Wikileaks: Another revolt against the "elites"

This week is bound to be dominated by the news of the massive leaks of U.S. diplomatic cables, with Thursday set as the big day for Canada and its alleged "inferiority complex." (Whatever can they mean? Are they talking about our tendency to see everything in the United States as better than what we have here? Tea Parties, Fox News, etc.?) 

In the Star's own story on this "diplomatic 9-11" today, Washington bureau chief Mitch Potter puts his finger on something interesting.  What's at stake here, he writes, is the U.S. struggling to keep its authority in the world, amid popular uprisings against anything that smacks of authority. 

A flurry of remarks on Twitter gleefully compared the revelations to a “body-scan” and “full-body pat down” of the U.S. government.

That prompted a little aha moment here. Canadians have been in mild-mannered revolt against elitism and authority for a good couple of decades, all the way back to the constitutional dramas of the 1990s and the rise of the Reform Party. (Need I remind anyone who was one of the founders of the Reform Party?) 

But we have a government that still needs to have citizens defer to authority, in the case of taxes and  full-body pat downs at the airport, for instance. In Ottawa the last several years,  we've been  experiencing the most authoritarian (some call it "disciplined") government I've witnessed in two decades here, with respect to PMO control of bureaucrats/caucus and secrecy around the media. 

 How do you sell authority to an authority-averse population? Well, there are places where we still accept hierarchy and deference -- the military, the sporting world and (with notable exception to the Ottawa police lately), the whole world of law and order. There's the aha moment for me. Our federal politics this past few years seems to revolve almost entirely around issues related to soldiers, cops and robbers and sports.  If you think that the only purpose of government is to cling to authority, you need all the police-military-sports metaphors you can lay your hands on. 

But it does strike me that this approach to government puts its practitioners on the wrong side of the popular uprising against elites. As Potter's article  highlights,  this is a citizenry that has been told it has to get used to invasive body searches and the Internet-age end of privacy -- all the while watching governments get more secretive and obsessed with guarding their own goings-on.  And why we wonder why the voters are angry?  

And in that spirit, with no advance knowledge whatsoever of what's in Wikileaks, a question: Could it be that Canada doesn't feel "inferior"? It just may be that we're questioning whether the U.S. is superior -- which is the sign of a healthy, grown-up nation, and person. 

 

 

Comments

[Aongasha]

Sorry Susan - I don't think the population is in any way upset with the government for ignoring the Main Stream Media or Lame Stream Media as some would have it. You have sullied yourselves too long with gotcha! journalism tactics.
In fact most of us on main street Canada see all kinds of news and interviews with regards to our politicians and politics in our local press on a regular basis. We too have learned, like the politicians, that the elite media of Toronto and the Ottawa Press Gallery is better off ignored. I guarandamntee you there will be no popular uprising of outrage on its behalf.

[MJH]

It is very strange in Canada as to who considers themselves "elites". Certainly those politicans and journalists in the Ottawa bubble are without doubt "elites". Do they consider themselves in that august group? NO! But they are!!

[MJH]

It is essential that there be "PMO control around of secrecy around the media." The media is very Con unfriendly and the PMO is doing what it absolutely has to do. When the media is left leaning and continully Con bashes there should be secrecy. Good on them.

[Frank Docherty]

It may just be, ( http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/899172--race-against-time-to-salvage-buddhist-monastery ) that Canadian and allied troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan, are simply sacrificing to pave the way for the safe mining of "Chinese Copper" in Afghanistan - just a hunch.

[Frank Docherty]

Corruption/Copper/Harper/Karzai ( http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/thats-rich-harper-warn-karzai-be-more-accountable ) If I had a penny for every corrupt war in history, and every story reported to distract us from the truth, ( http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/899172--race-against-time-to-salvage-buddhist-monastery ) I would be the founder of Wikileaks and Canada would be mining copper in Afghanistan!!!

[Frank Docherty]

Revolt against the elites??? Wikileaks damage control is kinda like "flashing your badge" at a R.I.D.E. check ( http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/pmo-issued-instructions-denying-abuse-07 ) when you have had one two many - wink - wink, nudge - nudge... you will probably get home safe, but shite will hit the fan if somebody blows the whistle.