The waiting game

Reconciling sanity with our society is difficult. On one hand we cheer for "rebels" fighting their oppressive governments and on the other we fear "terrorists" fighting their "recognised" governments. We strongly feel that those who are "oppressed" should fight for their freedom, as we have done in our western history and yet at the same time we ignore much of that history which we are uncomfortable with.

Often I see people ask, for instance "how could the Jews have let that happen to themselves?" and questions of a similar ilk and yet here in our own home country of Canada (and this goes for the U.S. too) we ignore the warning signs of the slippery slope we're on towards this path.

I refer to our current situation already as a police state, even though armed guards are not (yet) on every corner. The police state of today is subversive, much of it operated behind a cloak of secrecy and electronic surveillance. You do not see our police state, unless the police state wants you to see it. Yet, despite the obvious signs, I still hear comments such as "you don't know what a real police state is" - usually in reference to extreme cases of martial law, Hitler, etc. To this I say, yes, you're right, we are not yet an extreme case - will it take an extreme case for you to finally act however? If mass roundups began in your streets tomorrow, what would you do? Would you fight? Would you hide? What will it take you to fight and recognize the loss of freedoms?

I see a lot of people who criticize those of us who are concerned about the warning signs all around us. Their remarks usually elude to the idea that somehow I, by criticizing my loss of freedoms, don't respect the freedom I still have or the freedom my country is supposed to represent. This assertion is completely false, it is out of my respect and appreciation that my concerns rise. I, for one, do not want to wait until we see mass roundups and gas chambers and political prisoners before I become concerned and take action, I'd rather stop the problem before it even starts. When I ask how the Jews could have allowed themselves to be dominated in the fashion they were the only answer I can come up with is they couldn't believe it would "get so bad". I for one absolutely believe it will "get that bad" if we don't stop it before it's too late.

We as a culture are really quite bizarre, we believe so strongly in the idea of "fighting to gain your freedom" that we support "terrorist" groups fighting governments we just don't like that much and yet when it comes to fighting to defend your freedom, to prevent it being taken away, this is not a valid fight in our minds.

So many Canadians today recognize the damage being done right now, the freedoms being taken away, and the sovereignty we'll never reclaim and then these same Canadians talk about "the vote" coming up in 2015 after they just finish talking about how democracy is dead.

Canada as a nation is still relatively young, we've never faced tyranny or direct foreign threats. The people of Canada have never had to stand for their own freedom, to fight wars with their own enemies, or to feel what a tyrannical government is capable of. We live in a reality of innocence, where the evils of the world are obtusely evil to a point, where all votes are legitimate votes. Indeed when our own voting mechanism is stolen from us we do nothing, and we are so used to our clear cut good and bad world that we don't even have the tools needed to address the problem or the proper avenues to take to appeal it. We don't have the will to fight it, just complain about it and say "it's all Harper's fault".

We as a people are doing nothing more than waiting for our freedoms to be taken, and ironically it will be when they are finally taken and destroyed that we may actually feel justified in fighting for them - by then, however, we'll be fighting to regain our freedom, not keep it.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.