Utter Affirmation, a Canadian Idealistical Manifesto
@utteraffirmation.bsky.social
pWc 🇨🇦 takes this idea through its continuing evolution, presenting the KnICH Manifesto piece by piece.
Our June series now comes to an end. Tomorrow we start a new one, honouring Canada day and launching Canada History Month, 31 days of vignettes in context to illustrate what a fine ripping tale we have in our past and can anticipate in our future. It is an epic in our own style, and we will tell it.
June 30, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Our June series now comes to an end. Tomorrow we start a new one, honouring Canada day and launching Canada History Month, 31 days of vignettes in context to illustrate what a fine ripping tale we have in our past and can anticipate in our future. It is an epic in our own style, and we will tell it.
June has taken us through sundry measures arising from application of the MUDL Model. I propose these and a few others as a Nation-Building Project. More about the others anon. We don't need a revolution. Evolution by increments is okay. We are doing well, but better beckons. No fear, only resolve.
June 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
June has taken us through sundry measures arising from application of the MUDL Model. I propose these and a few others as a Nation-Building Project. More about the others anon. We don't need a revolution. Evolution by increments is okay. We are doing well, but better beckons. No fear, only resolve.
How can we, sanely, continue to demand more & better public services, for the good of us all, & at the same time lower & less justly distributed taxes? When privateers demand higher prices, we grumble, but we pay. When our public services need more money, we howl, & we vote not to pay. This is nuts.
June 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
How can we, sanely, continue to demand more & better public services, for the good of us all, & at the same time lower & less justly distributed taxes? When privateers demand higher prices, we grumble, but we pay. When our public services need more money, we howl, & we vote not to pay. This is nuts.
Our newly refreshed Canadian Government now uses "nation-building projects" for those it deems desirable. This is an excellent innovation, with much potential. What better n.b.p. than a complete overhaul of our social safety net to make it a stronger expression of our social nationhood! Coinonics!
June 27, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Our newly refreshed Canadian Government now uses "nation-building projects" for those it deems desirable. This is an excellent innovation, with much potential. What better n.b.p. than a complete overhaul of our social safety net to make it a stronger expression of our social nationhood! Coinonics!
It is useful to see "education" as the art of teaching skills: intellectual, practical, social, etc. How do we do that, in the face of powerful, hobbling, anti-intellectual, anti-social, even anti-practical interests who profit from unthinking, passive, isolated people? By total reform of schooling?
June 26, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It is useful to see "education" as the art of teaching skills: intellectual, practical, social, etc. How do we do that, in the face of powerful, hobbling, anti-intellectual, anti-social, even anti-practical interests who profit from unthinking, passive, isolated people? By total reform of schooling?
Tension between practical needs to partition our world for reasons of administration and governance, and the unruly, unpartitioned nature of that world, constantly bedevils our public services, politics, and reportage. Nowhere is this more apparent than in health care. Strength to all de-silo-ers!
June 25, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Tension between practical needs to partition our world for reasons of administration and governance, and the unruly, unpartitioned nature of that world, constantly bedevils our public services, politics, and reportage. Nowhere is this more apparent than in health care. Strength to all de-silo-ers!
The situation in this country is better than elsewhere, in this respect as in others. It is painful to watch what is happening in the US, but a useful lesson on the vigilance required to protect our democratic and civil institutions. We learn it is possible to vote our way out of meaningful voting.
June 24, 2025 at 12:47 PM
The situation in this country is better than elsewhere, in this respect as in others. It is painful to watch what is happening in the US, but a useful lesson on the vigilance required to protect our democratic and civil institutions. We learn it is possible to vote our way out of meaningful voting.
The involvement of capable, energetic private enterprises in socially useful work like providing employment and housing is convenient, but not sufficient. We need capable, energetic public enterprises to fill the inevitable gaps, which are substantial. Over-delegation erodes public capacities.
June 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM
The involvement of capable, energetic private enterprises in socially useful work like providing employment and housing is convenient, but not sufficient. We need capable, energetic public enterprises to fill the inevitable gaps, which are substantial. Over-delegation erodes public capacities.
