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An Open Letter To Joe Clark
by Glenn Woiceshyn
[Published in The New Federation magazine, July/Aug., 1992. Mr. Clark is a former
Prime Minister of Canada.]
Dear Mr. Clark,
I fully support Premier Don Getty's recommendation on Jan. 10 to scrap official bilingualism
and multiculturalism. Although not a great fan of Mr. Getty (nor of the Reform party),
I was pleasantly surprised by his statement. It was not only his recommendation that
was good, but his reason for that recommendation -- that enforced bilingualism and
multiculturalism are wrong. Such an appeal to an objective principle, that forcing
values on others is wrong, is very rare in today's politics of pragmatism.
Those who can't see the "force" are either blind or evasive. The money
used to pay for official bilingualism is forced from the taxpayers. Those who refuse
to pay such taxes in order to spend their earned money on their own chosen values
will eventually have the gun of the RCMP pointed at them. In essence, a taxpayer
is a slave to bilingualism, even if he happens to be part of only a small minority
opposed to it. Companies are forced to incur additional expenses to print both languages
on their wares, expenses which are passed onto the consumer. Multiculturalism also
involves extorting money from individuals to pay for values they may not hold.
The other reason why these policies are wrong is that they promote tribalism -- the
philosophy that is now wreaking havoc in Eastern Europe and much of Africa.
A language is an objective value, but any language would suffice as long as the people
you interact with understand you. Tribalism is the idea that there is intrinsic value
in the language and customs of one's tribe or ancestors, regardless of what they
are. With this anti-reason, non-objective mentality, all other languages, customs
or tribes become a threat to such alleged intrinsic values. This leads inevitably
to tribal warfare.
By entrenching tribalism as an acceptable tenant in the constitution, you have abandoned
objectivity, and are now in the position of appeasing irrational emotions. Any reasoned
attack on your constitutional framework is regarded as a threat to peace, unity and
stability, and any opponent of this framework is smeared as a traitor in a "Politically
Correct" type of fashion.
Long term peaceful coexistence is being sacrificed in the name of a hope for a momentary
truce. (The truce won't last because the concession to tribalism will invite other
tribalists to scream demands.) You have been reduced to pleas for tolerance, regardless
of what people are being asked to tolerate, as if tolerance itself was a virtue.
You fear anyone who upholds principles, that is, anyone with integrity. This is what
pragmatism does to people.
Pragmatism dispenses with long-range rational principles in the name of solving the
problem of the immediate moment, and regards this as being practical. Without principles,
a human being is reduced to reacting to the perceptual data of the immediate moment,
substituting polls for truth and the will of the majority for principles. Compromise,
appeasement and tolerance are the primary virtues to a pragmatist. Pragmatism is
the root cause for the widespread lack of public respect for today's politicians.
The root cause of today's national disunity is the absence of a constitution that
fully protects individual rights. Your proposed Charter fails to do this. This absence
opens the door for all kinds of pressure groups to fight each other for the power
to rule people's lives, thus raising taxes and choking the economy. Appeals to tolerance,
generosity, compromise and trust are useless. National unity is an effect not a cause.
When force becomes the official standard for achieving values, peaceful coexistence
becomes impossible.
Some day the world will understand that the objective root of values is reason and
freedom for the individual, that force destroys both. However, a pragmatist will
never understand this as long as he remains a pragmatist and believes that adherence
to rational principles is impractical.
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1997 Glenn Woiceshyn. All rights reserved.
This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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