Mediaboss Marketing

Breadcrumb Trail Links

The country is growing more authoritarian in response to fear

Publishing date:

I spent more than three hours on the phone this weekend trying to get through to the online security department of one of Canadas major banks. One of my accounts was shut down (because I had the effrontery to sign in from Alberta an event too unexpected for the banks security systems). I was placed on hold interminably, subjected all the while to the corporate worlds idea of music (to soothe me). I was then offered a call-back, which I duly received, 45 minutes later. Then I was placed on hold again, and again, and again. This all occurred after my patience had already been exhausted in the aftermath of trying to fly in Canada.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Like so many Canadians, I have been unable to see many of the people I love and who are tolerant enough to return the sentiment for nearly two years. Lockdowns. Restrictions. Limits on personal and social gatherings. Precautions. Precautions. Precautions.

But everything had opened enough, in principle, so flights for such purposes were in principle once again possible. My wife and I therefore took the opportunity on the last day of 2021 to fly first to Comox, British Columbia, and then, several days later, to our joint hometown of Fairview, Alberta. However, the airline we had arranged our flights with cancelled/delayed all six flights we had scheduled. Furthermore, they had no staff available in one entire wing of Edmontons airport. This made rescheduling prohibitively difficult. We were delayed by one full day travelling to British Columbia, and then another day travelling to Alberta (and there were further delays on our way home to Toronto). This took quite a chunk out of an eight-day trip. All this from an airline that not so long ago was a model of efficiency.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Like most people in Canada, and in the broader Western world, my wife and I are accustomed to systems that work. When we booked flights in the past, with rare exceptions, we arrived safely and on time. When we used our banking systems, online, we gained access to our accounts. When we had to phone security, because of a log-in problem, we were able to talk to someone who was able to help. And, because we were spoiled Westerners, we expected that such would always and consistently be the case. Why? Because, by and large, our systems worked. Miraculously well. The power (and the heat its forty below here in northern Alberta, and has been for three weeks) always worked. Planes took off and landed on time. Banks were open and effective and honest.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

But there are empty shelves in the grocery stores here in Fairview. The supply chain that provides our food just in time are severely stressed. While I was here, I spoke with a local restaurateur who operates the pizza place I worked in forty years ago. She is barely hanging on. This is true of most local businesses.

I was on the phone for three hours trying to sort out a minor banking issue, after being delayed for a full day while flying, after having been delayed in a similar way only four days before. And, because I am an entitled Westerner, accustomed to my privileges, I got whiny about it. I have a banker that takes care of my affairs, and I sent him and his associate a string of complaints about the service I was receiving. They wrote back, apologetically, and told me that theyre barely able to function with the COVID restrictions, the attendant staff shortages (also caused by illness) and their inability to attract new employees a problem besetting many industries at the moment.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

I am not accustomed to feeling particularly sympathetic for the travails of large, successful enterprises: banks, airlines, utilities and the like. I expect a certain standard of service, so that I can conduct my own affairs effectively, and am impatient when delays unnecessary in the normal course of things emerge. The letter from the bank stopped me and made me think, however. It wasnt just the bank. It was also the airline. It was the empty shelves in the grocery store in northern Alberta. It was the daughter of the man I once worked for as a cook, back when I was a teenager. It was the shopkeepers and small business-people I have spoken with on this trip.

We are pushing the complex systems upon which we depend and which are miraculously effective and efficient in their often thankless operation to their breaking point. Can you think of anything more unlikely than the fact that we can get instant trouble-free access to our money online, using systems that are virtually graft- and corruption-free? Just imagine how much work, trust and efficiency was and is necessary to make that a reality. Can you think of anything more unlikely than fast, reliable and inexpensive jet air travel, nationally and internationally, in absolute safety? Or the constant provision of almost every consumer good imaginable, in the midst of plentiful, varied and inexpensive food?

