the woods should be fair game for corporate profits, but not 'tied jobs', worker safety or decent compensation? Or when Henry Kissinger came to town and Mike Harcourt tried to keep him out as a war criminal - but not you? And forgive me, but didn’t I see you bitching at the Clayoquot protesters during the War in the Woods, that they should all be forced to take a bath - in jail?
Wasn't this the MLA with “principles” who watched, mute, as Premier Will Jr. and his used car salesmen ran the province into the red on megaprojects in 1979-1981 , and then watched the first food bank open in 1982 due to the devastation in the economy caused by corporate tax breaks and lifting of ownership restrictions and 'tied jobs' that lost thousands of good-paying jobs, some permanently?
Not many people get so public a forum to call mea culpa, never mind hear an answering chorus of mynah birds all shouting “We love you, Rafe!”
You, sir, are a trimmer, and I wish to hell you’d stuck with the practice of law and never shown your face in the legislature. This province has paid a big price for your education in the ways of the world, and though by all accounts you’ve tried admirably to repay that education with your open-mouth show, frankly, it’s too little too late. Were you the raging success you'd like to have been, I'd see more of your former cohort following in your footsteps back from the dark side, but nobody else has come back that I can think of... you're an army of one.
Far as I’m concerned, you deserve the Order of BC. Along with Gordo and Dobell and Emerson
JacquieMi
35 weeks ago
Very nice!
Government and the business community only tell the truth by accident, "much like a stopped clock is right twice a day" - I love it!
alive
35 weeks ago
take a break Rafe -- permanently!
Since the Tyee no longer allows me to mark a comment as "best", I will instead say here: Thank you Zalm, for pointing out some of Rafe's foot-in-the-mouth adventures.
I have little respect for people who crosses the floor so to speak; Emerson is one and Rafe is another, who tests the wind and go where it seem the most profitable.
His usual columns are muck-raking, shit disturbing efforts at getting his name in print.
The only reason people read them is to see the debate that may ensue!
Certainly he has followers, in fact he would make a great bible-thumper I am sure; but hardly the type of readers who examine things analytically.
G West
35 weeks ago
I'll mention just one thing- which Rafe hasn't bothered to above
In fact, the details were provided by Mr Mair himself some time ago right here at Tyee.
The story is told in this article:
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/04/10/MairFamilySecret/
And it makes a difference - I'm surprised this 'user's guide' doesn't mention it too.
Because believing in 'affirmative action' doesn't mean a great deal if you've accepted the benefits of misappropriating someone else's patrimony.
I wish Mr Mair had the courage to take his new found 'honesty' a step or two further....
igbymac
35 weeks ago
G West
Funny how the first comment on the article you bring to our attention concludes with you saying to Mr Mair:
So what is your point?
When you now say:
I wonder how many of us, yourself included, cannot honestly ponder back and realize that the majority of us are recipients of our forefathers mis-appropriations? Geesus, man, how the hell do you think the natives feel about the white settlers?
As for Mair's attempt to diminish his father's patriotic-nationalistic behaviour as the 'mores of the day', I believe Einstein made an apt remark about 'nationalism being a child's disease, the measles of mankind'.
G West
35 weeks ago
The point quite simply
Is that facing one's own demons is a full time job; Mr Mair went part way with his original statements (to which I pointed) and about which I commented at the time.
If you read all of the comments there, you won't have missed something else I wrote there too.
His latest column doesn't seem, to me at least, to quite reach the mark either - and that's the reason for my comment.
As for Canada's first nations and how I imagine they feel?
I suspect they're more than ready for a little 'real' affirmative action themselves. And pretty sick of hollow apologies and empty efforts.
Since you claim familiarity with Einstein, I expect you're aware that he was a socialist.
I can hardly claim to put the reasoning for his belief in socialism any better than he did himslelf so I'll leave you with another short quotation from him. In the current context I hope you'll see why it may be moderately appropriate.
He goes on:
Clear enough?
igbymac
35 weeks ago
Again, GWest, what is your point?
Mr Mair isn't facing his demons, he isn't hitting his mark? What mark should he be striving for considering, of course, his ideology?
G West
35 weeks ago
I would have thought it was obvious!
This article is penned as a 'user's guide' to Rafe Mair.
I think it's pretty clear it's an incomplete guide and Mair is missing the mark...
Mair's success - in a very real way - was built on someone else's work and effort.
He says he's a believer in 'affirmative action' but his own performance and record tend to belie that belief.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly upset with his performance of late in the journalistic sense and I appreciate his efforts in certain areas quite a bit, I just think there's a lot of self-promotion going on here while other things (including what zalm has written aboove us) aren't being mentioned.
