Letters to the Editor
Xeynon
Published Letters: 11 Editor's Choice: 1
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How predictable...
[Read the article: Northern exposure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No offence but an American with enough sense to flee a pointless military occupation is still an American. Nice to have as a visitor now and then but not really that great as a neighbour. Stay at home and fight for what you believe in.
How predictable. An article about U.S./Canada relations prompts snide America bashing from smug Canadians. A few points -
1.)Canada hasn't historically treated its aboriginals any better than the U.S. has treated its minorities.
2.)Quebecois and English speaking Canadians don't get along any better than English speaking Americans and Spanish speaking Hispanics. In fact, a significant percentage of Canada's population doesn't even think it should be a unified country.
3.)You elected Stephen Harper, a.k.a. the Canadian George Bush.
Canada does some things better than the U.S. (hockey, drug laws, healthcare, good manners, etc.), but let's not pretend its Shangri-La, okay? It has its problems too.
Now, about the U.S. You think we're a bad neighbor? Well, our countries do share the world's longest undefended border and there hasn't been a war between us in nearly 200 years. I don't know if you've studied your world history but that is utterly unprecedented. Try living next to the USSR, the Roman Empire, the Han Chinese, Nazi Germany, ancient Athens, or any other superpower in history, and I guarantee you'd feel more pain than you do now.
Furthermore, a great deal of your economic prosperity you owe to trade with the U.S., your best students all study here, far more of your citizens move here than the reverse, you import huge quantities of consumer goods and raw materials from the U.S., the reason you haven't historically needed a large military to defend the world's second largest amount of territory is that you always had the luxury of knowing that no one would dare f**k with you for fear of pissing off your rather formidable ally to the south, CAN-CON regulations aside much of your culture is derivative of American culture, etc. Canada wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is without the U.S., and you know it.
Don't get me wrong. I love Canada, many of my best friends are Canadians, and I think I can safely say I know far more about it than 99% of Americans. It's a great country. But one of its major flaws is the self-satisfied, holier-than-thou attitude shared by a certain segment of its population, which is reflected in your post. Americans aren't the only ones capable of being knee-jerk nationalist idiots. The Canadian version can wrap their condescension in the Maple Leaf and shove it up their *sses for what this American cares.
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Oops...
[Read the article: Northern exposure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry about the double post... Regardless of which side of the border you're on I think we can agree that's annoying.
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Xeynon
[Read the article: God grief]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Belief in that which cannot be proven is a disorder, and the sooner the rest of society accepts that, the better for everyone.
How about your belief that our sense perceptions (and hence are science) are accurate? Your belief that God didn't plant the fossils of the dinosaurs to have a joke on humanity? Your belief that GWB and not an alien simulacrum is actually the President? Your belief that we're not all just brains in jars being fed a series of preprogrammed hallucinations? You can't PROVE any of these things. Every human being - atheists included - has unprovable foundational beliefs. Only the very hubristic, foolish, or simpleminded fail to comprehend this. Science recognizes this - it operates on theories, hypotheses, principles, laws, etc. Nowhere in the scientific method does the word "fact" appear - and with good reason. I believe it was Einstein who said something to the effect that "there are a million experiments that can prove me wrong, but not one that can ever prove me right."
Actively atheistic (as opposed to institutionally secular) societies have been tried a few times (revolutionary France, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, the Khmer Rouge). The one thing that all these experiments have in common is horrendous bloodshed and oppression. Given that more than >90% of humanity believes in some sort of spiritual or transcendant reality, and religious belief may very well be a part of human nature, hoping for its disappearance is wishful thinking. As with any other fundamental human need, the solution is not to attempt the impossible by abolishing it, but to pursue a solution which makes believer and nonbeliever alike relatively happy - something which has been accomplished in large portions of Europe, North America, and East Asia. If you people would focus on the practical good rather than wasting your time despising those who disagree with you about abstractions, you might contribute to achieving this practical good.