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

These systems are now shaking. Were compromising them seriously with this unending and unpredictable stream of restrictions, lockdowns, regulations and curfews. Were also undermining our entire monetary system, with the provision of unending largesse from government coffers, to ease the stress of the COVID response. Were playing with fire. Weve demolished two Christmas seasons in a row. Life is short. These are rare occasions. Were stopping kids from attending school. Were sowing mistrust in our institutions in a seriously dangerous manner. Were frightening people to make them comply. Were producing bureaucratic institutions that hypothetically hold public health in the highest regard, but subordinating all our properly political institutions to that end, because we lack leadership, and rely on ultimately unreliable opinion polls to govern broadscale political policy. Ive never seen breakdown in institutional trust on this scale before in my lifetime.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

I was recently in Nashville, Tennessee. No lockdowns. No masks. No COVID regulations to speak of. People are going about their lives. Why can that be the case in Tennessee (and in other U.S. states, such as Florida) when there are curfews (curfews!) in Quebec, two years after the pandemic started, with a vaccination rate of nearly 80 per cent? When BC is still limiting social gatherings? When we are putting tremendous and unsustainable strain on all the complex systems that have served us so well, and made us so comfortable, in the midst of the troubles of our lives?

The cure has become worse than the disease.

I have spoken with senior advisors to provincial governments in Canada. There is no end game in sight. The idea that Canadian policy is or should be governed by the science is not only not true, its also not possible, as there is no simple pathway from the facts of science to the complexities of policy. We are deciding, by opinion poll, to live in fear, and to become increasingly authoritarian in response to that fear. Thats a danger, too, and its increasingly real. How long are we going to flail about, hiding behind our masks, afraid to send our children (who are in no danger more serious than risk of the flu) to school, charging university students full tuition for tenth-rate online education, pitting family member against family member over vaccine policy and, most seriously, compromising the great economic engine upon which our health also depends?

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Until we decide not to.

There are no risk-free paths forward. There is only one risk, or another. Pick your poison: thats the choice life often offers. I am weary of living under the increasingly authoritarian dictates of a polity hyper-concerned with one risk, and oblivious to all others. And things are shaking around us.

Enough, Canadians. Enough, Canadian politicos. Enough masks. Enough social gathering limitations. Enough restaurant closures. Enough undermining of social trust. Make the bloody vaccines available to those who want them. Quit using force to ensure compliance on the part of those who dont. Some of the latter might be crazy but, by and large, they are no crazier than the rest of us.

Set a date. Open the damn country back up, before we wreck something we cant fix.

Time for some courage.

Lets live again.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

View original post here:
Jordan Peterson: Open the damn country back up, before Canadians wreck something we cant fix - National Post

Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life

January 14, 2021

Few psychologists have garnered more attention in the past five years than Jordan Peterson, whose YouTube channel has amassed 4.4 million subscribers and social media feeds have attracted millions more. Petersons online personality courses have enrolled more than 40,000 students and his books have sold millions of copies across the globe. Among them is 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which became a bestseller after being published in 2018 and has been translated into 45 languages.

In the new bookJordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life,Word on Fire FellowMatthew Petrusek, Ph.D., provides a systematic analysis, from a Christian perspective, of Petersons biblical series on YouTube and12 Rules for Life. The epilogue examens its sequel,Beyond Order.

Prof. Petrusek is an associate professor of theological ethics at Loyola Marymount University and co-authored the book with LMU philosophy professor Christopher Kaczor, Ph.D.

Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity was recently published by the Word on Fire Institute.

IACS spoke to Prof. Petrusek about the book.

Why did you write this book?

Working with Dr. Chris Kaczor, I wanted to speak to two audiences at the same time. First, to committed Christians, I wanted to highlight how Petersons work has been wildly successful in making the biblical understanding of reality, humanity and morality attractive to a secularized, post-Christian culture. To Petersons many non-Christian followers, I wanted to show how orthodox Catholicism completes and fixes the areas in Petersons thought that, in my view, need more philosophical and theological development and refinement.

How do Jordan Peterson and his work fit into the search for a meaningful life?

Petersons lectures and books address many different topics. However, one unifying theme in all of them is that life is not only meaningful but also that meaning is objective. It is not merely an individual or social construct. It is embedded in reality. That is boilerplate philosophical and theological material for Catholics, but Peterson has made it sound revolutionarily liberating to secular ears.

Peterson is a controversial and divisive figure. How has that controversy shaped the public perception of his works and thought?