A vast array of fragmented, often bureaucratically laden measures now suggest that no one in Canada need starve or live in abject absolute poverty. Petty intrusive measures taken to police eligibility are inefficient & soul-destroying for clients, workers & society at large. Better ways are known.
June 22, 2025 at 3:27 PM
A vast array of fragmented, often bureaucratically laden measures now suggest that no one in Canada need starve or live in abject absolute poverty. Petty intrusive measures taken to police eligibility are inefficient & soul-destroying for clients, workers & society at large. Better ways are known.
An irony of our age: As our means and ease of communication increase far beyond any precedent, our actual effective communication wanes, simply because our capacity to receive, to "listen", to pay attention, cannot possibly keep up. This fundamental democratic unsolved riddle persists and grows.
June 21, 2025 at 4:41 PM
An irony of our age: As our means and ease of communication increase far beyond any precedent, our actual effective communication wanes, simply because our capacity to receive, to "listen", to pay attention, cannot possibly keep up. This fundamental democratic unsolved riddle persists and grows.
The capacity of private businesses to employ people is of great social importance. Consumers who would prefer to support those who employ well, and to spurn the others, how do they find out which is which? Who will take on the duty to inform, to carry out some form of accreditation for this purpose?
June 20, 2025 at 3:24 PM
The capacity of private businesses to employ people is of great social importance. Consumers who would prefer to support those who employ well, and to spurn the others, how do they find out which is which? Who will take on the duty to inform, to carry out some form of accreditation for this purpose?
By far the most important and threatening screwed-up mess in Canadian culture is the idea that we can dump anything left over from our monumental consumptions anywhere we like. Consumers, producers, and all governments need to take responsibility and get their acts together. Or else ...
June 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
By far the most important and threatening screwed-up mess in Canadian culture is the idea that we can dump anything left over from our monumental consumptions anywhere we like. Consumers, producers, and all governments need to take responsibility and get their acts together. Or else ...
It is beyond absurd that our metropolitan cities, striving for greatness, should be hobbled by provisions designed 175 years ago for rural pioneer conditions. Surely it is time to free them from interference by provincial politicians. Let them negotiate as constitutional equals, not as subordinates.
June 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
It is beyond absurd that our metropolitan cities, striving for greatness, should be hobbled by provisions designed 175 years ago for rural pioneer conditions. Surely it is time to free them from interference by provincial politicians. Let them negotiate as constitutional equals, not as subordinates.
Indigenous peoples (note plural) think and believe in their own ways. They have complex perspectives in which old and new knowledge mingle distinctively. The idea that Canada is shared land is present in our traditions and laws but not well established in our institutions. To reconcile is intricate.
June 17, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Indigenous peoples (note plural) think and believe in their own ways. They have complex perspectives in which old and new knowledge mingle distinctively. The idea that Canada is shared land is present in our traditions and laws but not well established in our institutions. To reconcile is intricate.
Despite the king's signal service to Canada this year, he remains an anachronism, no longer remotely able to symbolize the country, as a monarch should. Not that any one person possibly could. Our head of state has a limited role; an official like the GG elected periodically by Parliament would do.
June 16, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Despite the king's signal service to Canada this year, he remains an anachronism, no longer remotely able to symbolize the country, as a monarch should. Not that any one person possibly could. Our head of state has a limited role; an official like the GG elected periodically by Parliament would do.
An awesome pall of solemnity lies over much of our discourse on public affairs. The voices of reporters and announcers assure us that today's events are of grave importance. They are in fact tiny blips in the long evolving tale of sapient humanity, our embedded species. A little perspective, please.
June 15, 2025 at 3:12 PM
An awesome pall of solemnity lies over much of our discourse on public affairs. The voices of reporters and announcers assure us that today's events are of grave importance. They are in fact tiny blips in the long evolving tale of sapient humanity, our embedded species. A little perspective, please.
Politicians' "promises" tell us what they would like to do, not what they will do if elected. That depends on what they can do, which in turn depends on what we collectively by our interest and advocacy will let them do. We are in charge of their "promises". We are accountable, or ought to be.
