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I was recently texted by my local NDP office with regards to getting a sign for the upcoming Alberta provincial election. This is how it went:
So no, you cannot count on my vote because you are participating in the erasure of females in our society. Allow me to provide a non-circular reality based definition of the word ‘woman’. A women is an adult human female.
Play stupid identity politics games, win stupid prizes.
Neo liberal capitalistic societies tend to promote narratives that reinforce their preferred system of rules and expectations. Examining counter examples and counter-narratives is a necessary task of those who not only want to change society, but also for those who wish to improve the societal conditions in which they exist. The assumption in question is the animal dominance idea. It goes like this:
“Mammals tend to have “alpha” animals – leaders. Doesn’t this prove that monarchies are more biologically normal that self-sacrificing or consensus-based or egalitarian democracies? [..] It turns that dominace-based political and economic systems are the exception, not the rule, in the arc of human history, and they have a nasty habit of imploding every century or so, so as a succession of European, African, South American, and Asian empires show.”
[…]
“The prevailing assumption has always been that because there are identifiable “alpha” members of animal groups – from alpha males amount gorillas to alpha females among wolves – these alpha members must also exercise despotic rules over the other in the tribe, pack, or community”
[…]
“Conradt and Roper discovered that democracy always trumps despotism, both over the short and the long term. When a single leader(despot) or small group of leaders (oligarchy) make the choices, the swings into extreme behaviour tend to be greater and more dangerous to the long term survival of the group. Because in a despotic model the overall needs of the entire group are measured only by the leader’s needs, wrong decisions would be made often enough to put the survival of the group at risk.”
“With democratic decision making, however, the overall knowledge and wisdom of the entire group, along with the needs of the entire group, come into play. The outcome is likely to harm anybody, and the group’s probability of survival is enhanced. ‘Democratic decisions are more beneficial primarily because they tend to produce less extreme decisions,’ they note in the abstract to their paper.
-Hartmann, Thom. Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture pp. 118 – 120
So, these biologists (see L. Conradt and T. J. Roper’s original article here) putting forward a set of assumptions that contradict the neoliberal “despotism is the way” set of ideas about how animals organize and work (and how it ‘naturally’ occurs in human affairs as well). The democratic impulse, at least according to this paper, is alive and moderately pervasive in the mammalian kingdoms (for a quick summary check out James Randerson in the New Scientist).
I’m quite happy with these results. But that is not to say that they are necessarily the correct interpretation of all the facts of the matter. Our species tendency to pick the fact and narratives that support our own preferences is the bigger lesson to be aware of. I urge my readership to look into both accounts and judge the facts for what they say, not what we wish to them to say.
However, if we continue with democratic animal narrative we can reasonably say something along the lines of what Thom Hartmann says in the closing paragraph of that chapter.
“Those who advocate a dog-eat-dog, “survival of the fittest at the expense of society as a whole” approach to economics and governance are advocating, essentially, for cancer in our body politic. They are ignoring the surrounding environment [see corporate ‘externalities’], which demands a balanced, homeostatic, and altruistic culture. On every continent in the world we find living cultures and cultural remnants that knew this well and that developed elaborate and successful ways to prevent sociopathic individuals whose obsession centred on acquiring wealth at the expense of others, keeping others from being successful at growing and metastasizing.”
-Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture p.125
I think that there is a fair chunk of evidence that we have let the anti-democratic factions exercise too much control and power in our society. The ruthless exploitation of people and the environment in the name of progress under capitalism reveals a tendency toward the despotic cancerous nature that has typified much of capitalistic theory and practice as of late. We need to be able to explore and understand different methods of organizing our societies and perhaps swinging the pendulum more toward a society that is more altruistic and more democratic in nature.
The UCP continues to fail at governing the province of Alberta. We look to our public representatives to set an example of how to act properly during these pandemic times.
Apparently traveling to the likes of Ariziona, Mexico, and Hawaii are the behaviours the citizenry should be modelling. Because air travel is safe:
“Two more Alberta MLAs are returning home from holiday trips abroad.
Pat Rehn, the MLA for Lesser Slave Lake, posted a statement on Facebook Saturday confirming he is on his way back to Alberta from a trip to Mexico.
“Residents in our riding have done a tremendous job reducing the spread of COVID-19. We must all work together to get past this pandemic and get back to normal life,” Rehn said.
“Given this, I apologize for the fact that I recently took a previously planned family trip, following a busy legislative session. I am returning home to Alberta and will ensure I follow the premier’s new travel directive.”
A photo posted to Rehn’s Facebook account on Dec. 24 shows Rehn wearing a T-shirt in a cave, with tropical plants in the background.
Jason Stephan, MLA for Red Deer-South, is also returning from a trip to Arizona. In an emailed statement Saturday, Stephan said he flew to Phoenix on Dec. 31. He said he bought the ticket in October.”
This sort of behaviour from the party of ‘personal responsibility’.