I dont think Petersons work is controversial and divisive two terms that have taken on almost entirely subjective meaning in the past few decades. To be sure, an influential cadre of media, business, and academic voices have spoken loudly and very negatively about Peterson. However, in my view, they have not seriously engaged his arguments and, even less, shown evidence why his positions are wrong. Rather, their hostility to Peterson seems to be ideologically driven. As a Catholic, I do not agree with everything Peterson has said or written; that is why, in great part, I co-wrote the book. However, also as a Catholic, I do not find his principal arguments to be controversial or divisive.

Do you think Peterson has been effective at re-introducing the Bible and God into secular culture and, if so, why?

Yes. I think many secularists are drawn to Peterson, first, because he is a man of science and science is one thing, perhaps the only thing, that many secularists take seriously. So if a scientist can find such great meaning in the Bible, maybe they can, too. Second, Peterson, like the podcaster Joe Rogan, is not afraid to follow the truth wherever it leads, or, at least, where he thinks it leads. He is intellectually curious but also profoundly concerned with finding a good answer to his questions (that is, not just curious for the sake of curiosity). That combination of authenticity, intellectual openness, and moral seriousness is a rarity and will draw many peoples attention. Third, although Catholicism has always read the Bible with an ear to all its levels of meaning, Peterson has opened the biblical text to meanings that secular audiences (and poorly catechized Christian audiences) were not previously aware of. In fact, one lesson I think the Peterson phenomenon teaches Catholics is what a poor job we, both laity and clergy, have done in communicating the moral and spiritual richness of scripture. Happily, there has been a Catholic intellectual renaissance blossoming the past several years that has been reintroducing the beauty and brilliance of the Bible to the culture. Bishop Robert Barrons Word on Fire apostolate has been at the forefront of this movement.

From your perspective, how have Petersons thoughts and attitude toward God changed over time?

It is very hard to say where Petersons explorations will take him. It seems the experience of his wifes sudden healing from cancer and her devotion to the rosary has had a significant effect on him. But, of course, conversion is only a decision between God and the individual. All the same, I think of him, sometimes, as a contemporary St. Augustine of Hippo who is gradually thinking his way into orthodox Catholicism, yet still privately saying for now, to paraphrase St. Augustine in the Confessions, Make me a believer Lordbut just not yet!

Editors Note: Follow Prof. Petrusek on Twitter @MattPetrusek.

Read the original:
Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and...">Scholar Q&A: Matthew Petrusek, Ph.D. > Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and...

Joe Rogan is starting his year with steak. Lots and lots of steak. The podcaster and MMA commentator announced on Instagram that he will be adhering to the carnivore diet for the entire month of January, a challenge that he has previously participated in which involves eating nothing but meat. This time, however, he is making one minor adjustment.

"January is world carnivore month," he wrote in the caption. "This time Im adding fruit to this diet. Just meat and fruit for the whole month."

The meat-only meal plan generated a lot of buzz in 2018, when Jordan Peterson revealed that he and his daughter Mikhaila live on only steak, water, and the occasional glass of bourbon, and that they have both seen positive health results as an outcome.

Writer Jack Crosbie tried the carnivore diet back in 2018 when it was blowing up as a phenomenon, and documented his experiences. He lost 10 pounds, but also felt so weak and nauseated during a boxing workout that he nearly threw up. "I have zero energy and it feels, literally, like Im punching under water," he said. "Every time I get hit with a body shot, it feels like Im going to vomit out the entire bag of cement (three days of steak) in my stomach."

While nobody is arguing that protein isn't important when it comes to building strength and muscle, eliminating vegetables from your diet as a source of nutrition is a lot harder to justify. "The removal of all vegetables is not something I would personally recommend, said clinical dietitian Scott Hemingway. "Theres very little science if any science to support any negative effects of consuming vegetables on our overall diet... If people find things that make them feel better or that works for them, Im all for supporting that. However, there really is no science to back these claims currently, and theres definitely no research to determine the potential long-term effects, whether beneficial or harmful, on a fad diet like this."

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Dietitian Abby Langer, R.D. agreed, telling Men's Health: "Even keto or Atkinsas limited as they arestill include vegetables, and you can still have some low-sugar fruits. But the philosophy of carnivore is that carbs, fruits, and vegetables arent healthy. Yes, youll lose a lot of weight... But thats because youre cutting out every other food except for protein."