June 14, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Politicians' "promises" tell us what they would like to do, not what they will do if elected. That depends on what they can do, which in turn depends on what we collectively by our interest and advocacy will let them do. We are in charge of their "promises". We are accountable, or ought to be.
Canada's national story, like any other or even more so, is a complex tangle of inter-related stories churning away in a perpetual frenzy of narrative glee. ANY single pulse will be woefully inadequate to the whole, no matter what its drama and local importance. It is the whole that matters most.
June 13, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Canada's national story, like any other or even more so, is a complex tangle of inter-related stories churning away in a perpetual frenzy of narrative glee. ANY single pulse will be woefully inadequate to the whole, no matter what its drama and local importance. It is the whole that matters most.
Canada's story may in fact be "the conquest of nature for the use of man" but need not, must not stay that way. Nature is not there to be used in that brutal sense, but to be cultivated and preserved for itself and our continued human and humane existence: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
June 12, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Canada's story may in fact be "the conquest of nature for the use of man" but need not, must not stay that way. Nature is not there to be used in that brutal sense, but to be cultivated and preserved for itself and our continued human and humane existence: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
Another mad urge has us arguing vehemently over either-or's that are plainly in fact both-and's. Individual vs. Collective is a prime example. We would be in a sad way if either were neglected or allowed to get out of balance. The operative image is juggling, not mechanics. The skill can be learned.
June 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Another mad urge has us arguing vehemently over either-or's that are plainly in fact both-and's. Individual vs. Collective is a prime example. We would be in a sad way if either were neglected or allowed to get out of balance. The operative image is juggling, not mechanics. The skill can be learned.
The mad urge to turn complex things into simplicities contributes significantly to polarization & the decay of discourse. Some politicians may be incurable, but news media should not be, public ones like the CBC must not be. We can help by challenging simplistism in reportage, & by our own research.
June 10, 2025 at 1:25 PM
The mad urge to turn complex things into simplicities contributes significantly to polarization & the decay of discourse. Some politicians may be incurable, but news media should not be, public ones like the CBC must not be. We can help by challenging simplistism in reportage, & by our own research.
The everyday idealism of Canadians is complex, often masked by difficulties of articulation. The reflex reaction of many to sneer at it makes people shy, and its perverse manifestations in the public media do not help. By nature ideals are always constrained, social justice ever an unsolved riddle.
June 9, 2025 at 12:42 PM
The everyday idealism of Canadians is complex, often masked by difficulties of articulation. The reflex reaction of many to sneer at it makes people shy, and its perverse manifestations in the public media do not help. By nature ideals are always constrained, social justice ever an unsolved riddle.
Marshall Mcluhan tells us that first we shape our tools and then our tools shape us. Considering the kinds of tools we are shaping these days, that should be a scary thought. It is not. We are routinely invited to fear many things, but not that, and we don't want to fear it. Perhaps we should, more.
June 9, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Marshall Mcluhan tells us that first we shape our tools and then our tools shape us. Considering the kinds of tools we are shaping these days, that should be a scary thought. It is not. We are routinely invited to fear many things, but not that, and we don't want to fear it. Perhaps we should, more.
The need to remain wide-lensed applies both individually and collectively in relation to the environments within which we live, which are inevitably and resolutely coinonic. When we assume narrow perspectives we contradict blatant reality and harm ourselves and our surroundings.
June 7, 2025 at 11:39 AM
The need to remain wide-lensed applies both individually and collectively in relation to the environments within which we live, which are inevitably and resolutely coinonic. When we assume narrow perspectives we contradict blatant reality and harm ourselves and our surroundings.
"... the truth is not in the middle and not in one extreme but in both extremes. I see you are filled with amazement, and doubting whether I am in my sober senses." Charles Simeon, 1825. Not drunk, not crazy, he states a beautiful idea that we should absorb into our gropings for the collective "we".
June 6, 2025 at 2:47 PM
"... the truth is not in the middle and not in one extreme but in both extremes. I see you are filled with amazement, and doubting whether I am in my sober senses." Charles Simeon, 1825. Not drunk, not crazy, he states a beautiful idea that we should absorb into our gropings for the collective "we".