From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: news.admin,alt.censorship,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
Subject: Re: "Computers graphic when it comes to porn"
Date: 14 Aug 92 03:08:42 GMT
Followup-To: news.admin
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada

In article <robert.713661816@labyrinth> robert@informix.com (Robert Coleman) writes:
|clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis) writes:

|>Later on, when the Americans wanted to free us from our "shackles" (read,
|>annex Canada as they were later to do with Texas, California etc.), they
|>invaded Canada in 1812.  It was their "manifest destiny" to own the whole
|>continent.  Again, the people of Canada explicitly rejected the "liberators"
|>and their philosophy, and fought back.  And won.

|	Noting an extreme anti-US bias here, and not so much against the
|current US as against the US of 100-200 years ago...biases such as these
|really can't help but warp your vision.

It's amazing how often this claim is made.  You don't know me very well
do you - for in the last flame war I was embroiled in, I was being accused
of being some sort of fanatical pro-American.

No.  My bias is simply against Americans who arrogantly claim that only
*their* way is right, and that any other culture or tradition must be
rejected.

|>We have chosen a different route.  Chosen by our repeated refusal to become
|>part of the USA.  Our constitutions are indeed similar, but we have implemented
|>certain social checks and balances to try to keep things a little more orderly.
|>Given the fact that the crime rate in the US is by far the highest in the western
|>world (there are some war zones I'd rather live than in some US cities), we haven't
|>done that badly, without giving up much at all.  Unfortunately, due to proximity
|>and the overwhelming weight of US "culture" (you call *that* "culture"!), we're
|>catching up fast.

|	Your crime rates were low before implementing the extra social checks
|and balances, and, surprise surprise, remain low afterward.  This suggests
|some larger cultural issue is responsible for the violence differences than
|the laws put into place.

|	One example is a greater degree of cultural homogeneity; the melting
|pot ideal has both it's advantages and it's disadvantages, advantages being
|greater cultural diversity and disadvantages being cultural conflict.  

Hardly.  A couple of centuries ago, Canada was considerably less homogenous
than the USA.  And today, it is *still* less homegenous, for you forget that >25%
of our population is French, and have retained their culture and language.

A "multi-cultural" or "cultural mosaic" has a far higher potential for
conflict than melting pot.

|	Unfortunately, your bias allows you to blame "America" rather than
|examine what the roots of violence really are.  And, I note, that you're
|prepared to blame "proximity" for the rising level of violence (uh...haven't
|we been "proximate" for the entire existence of our respective governments?)

Well of course.  And during the first hundred years or so we had to keep
fighting you off.  Now we have the electronic age, and it's not quite so
damn easy...

|Why does that proximity suddenly cause your violence rate to increase now?)
|instead, again, of looking for the root causes.  Rising population?  Greater
|cultural disparity?  I don't know, but I'll sure be looking...how about you?

I already have.

|	Yes, it's true, you know.  For the last hundred years, we've merely
|been sublimating our lust for your fair country.  One of these days, we're
|gonna get Canada alone, and...*Not*.  We haven't even annexed territories we 
|officially *own*, much less challenged new territory.  Canada would have to
|be pretty low on our list of targets...what have you got that would be worth
|the trouble?

Oil, gas, water, power....

But I was really referring to economic and cultural annexation. 
-- 
Chris Lewis; clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
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