Institutional perversion

This blog posting in Surreality Times describes quite well a feeling that all of us at FORCES often experience. This is so disturbing and depressing that I have put off writing about it (or anything, really) for many weeks.’

Surreality Times talks about the Canadian Supreme Court, which considers the diminution of the Canadian Charter of Rights to a “meaningless paper tiger” an acceptable collateral damage in the fraud-based war against the tobacco companies. If we zoom out, in fact, the fatal decision of the Supreme Court is just another pixel in the general degradation of Western culture, formerly a bastion of institutionalized freedom. That freedom, for which millions have died, today is easily discarded by invoking public health. The right, in contrast to the bizarre Canadian Supreme Court decision, of a manufacturer to advertise its legal product must come before indemonstrable and theoretical benefits for “public health”. The right of the citizen to choose his lifestyle, and even to pass on that lifestyle on to others must come before those ephemeral benefits. In general, and when in conflict, liberty must come before public health, except in the case of clear and present danger of transmissible disease, such as during a viral epidemic.

Here is the rotten principle expressed in the very words of the Canadian Court. As Surreality Times states so plainly, it is enough to “send icebergs of chill running up and down your spine”:

"Where … legislation is directed at changing human behaviour … the causal relationship may not be scientifically measurable. In such cases, this Court has been prepared to find a causal connection between the infringement and benefit sought on the basis of reason or logic, without insisting on direct proof of a relationship between the infringing measure and the legislative objective."

We rest our case but not our fight against this moral perversion. We do not share Surreality’s conclusion: “We’re f*cked, folks.” Now more than ever is the time to destroy the healthist system. Always remember that there is no law (or system) that cannot be undone.