All society depends on force. We don\u2019t like to think about it that way, but PJ O\u2019Rourke nailed it with accuracy and precision when he pointed out that at the end of the day, all government revenue comes from holding a gun to someone\u2019s head. When we demand something, there is always an \u201cor else\u201d: what happens when you have rules with no compliance mechanism? No one follows the rules. A rule that is unenforced is worse than no rule at all, because indifference to one rule nurtures indifference to more of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what I tend to shorthand away with \u201cthese kids have never been spanked\u201d – not that it\u2019s a bad thing necessarily that no one has laid hands on them in a violent manner, but that they have not faced consequences<\/em> commensurate with their misdeeds. If a pre-verbal toddler stays sticking your shoes in the oven, you don\u2019t have to spank them, but you can\u2019t very well reason it out with them. You can\u2019t sing them a song about rules and show them the error of their ways. You have to use a stern voice and the word \u201cNo\u201d will be concerned in there somewhere, and somebody will probably have to sit in the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is something that has weighed heavy on my mind as Ottawa enters its third week of siege by overgrown toddlers. These are people who have been told the rules, and their reply is \u201cNo.\u201d Now you can argue that they should be reasoned with, there should be negotiation, we should come to an understanding – but there is nothing more foolish than trying to reason someone out of something they didn\u2019t reason themselves into. This is a gut level emotional response, a barbaric yawp that at its heart boils down to \u201cI don\u2019t like being told what to do.\u201d And if they\u2019re going to just sit there bleating \u201cNo,\u201d then you need a plan B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is where everyone failed – the city of Ottawa, the province of Ontario, the RCMP, the Trudeau government, all the way down – they clung too long to the idea that you could fix this with reason and good faith, when it stems from a movement and an ideology that cast off both years ago. It\u2019s of a piece with Brexit, or Trump, or Modi, or Bolsanaro – a unified international front of mental defect insisting that it\u2019s actually genius. And no one can say they weren\u2019t warned, not when the convoy took a week to cross Canada and made no secret of where it was headed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the thing: much as they fall about themselves comparing their effort to Black Lives Matter protests or civil disobedience, I\u2019m having trouble remembering where those actually rendered a national capital\u2019s downtown non-functional for days on end. I\u2019m also having a hard time remembering the exact contents of Martin Luther King Jr\u2019s famous \u201cLetter From the Rain Man Suite At The Top Of the Tutwiler Hotel In Downtown Birmingham.\u201d The police and government in Ottawa and Ontario have declared that there is no God, because there are no consequences for actions and these Caucasians with their big rigs are apparently above an ass-whipping. And now it\u2019s been two weeks and it\u2019s out of hand and it\u2019s going to take force majure to dislodge them, and Canada hasn\u2019t got the hydrogen bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeace, order and good government\u201d is a fine slogan, but it kind of falls apart when the third part of it privileges the appearance of the first part at the expense of the second part. Now matters are worse, and there are only bad options left. But one prerequisite – and an absolutely essential one – is for the 2\/3 of Canadians who want no part of this to go batshit loonball angry. Calling their MP every hour of every day. Screaming at every CBC microphone in sight. Hassling Strombo on the street. Whatever it takes. The vast majority of Canadians disagree with this. Hell, the vast, vast<\/em> majority of Canadian truck drivers are long since vaccinated. As in the United States, nutters are being given the privilege of coverage and consideration far out of proportion to their numbers on the ground or their support in the wider community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I lived in DC, we billed ourselves as the People Against Marching. We did not care what your cause was. You could be out there marching for free Guinness to be served every day by topless supermodels, but if your march lasted into a second day, you were officially the enemy. Once the locals have turned on you, the cops will do their thing, and the cards will fall where they must. MLK knew this. The whole SCLC knew this, and they abided by my family\u2019s motto: buy the ticket, take the ride, and relied on the moral opprobrium of their circumstances to make the case in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s where this cause will fall apart. They aren\u2019t marching for freedom, they aren\u2019t marching for liberty, they aren\u2019t marching for equality: they are throwing a tantrum to get their way. We may not spank children any more, but it\u2019s long past time to start spanking adults. Ideally with a fully-automatic spanking. And maybe if they do it up there, it will prevent us having to do it down here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All society depends on force. We don\u2019t like to think about it that way, but PJ O\u2019Rourke nailed it with accuracy and precision when he pointed out that at the end of the day, all government revenue comes from holding a gun to someone\u2019s head. When we demand something, there is always an \u201cor else\u201d: … <\/p>\n