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

View original post here:
Joe Rogan Says He's Back on the Carnivore Diet - menshealth.com

Lightspring / Shutterstock

Since October 2017, we have featured The Daily Devils Dictionary that appeared five times a week. In 2022, it will appear on a weekly basis on Wednesdays. We will shortly be announcing a new collaborative feature that extends our approach to deconstructing the language of the media.

Besides the Eiffel Tower and foie gras, France is known for having produced an intellectual class that, over the centuries, from Diderots Encylopdie to Derridas critical theory, has successfully exported its products to the rest of the world.

Frances intellectual history demonstrates that alongside traditional social classes, a nation may cultivate something called the intellectual class, a loose network of people who collectively produce ideas about society that are no longer restricted to the traditional categories of philosophy, science and literature. Prominent intellectuals merge all three in their quest to interpret the complexity of the world and human history.

READ MORE

French intellectuals are perceived as floating freely in the media landscape. American intellectuals, in contrast, tend to be tethered to universities or think tanks. They publish and sometimes appear in the media, but with a serious disadvantage, having tocompete in shaping public discourse with far more influential media personalities such as Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson or even Tucker Carlson.

A stale historical clich compares Europe with ancient Greece and the US with the Roman Empire. Rome and the US both produced a vibrant and distinct popular culture, with a taste for gaudy spectacle and superficial entertainment. But in Roman times, plebeian culture co-existed with a patrician culture cultivated by Romes ruling class. Modern democracy roundly rejects the very idea of a ruling class. Commercialism has turned out to be the great equalizer. Everyone in America is expected to share the same culture of movies, TV and popular music. The same applies to popular ideas, whether political, scientific or economic.

Amy Wax is a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who is not shy about expressing her ideas, notably her updated version of class differences. She is convinced that what she calls bourgeois culture replaced Romes patrician culture in the US but is in danger of extinction. Wax believes everyone in the US, including recent immigrants, should share that culture. Anyone who resists should be excluded. She also thinks that race and ethnicity are reliable indicators of the capacity of immigrants to conform.

As a young woman, Wax paced the halls and absorbed the wisdom spouted in lectures at Yale, Oxford, Harvard and Columbia University. Along the way, she amassed the kind of elite educational experience that identifies her as a distinguished exemplar of the modern intellectual class. With such impeccable credentials, it is fair to assume that she is not only well-informed but has learned the fine art of responsible thinking, a quality the media attributes to such luminaries.

So could it have come about that such a distinguished thinker and ranking member of the intellectual class should now be accused of sharing the kind of white supremacist attitude Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale) famously attributed to the basket of deplorables? The intellectual class in the US uniformly and loudly rejects all forms of racism. If Wax expresses ideas that echo racist theses, it would indicate that she is betraying her own intellectual class. Appropriately, her university acknowledged her betrayal when it condemned her xenophobic and white supremacist discourse.

In a podcast in late December, Wax went beyond her previously expressed belief that the US would be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites. On that earlier occasion, she specifically targeted blacks, whom she categorizes as intellectually inferior. This time, she took aim at Asians, whose reputation for academic excellence and scientific achievement most people admire. She justified her attack in these terms: As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.

When the host of the podcast, Professor Glenn Loury, questioned her logic, she evoked the danger of the dominance of an Asian elite in this country who may change the culture. Waxs fear of domination by a foreign race and her defense of white civilization could hardly convince Loury, who is black. Loury countered that the Asians Wax wants to exclude are creating value and enlivening the society.

How do we lose from that? he asks. In response, Wax offered her own rhetorical question: Does the spirit of liberty beat in their breast?

This weeks Devils Dictionary definition:

Spirit of liberty:

Americas supreme civic virtue that consists of pursuing self-interested goals and conducting aggressive assaults against whatever one finds annoying

Wax offered her own definition of the spirit of liberty, which she identified as the virtue associated with people who are mistrustful of centralized concentrations of authority who have a kind of dont tread on me attitude, who are focused on our freedoms, on our liberties, on sort of small- scale personal responsibility who are non-conformist in good ways.

