More Altruistic Than Judgemental
That's us Canadians. Good people, all. Cognizant of the dire needs of others living in societies which for one reason or another have been unable to deliver the goods of the earth to their people. Canadians are sociable, kindly and unjudgemental of others. And we do see a need to share with others who have not the good fortune to live as well as we do, in our wealthy society.
And here we always think of ourselves as stodgy, boring, smug. Well, we're that too, most certainly, but obviously there are other things to our credit. There must be; a newly released survey by Environics tells us so. We are overwhelmingly nice people. That's a relief. We don't force our beliefs upon others. And that's as it should be. We feel responsible for the well-being of others.
Wait: I've got to give myself a congratulatory hug, before continuing.
All right, moment of self-praise has passed. So, we're not generally condescending, more likely to be conciliatory and helpful. For it would appear that the majority of Canadians would prefer to give a safe haven to American war deserters, rather than support our government's decision to send them back home.
And a majority is opposed to our government's decision to permit Omar Khadr to languish in a U.S. prison, awaiting trial as an enemy combatant, where he is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was a stripling of 16. As though teens in combat zones, indoctrinated into militias, are insufficiently aware of the consequences when they kill.
Oops, seems I'm in the minority on that one.
But I'm right in there with the majority where Canadians overwhelmingly support the promotion of human rights, freedom of speech and the press, gender equality and the creation of democratic conditions on foreign soil. Hey, that's 93% of Canadians supporting human rights. How could it be otherwise, in any country?
But when given the choice of selecting the promotion of Canadian values or undertaking the provision of tangible goods such as hospitals, roads and bridges in undeveloped countries, a majority of Canadians came down heavily on supporting the provision of tangible goods.
Makes sense, after all. We have no right to impose our values upon others. Whereas, on the other hand, if we willingly assist others to obtain civic infrastructure through the goodness of our collective hearts, it's just possible it may occur to those blessed by our kindness that our values are worth emulating, no?
Concrete assistance to others trumped a requirement that others conform to our system of values before we would exert ourselves to provide for them. Good on us. And a majority of us feel fairly comfortable about our federal government exerting a positive influence on world affairs.
Go, Canada, go!
And here we always think of ourselves as stodgy, boring, smug. Well, we're that too, most certainly, but obviously there are other things to our credit. There must be; a newly released survey by Environics tells us so. We are overwhelmingly nice people. That's a relief. We don't force our beliefs upon others. And that's as it should be. We feel responsible for the well-being of others.
Wait: I've got to give myself a congratulatory hug, before continuing.
All right, moment of self-praise has passed. So, we're not generally condescending, more likely to be conciliatory and helpful. For it would appear that the majority of Canadians would prefer to give a safe haven to American war deserters, rather than support our government's decision to send them back home.
And a majority is opposed to our government's decision to permit Omar Khadr to languish in a U.S. prison, awaiting trial as an enemy combatant, where he is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was a stripling of 16. As though teens in combat zones, indoctrinated into militias, are insufficiently aware of the consequences when they kill.
Oops, seems I'm in the minority on that one.
But I'm right in there with the majority where Canadians overwhelmingly support the promotion of human rights, freedom of speech and the press, gender equality and the creation of democratic conditions on foreign soil. Hey, that's 93% of Canadians supporting human rights. How could it be otherwise, in any country?
But when given the choice of selecting the promotion of Canadian values or undertaking the provision of tangible goods such as hospitals, roads and bridges in undeveloped countries, a majority of Canadians came down heavily on supporting the provision of tangible goods.
Makes sense, after all. We have no right to impose our values upon others. Whereas, on the other hand, if we willingly assist others to obtain civic infrastructure through the goodness of our collective hearts, it's just possible it may occur to those blessed by our kindness that our values are worth emulating, no?
Concrete assistance to others trumped a requirement that others conform to our system of values before we would exert ourselves to provide for them. Good on us. And a majority of us feel fairly comfortable about our federal government exerting a positive influence on world affairs.
Go, Canada, go!
posted by Pieface | 7:48 PM
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