I'm surprised you don't see it!
igbymac
35 weeks ago
I think, GWest, your expectations are unrealistic
Haven't we walked through the issue that virtually all of us can trace a root or two of our success back in one shape or another to the efforts, including in many cases crimes, of our forefathers?
So why is Mair any different than anyone else in needing to explain the 'crimes' of his father when he was eleven years old himself -- other than the fact that he has already repeatedly and publicly shined a light on his own sense of remorse for those acts? Does mentioning his guilt once again provide further insight into his 'self-promoting' "handy user's guide [into] to Rafe Mair's worldview?"
Sorry, I certainly do not see it. The specific reasoning behind his world views is what you are getting at if I am not mistaken, but that is not what Mair is offering up.
I recognize you may have tried to draw an analogy by mentioning Einstein's reasoning for being a socialist; but had Einstein simply stated he was a socialist, would that not have been suffice for one to conclude that that was his world view?
I guess I just do not think Mair is going out of his way to hide anything. He spells out his views on a few matters and after we contrast these positions with his behaviour, it clearly shows what must be his own struggle with cognitive dissonance. Read my first post and you can see I made mention of a few glaring shortcomings between his words and his acts. But actually resolving that dissonance is something only Rafe Mair can address.
Often the story is in what is not intended to be said, would you not agree? Cheers.
G West
35 weeks ago
You totally misunderstand
First of all, most of 'us' aren't really very self-aware at anything but a superficial level.
Those who have taken the time to consider the 'implications' of their own actions and how their background AND the source of their current well-being owes a great deal (in a complex variety of ways) to who they are and where they have come from often fail to make the necessary ‘connections’ and change their behavior.
As for bringing up First Nations and supplying a throw-away Einstein aphorism about nationalism - that was your doing. I simply elaborated.
I think both your suggestions are just excuses for bad behavior: Along the lines of, 'Well yeh, but everybody's doing it!' Mair had (and has) the opportunity to do more.
Look, it's really quite simple - Mair wrote an article that focuses totally on MAIR and he left out something I believe is pretty important.
In the end, Mair is what he is - I posted the connection - for those who hadn't known about it - because I think it provides information about another facet of the writer.
That's all. I do agree with you about this being 'his' struggle - I'm not at all sure that he sees it that way though. This article was pretty self aggrandizing: pace zalm's remarks.
This is Rafe Mair’s forum and he uses it for various reasons - the well-informed reader isn't going to be lulled into the belief we're dealing with someone who doesn't have an agenda. That's the risk one takes when you put yourself out there for comment - I know Rafe can handle it.
In conclusion, I think it's extremely hard, almost impossible, to be a decent moral person in this day and age WITHOUT being a socialist. Which doesn't mean one can't try.
igbymac
35 weeks ago
a quick reply. GWest
1. Clearly Mair tries to be self aware.
2. my 'First Nations' Q was rhetorical.
3. I made no excuses for Mair; I said his post was sufficient enough and need not go rambling on about his life as an eleven year old boy during WW II.
4. Why would one try to not be a socialist if principled and moral conduct are one's ideological building blocks and that is precisely where they lead? It's called dissonance in the alternative. (I'm presuming we are using the 1870s socialist definition.)
G West
35 weeks ago
Final words...and a some praise
I don't care about the fact he was eleven - his family 'fortunes' were built upon stolen goods. I think it’s a relevant consideration in evaluating the man – apparently he did too or he wouldn’t have written about it.
Mair could have done more than fess up to his father's larceny - he didn't...and I'd suggest he has had the power and the wherewithal to do something more than pay lip service to the event.
Furthermore, HE (Mair) brought up the subject - mentioning it again is hardly offside in the context of the current article about himself. His version of self-awareness (in this context and also relative to the points zalm brought up) seems rather selective to me.
That was, and is, the only point I was making.
The reasons for believing in the importance of establishing some kind of functional socialism are, I'd say, self-evident.
That's not to say that socialism can't come a cropper too - and has done from time to time.
I should also mention that I very much respect what Mair has done in terms of publicizing and educating people about mental illness. For that, if nothing else, he deserves considerable praise.
Would he have done it if he had not has a personal stake in the matter?
I'll leave that one alone...
Cheers.
darcy.mcgee
35 weeks ago
hypocrisy
This is really rich:
> I profoundly believe in free speech, even (perhaps I should say
> especially) the rude versions.
Considering the Tyee polices, supresses and bans commenters on occasion.
Skywalker
35 weeks ago
Rafe getting attacked personally ...
...by people who don't reveal their real names is really rich. Can't debate the issue, attack the individual with stuff he has revealed himself.