[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > it has to do as well with the government having given up on the > concept that they are even vaguely responsible for the protection of > its citizens. I'm no longer sure they still even acknowledge any > responsibilities.
It's inevitable, given the path that the citizens have (at least implicitly) endorsed, namely bigger, faster, cheaper and gimme more. This is one of the central head-scratchers for Canadians, with reference to our neighbours: you in one breath proclaim that too much government is bad, yet in the next you still express a desire for government to, in essence, protect you from yourselves. How you expect your government to do both, eludes us. On a wider note, it is also insanely ironical that the generation now 'in charge' of this meltdown is none other than the hippie generation. The hippie movement was always loaded down with fascists, a fact its membership continues to actively repress from the general history and public mythology of the time. It is no wonder that, when given the opportunity to be robber barons instead of unwashed burners of university ROTC offices, they have chosen to screw everyone but themselves into the ground. As big a problem as ENRON may have been, it was only one small symptom of the bigger disease. In this respect the U.S. and Canada are the same: the increasing gap between the rich and poor, put alongside the 'culture of contentment' (big homes, two SUVs in the driveway, overly empowered teenagers, etc.) is a recipe for more chaos, to mention of social meltdown should another continental catastrophe occur. Witness events yesterday afternoon where I live, Aylmer, a town of maybe 70,000 across the river from Canada's capital, Ottawa. When gas prices shot up, two stations (same oil company) on the main street for some reason did no hike their prices, so I guess they were pumping for 90c/gal under everyone else. My god, remember the old news pics of the frantic chaos at the start of the first 'oil crisis'? Now I've seen it. The police had to be called to restore order. When I drove by at about 5 p.m. there were probably 20 cars at the one station, 30-40 at the other, all crammed in, in different directions, people angry, waits were probably 30-60 minutes easy. (By those numbers I am counting only those cars on the station lot. There were lineups in both directions, on both sides of the street.) But HERE is the kicker: I would have expected to see the SUV and pickups owners in line. They would have saved a bundle. Nope, all small cars, Korean and old Japanese beaters. That to me said a lot about how the social dynamics of any coming crisis will play out. Mac
