Not everything can be on society’s back

October 17th, 2012

The greatest damage that politicians do to the public is to make it think that everything can be solved by government. Particularly in matters of health and security. A better, more honest and courageous approach would be for elected officials to tell people the truth.
The truth is, as the name of the famous off-Broadway show of decades ago informed us,  “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” Too often the state expands its powers, its bureaucrats and its fines under the guise of enacting more restrictive legislation and regulation in the name of “it’s for your own good.” The excuse is always that the state can solve our concerns and problems. 
No area of public policy is so laden with statocracy as public health. It seems as soon as any official labels something a public health issue, we get a mountain of new oversight and compliance demands. Not to mention taxes. That’s not the state’s role. The state’s role is to provide services, not promises of panaceas. The latest issue that has been stuck with the label of being a “public health” concern is that of school bullying. Calls for government programs can be heard at all levels and in all parts of the country. The calls should find deaf ears.
Yes there have been tragic incidents including suicides. And  It is the height of arrogance and audacity for elected officials to leverage those tragedies as rallying cries suggesting that state implication can prevent future tragedies. It is about time for public officials to tell the public that the responsibility for children falls on those who brought them into the world. Their parents! It is enough that everything from $7 day care to complete funding of municipal recreation programs for kids have fallen on the backs of the taxpayers. Now we have calls for federal and provincial programs to solve bullying? It’s time to say enough is enough.
Of course governments should provide the educational and persuasive tools to help educators and parents prevent bullying, and help their children cope with it. But that should be the extent of it. As federal Justice minister Rob Nicholson said, “ The tools are there.” Parents have to learn to use them.  As tragic as the reality may be, life is sometimes – in Thomas Hobbes words – “nasty and brutish.” Parents, not society, have the responsibility  for the psychological development of their children. Schools can teach, but they cannot be overseers. The basic lessons of life – of decency, compassion, coping, empathy – can only be inculcated by parents. Society as a whole does it very badly. The Soviet Union tried collective control. It didn’t work.
In the west it not only doesn’t work, but it puts a tax burden on everyone that we can no longer afford. It is one thing for example for municipalities to fund sports arenas and libraries. It is quite another for those same municipal budgets to groan under the burden of funding every conceivable type of program for kids so that government becomes an automatic babysitter. It’s almost a quarter of our municipal budgets! 
The latest debate over bullying is the same kind of over-reaching. Bullying is unfortunate, but it is not a public health issue. Most of us have had schoolyard fights. We don’t need government committees, years-long reports, and state overseers. The federal government has provided websites with suggestions and printed guides for teachers and parents. More than enough. It is time for parents to take responsibility. And it is time for public officials to be responsible and stop promising the public that everything can be solved. Everything can’t be, and it’s not  society’s responsibility to be taxed to suffocation in an effort to support baseless promises to try.
Support the stores
Next week several multinational retailers including Best Buy, Costco, the Gap, Old Navy, Guess and Walmart will be in Quebec Superior Court to argue against the OQLF’s demands that these stores add a French generic to their names. There is no precedence for this. Bill 101 provides for exceptions for trademarks and they are also protected under federal legislation.
The OQLA (Office québécois de la langue anglaise) yesterday called for public support for this court challenge. Not only in the form of public demonstrations and calls and letters to elected officials, but also support with our wallets. The OQLA has called on all who believe in language equity to back these stores by shopping there more frequently. As the OQLA stated, “we are sure they (the stores) will be rewarded with loyal shoppers this holiday season.)
Commercial freedom of expression is as much a civil rights issue as individual freedom of expression. Let us not forget that the language issue has always been, first and foremost, a civil rights issue. And let us not forget that the first victory in the American civil rights movement was won with the power of the purse, not the power of the ballot. The Birmingham Bus boycott was Dr. King’s first great victory. And the reason it worked was that the Birmingham city authorities realized their transit system would be bankrupt if African-Americans continued to boycott the buses. So the city finally caved, after trying to enforce inane ordinances that criminalized car pooling and made “slow-walking” punishable as loitering.
Every poll has demonstrated that Francophones think this latest OQLF assault is nonsense. So support these stores. Who knows, maybe they will even respond to many requests that there be sufficient English signage inside the stores as well. Two birds with one stone.