Apart from the fact that Wax is attributing a cultural attitude to Asians (more than half of humanity), her idea of liberty reflects feelings associated with aggressive, nationalistic historical memes(for example, dont tread on me) rather than the kind of political concept we might expect from a serious intellectual. In his 1859 essay On Liberty, John Stuart Mill defined it as the protection against the tyranny of political rulers, analyzing it in terms of the individuals relationship with authority, not as a spirit or attitude. But Mill was English and, unlike Americans, the English are disinclined to celebrate attitude.

Wax, who is Jewish, paradoxically complained that Jews have a lot to answer for numerically through their predominance. She derides their susceptibility to the idealistic, pie-in-the-sky socialist ideas. When Loury accuses her of appealing to a stereotype, she objects that theres nothing wrong with stereotyping when it is used correctly. Just as Wax approves of non-conformity in good ways she condones correct stereotyping. She believes herself to be the arbiter of whats good and correct.

Wax shares with Fox News host Tucker Carlson a sense of legitimate domination of what she calls the tradition of the legacy population, identified as the traditional white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) majority. Wax aligns with cultural nationalists like Samuel Huntington, whose book Who Are We: Americas Great Debate? following his famous The Clash of Civilizations: And the Remaking of the World Order preached for the reaffirmation of the political and moral values transmitted by the WASP founders of American culture 400 years ago.

The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs of Harvard University sums up the components of the Puritans culture: the English language, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The cultures admirers routinely forget that their respect for law might mean disrespecting the law of the indigenous populations of the land they chose to occupy. Enforcing that respect sometimes translated as genocidal campaigns conducted in the name of that law. It also embraced slavery based on racial criteria.

Waxs up-to-date WASP culture, which she prefers to call bourgeois culture, no longer requires genocide or slavery to prevail. Her defense of a largely imaginary legacy culture has nevertheless led her to embrace a racist view of humanity. While decrying the multicultural wokism that she believes now dominates academic culture, she appears to believe 19th-century France rather than the Yankee Revolution sets the standard to live up to.

Wax is right to lament the very real breakdown in Americas intellectual culture. The trendy woke moralizing so prevalent in American academia deserves the criticism she levels at it. Both her attitude and that of woke scholars derive from the same puritanical tradition that insists on imposing its understanding of morality on everyone else.

Waxs choice of bourgeois culture as the desirable alternative to wokism seems curious. Bourgeois culture is identified with the mores of a dominating urban upper-middle class that emerged in 19th century France that projected the image of a vulgar version of the aristocracy. It produced a culture specific to France, very different from the democratic culture of the United States at the time.

This highlights another difference. Whereas the French intellectual class, even when indulging in its traditional disputes, tends to agree on the meaning of the terms it fabricates, American intellectuals routinely bandy about terms they never seek to define or understand and use them to punish their enemies. That is what Wax has done with bourgeois culture and, in so doing, she has declared multiple races and ethnicities her enemies.

*[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book, The Devils Dictionary, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news. Read more of The Fair Observer Devils Dictionary. After four years of daily appearances, Fair Observers Daily Devils Dictionary moves to a weekly format.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

For more than 10 years, Fair Observer has been free, fair and independent. No billionaire owns us, no advertisers control us. We are a reader-supported nonprofit. Unlike many other publications, we keep our content free for readers regardless of where they live or whether they can afford to pay. We have no paywalls and no ads.

In the post-truth era of fake news, echo chambers and filter bubbles, we publish a plurality of perspectives from around the world. Anyone can publish with us, but everyone goes through a rigorous editorial process. So, you get fact-checked, well-reasoned content instead of noise.

We publish 2,500+ voices from 90+ countries. We also conduct education and training programs on subjects ranging from digital media and journalism to writing and critical thinking. This doesnt come cheap. Servers, editors, trainers and web developers cost money. Please consider supporting us on a regular basis as a recurring donor or a sustaining member.