“Allard said she has spent Christmas in Hawaii with her family for most of the past 17 years. She also said she felt she was keeping with the current health mandate through the international border testing program, which allows for a shorter quarantine period following a negative COVID-19 test.
“With all that said, however, as a minister of the Crown, I know that I’m held to a higher standard and in retrospect, I definitely made the wrong decision.”
Kenney said Allard was the only cabinet minister who left the country. The premier also confirmed Friday that Jamie Huckaby, his chief of staff, had travelled to Britain last month.
Kenney said Saturday that he takes responsibility for not being clear about travel rules.
CBC News has also confirmed that Calgary-Klein MLA Jeremy Nixon was also in Hawaii over the holidays. It is not clear when he left or whether he has returned.
Calgary-Peigan MLA Tanya Fir said on social media Friday night that she had recently been to the United States visiting her sister. In a Facebook post, she said that she has since returned and will abide by the new travel directive.”
So of course our besotted Premiere knew about his MLA’s leaving the country during a pandemic. He has never been in tune with the people of Alberta or the sacrifices they are making to stop the spread of the virus (gutting the healthcare system during a pandemic). This is a clear illustration of one set of expectations for the populace, and another for the political class.
Certainly the rules currently do not forbid international travel but why even take the risk in these unflattened curve times?
Is it Arrogance? Hubris? Or just plain stupidity?
I hope Albertans remember the mendacity demonstrated by this UCP government come election year.
The massive disparity between the social classes in the US make it difficult to find the equality as set down by their law, in their society.
“1. The United States, by the way, is fundamentally unjust. Even before the Trump Virus sparked a depression and corporate bailout that deepened inequality in the U.S., the three wealthiest Americans’ combined wealth already exceeded that of the nation’s bottom 50 percent. The top tenth of the upper U.S. One Percent already had a shared net worth greater than that of the nation’s bottom 90 percent and median Black household wealth amounted to 6 cents on the white median household dollar. The nation has long been riddled by massive, interrelated disparities of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and power that make an abject mockery of its claim to represent democracy and equality before the law. Exhaustive empirical research shows that progressive majority public opinion is close to irrelevant in the making of “public” policy, which consistently reflects the preferences of the wealthy Few and their giant corporations and financial institutions. You can learn all about this from mainstream researchers and journalists who never identify with “ideologies such as Marxism” or acknowledge that significant socioeconomic disparity and top-down class rule are inherent to the profits system.”
The US would do well to start to manage the current distribution of wealth. A country that is run for the benefit of a small elite is a society that is doomed to fail.
Here in Alberta I am really enjoying our neoconservative UCP government. They replaced a government that sough to balance economic investment and diversification with support of the public good. The UCP essentially tore up that balanced economic plan and went ‘all-in’ on ramping up the Oil & Gas industry and making building pipelines a major campaign promise.
The UCP budget forcast included oil prices to be well north of $50 a barrel. And here we are speculating that the current oil prices (April/May 2020) may hi the (negative)-40 dollars per barrel figure.
Yep, they were elected on the premise of killing the deficit and now are forecast to run some of the largest deficits in Alberta’s history. But this is nothing new for Alberta under conservative rule. Allegiance to the large business sector and Oil & Gas has always been a fixture. The people of Alberta and the public services they need have always come a distant 10th.
So, the price of Oil has now cratered and is tunneling downward toward the core. What next dear UCP?
“Alberta’s oilpatch history is full of ups and downs, dating back to the province’s first big oil rush more than 100 years ago near Turner Valley. But who would have thought oil would one day be worth less than $0?
On Monday, the price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the North American benchmark, fell more than $50 to close at negative $37.63 US.
“It’s certainly not something I ever thought I would witness,” said Matt Murphy, a Calgary-based equity research analyst with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
“I won’t wager a guess how it may trade [Tuesday]. Could it go worse than negative $40? I don’t know,” he said.
Oil companies in Western Canada and offshore Newfoundland were already drastically reducing costs, slashing payroll and pulling back on oil production in recent weeks with commodity prices hitting multi-year lows. Now, the cuts are being accelerated further with Husky Energy and Crescent Point Energy both on Monday cutting spending more than previously announced.
It was a crazy day on the markets.WTI prices swung wildly as oil traders began to panic as time runs out to get rid of oil contracts for May. The price of oil is determined by investments known as futures contracts, which are agreements to buy and sell a certain amount of oil at a certain time in the future. Typically, the contracts are bought and sold countless times before the oil is actually delivered to the final buyer.
But the May contracts are set to finalize on Tuesday, meaning anyone left holding one will have to physically receive the oil — and storage options are filling up, especially in the U.S. Midwest. No one wants to be stuck with the oil and traders were willing to take heavy losses to ditch the contracts before they come due.”
It galls me the level of disregard for our society being exhibited by our Alberta UCP government. The naked capitulation to business interests over the public well being is infuriating.
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