Canadians too "hedonistic"
Canadians too "hedonistic"
I had never heard of this guy, Paul Weyrich, so I looked him up. Earlier this week on the Free congress Foundation he wrote the following piece:
Conservative Canadian Prime Minister-elect Espouses Positive Change
In his opinion Canadians need "to correct some premises of Cultural Marxism, which Canadians have espoused, such as same-sex marriage and abortion-on-demand". He says that after he personally investigated the situation he found:
"The people of Canada have become so liberal and hedonistic that the public ethic in the Country immediately could not reversed". Gee, he makes it sound like we've got the clap or something.
When I hear the word hedonistic or hedonism I envision scantily-clad people cavorting on some desert isle, sleeping late, engaged in frivolous play and coveting every petty indulgence or luxury. Hmm, almost sounds like a TV show...
Pursuit of pleasure? Hmm, where have I heard a similar phrase? Oh yes, it's all coming back to me...
Second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, writen almost 230 years ago says:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Ok, the Declaration actually says happiness and not pleasure but I always thought the two words were closely related so once again, I looked it up.
My Gage Canadian Thesaurus lists the following synonyms for happiness: beatitude, blessedness, bliss, cheer, cheerfulness, cheeriness, chirpiness, contentment, delight, ecstasy, eletion, enjoyment, euphoria, exuberance, felicity, gaiety, gladness, high spirits, joy, joyfulness, jubulation, light-heartedness, merriment, pleasure, satisfaction, well-being.
I don't know about you but some of these states don't sound so awful bad to me. However since I found this list in a Canadian reference book and some may think it biased, (especially as it used the word "gaiety" as a synonym), I looked up happiness on an on-line reference and found similar results.
In light of this research, I take no offense to Mr. Weyrich's characterization of Canadians as hedonistic. We can't help it - we are fun-loving folk. That may be as a result of our "cultural Marxism" but I like to think it's because we have stronger beer.
Labels: politics
4 Comments:
I learn something new everytime I read your musings. I didn't know we Canadians were hedonistic. Oh well one has to remember everyone is entitled to their opinion doesn't mean the rest of us have to agree with Mr. Weyrich.
LOL That was great.
I love how people in this country (the U.S.) think we have any room to talk and to pass judgement on other countries. The two things that he cited would be my reasons to move to Canada (among others of course). I swear, sometimes it is like the Puritans are staging a comeback.
Oh..I'm so happy to be stopping here!
STB
This is a rather aged piece of writing. Nonetheless, I found it to be lively and entertaining, yet, it left me with a great sense to self-reflect. I very much enjoy any stimulus that can initiate that type of response in me. I do a lot of writing on "America's Founding Documents" which of course leads me to many sources—most of which I add—are those of the Founder's.
From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, of course under the awesome tutelage of George Mason, the "Pursuit of …" in this instance was, for its time, considered "Creativity." This notion of creativity in this context meant freedom of arts, expression, and above all education.
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