{{policy}}

{{dismiss}}

{{deny}}{{allow}}

{{deny}}{{allow}}

' + o + "

Fair Observer All rights reserved

See the original post:
Amy Wax and the Breakdown of Americas Intellectual Culture - Fair Observer

Breadcrumb Trail Links

National Post readers speak out on the issues of the day

Publishing date:

Re: Trudeau and other partisans should rein in the rage, John Ivison, Jan. 4

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

While reading John Ivisons column, the concept of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few bounced around in my mind. Whether Dickens or Spock, the idea has clearly been lost on both the populist and progressive sides in modern (and dysfunctional) politics. In the past, politicians developed and implemented policies aimed at the needs of the many. Red Tories and Blue Liberals ensured their parties stayed focused on the centre that captured the vast majority of people also known as voters. Compromise was a critical capability of any successful government in developing, modifying and deploying policy changes that would benefit the greatest number of Canadians and maintain both a stable economy and a stable rich Canadian culture.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

How times change. The fallout from the Trump years continues to be felt everyday as a very vocal minority drives rage from the right, destroying any chance of a reasoned political discourse, replaced instead by an attitude that if you are not with us, you are against us. We Canadians and our system are clearly much better. But one doesnt have to dig very far to see we are in the same boat as America. It is simply leaning hard left instead of hard right, well off the centre that has traditionally been Canadas advantage. Justin Trudeau and his band of progressives clearly have the attitude that if you are not with us, you are against us. Instead of building a better, stronger, and more prosperous society for all, it seems they focus more and more on policies that benefit a very vocal minority at the expense of the majority of Canadians and seem hell bent on destroying what has made Canada great economically, socially and culturally. Whether the ship capsizes to the right or the left is somewhat academic. The rage builds up to a breaking point and the ship still capsizes.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

I, too, have great hopes for 2022 and pray the illiberal left reins in its rage. After all, the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few if Canada is to avoid the precipice the U.S. is heading towards at flank speed.

Stephen Gesner, Oakville, Ont.

Truer words were never spoken and I hope that the spreading of fear by the prime minister and others will end before this pandemic does. COVID has provided the perfect cover for Justin Trudeau to distract from rising inflation, his irresponsible spending, his war on fossil fuels and pushing woke ideologically driven policies. Using fear, now against the unvaccinated, continues to keep Trudeau in control of his radical agenda. COVID has in fact given the political class something they could only dream about having absolute power.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Larry Comeau, Ottawa

Re: Schools open for Omicron except here in Canada, Chris Selley, Jan. 5

It is an axiom that you cannot manage what you do not or cannot measure. OMICRON has overwhelmed our ability to test, contact trace and measure its spread in the broader population. There is no way to know when to unlock the lockdown when the data we have used to date to manage lockdowns is no longer reliable, if at all available. OMICRON is now managing us, rather than the other way around, and business people and school-aged children and young adults are suffering inordinately as a result.

It is too easy to blame Ontario Premier Doug Ford for all of this, but it should be noted that neither Steven Del Duca, the Ontario Liberal leader, nor Andrea Horwath, the provincial NDP leader, have offered a different way forward. Both of these leaders have shown they are capable only of frothing at the mouth over the obvious failures of the current government. It would appear that the only winners in the Lockdown Games are the politicians who claim to be following the science and the public health officials who abet their failure to actually do so.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Paul Clarry, Aurora, Ont.

Re: Open the damn country back up, before Canadians wreck something we cant fix, Jordan Peterson, Jan. 10

I would sharpen Jordan Petersons opinion that it is time for some courage in the face of COVID. People with no medical reason for not being vaccinated must have the courage of their convictions not to use our publicly funded medical system when they contract the illness. If these anti-vaxxers still want medical attention after contracting COVID, then courageous politicians must permit the private sector to provide it. This solution would recognizes the Canadian value of choice and ease the stresses COVID has caused our public health system.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Dal Corran, Toronto

Re: I see it coming: Mandatory vaccinations on the horizon, federal health minister says, Jan. 7

I am a fully vaccinated Canadian, even boosted, but I see mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports as a huge intrusion on our freedoms and basically useless, as proven by Omicron.

Here is a novel solution for our underfunded and very inferior health-care system that so many Canadians still think is superior to other models.

Why dont we prohibit smoking and require all obese people to go on mandatory exercise programs? The money we save in health costs could be used to treat COVID patients.

After all, if were not going to be concerned about personal freedoms, we should look at all options.

E. Arndt, Yorkton, Sask.

The National Post welcomes letters to the editor (preferably 150 words or fewer). Letters should be emailed to letters@nationalpost.com. Please include your name, place of residence (town or city and province) and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

The big issues are far from settled. Sign up for the NP Comment newsletter,NP Platformed.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

See more here:
Letters to the editor: Rein in the rage on the left and the right - National Post