STRAUSS. . . BERNS. . . HARPER: Our Charter of Rights???

[Oscar]

Conservative Scholar Helped Shape Stephen Harper's Worldview

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/24/Co ... rper_Dies/ ]

Walter Berns inspired a generation of Alberta conservatives.

By Donald Gutstein, 24 Jan 2015, TheTyee.ca

Walter Berns, an American constitutional scholar, who once taught in Canada and helped shape a band of conservative disciples in Alberta -- including Stephen Harper -- has died at age 95. Berns died Jan. 10 at his home in Bethesda, Maryland.

One of Berns' most lasting legacies may have been to foment Harper's disdain for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

When Harper turned his back on the charter's 25th and 30th anniversaries he was following in Berns' footsteps. Berns refused to accept the validity of any political rights not contained in the nation's founding documents.

Berns was a prominent student of Leo Strauss, (1899-1973) the German political philosopher whose writings rose in notoriety when it came to light that the neoconservatives in George W. Bush's administration used Strauss's intellectual philosophy to hoodwink Americans into invading Iraq. Among other things, Strauss argued that those in power have the right to lie to the masses to achieve their means.

Berns taught at the University of Toronto in the 1970s, where he mentored Rainer Knopff and Ted Morton, two conservative scholars who would lead the opposition to the Charter.

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[ http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Media/2 ... s_Freedom/ ]

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[ http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/01/30/Charter/ ]
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Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy
[ http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/11/29/HarperBush/ ]
Close advisers schooled in 'the noble lie' and 'regime change.'

Read more: Federal Politics,


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2005 - Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy

[ http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/11/29/HarperBush/ ]

Close advisers schooled in 'the noble lie' and 'regime change.'

By Donald Gutstein, 29 Nov 2005, TheTyee.ca

What do close advisors to Stephen Harper and George W. Bush have in common? They reflect the disturbing teachings of Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish émigré who spawned the neoconservative movement.

Strauss, who died in 1973, believed in the inherent inequality of humanity. Most people, he famously taught, are too stupid to make informed decisions about their political affairs. Elite philosophers must decide on affairs of state for us.

In Washington, Straussians exert powerful influence from within the inner circle of the White House. In Canada, they roost, for now, in the so-called Calgary School, guiding Harper in framing his election strategies. What preoccupies Straussians in both places is the question of "regime change."

Strauss defined a regime as a set of governing ideas, institutions and traditions. The neoconservatives in the Bush administration, who secretly conspired to make the invasion of Iraq a certainty, had a precise plan for regime change. They weren't out to merely replace Saddam with an American puppet. They planned to make the system more like the U.S., with an electoral process that can be manipulated by the elites, corporate control over the levers of power and socially conservative values.

Usually regime change is imposed on a country from outside through violent means, such as invasion. On occasion, it occurs within a country through civil war. After the American Civil War, a new regime was imposed on the Deep South by the North, although the old regime was never entirely replaced.

Is regime change possible through the electoral process? It's happening in the U.S., where the neocons are succeeding in transforming the American state from a liberal democracy into a corporatist, theocratic regime. As Canada readies for a federal election, the question must be asked: Are we next?

MORE:

[ http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/11/29/HarperBush/ ]

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DOBBIN: Downsize Democracy for 40 Years, Here's What You Get

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/26/Do ... -40-Years/ ]

New signs civilization is veering towards collapse.

By Murray Dobbin, 26 Jan 2015, TheTyee.ca

EXCERPT:

Careening towards collapse?

How far down the road to collapse are we? For my generation not so far that we will see the worst of it. But what is alarming is that all the signs are so dramatically obvious. And while the mainstream media isn't yet talking about the end of our world, the issue of grotesque inequality and unsustainable resource depletion are somewhere in the media almost every week. Indeed inequality in particular has been a hot topic ever since the Occupy movement briefly swept the planet. Yet if you monitor the political debate in this country the two most important trends in our society and the world are virtually never mentioned except rhetorically. There are no serious policy prescriptions. Mass denial reigns. Or, as Freud stated, we are "knowing without knowing."

Regarding income (and wealth) inequality, a 2010 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed that the top one per cent claimed close to a third of all income growth during the decade from 1997 to 2007. "That's a bigger piece of the action than any other generation of rich Canadians has taken," said Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA's senior economist and author of the report. "The last time Canada's elite held so much of the nation's income in their hands was in the 1920s. Even then, their incomes didn't soar as fast as they are today. It's a first in Canadian history and it underscores a dramatic reversal of long-term trends."

Internationally, the picture is just as bad or worse. Earlier this month Oxfam released a report revealing: "The combined wealth of the world's richest one per cent will overtake that of the remaining 99 per cent by 2016.... " The wealthiest one per cent -- amounting to 72 million people -- already owns 48 per cent of all global wealth. This trend continues to accelerate, flying in the face of all the evidence that it could ultimately be fatal for capitalism.

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[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/26/Do ... -40-Years/ ]