“People don’t change when they see the light. They change when they feel the heat.”
“adage, quoted in the New York Times” in “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail September 22, 2008
“Of all political ideals, that of making people happy is perhaps the most dangerous one. It leads invariably to the attempt to impose our scale of ‘higher’ values upon others, in order to make them realize what seems to us of greatest importance for their happiness; in order, as it were, to save their souls.”
Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 2
In my latest National Post column I say it’s important to stand up for ourselves and our values over Ukraine without blundering, or sauntering, into a nuclear war… and if you think it’s hard, congratulations, you’re a grownup who realizes reality is tricky.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I advocate thinking about things you don’t want to think about, from Putin’s motives to Xi Jinping’s ideology to James Burnham’s warning about the “Suicide of the West”.
In my latest National Post “Platformed” newsletter I say it’s absurd, especially now, for Canadian pundits to be fussing over the possible tactical positioning of Jean Charest for a possible Tory leadership run instead of asking him what he actually thinks about the issues and his underlying philosophy, for instance about national defence.
“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the d***ed fools said would happen has come to pass.”
Lord Melbourne, quoted in British Columbia Report November 18, 1996.
In my latest National Post column (filed before the invasion of Ukraine) I mock the government for encouraging us to switch providers to get lower prices and better service through the magic of competition, while subjecting vast swaths of the economy and our lives to its monopoly control
“This means open war between men, in which everyone is obliged to take sides, either with the dogmatists or with the sceptics, because anyone who imagines he can stay neutral is a sceptic par excellence.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées