Newsletter July 2008 #73

Table of Contents:

Editor's Remarks

The Institute has been operating without making any major changes for some years now, and this is not a safe habit. Some introspection is always necessary. Accordingly, we've been reviewing many of our activities and looking at best practices elsewhere.

Given the growing costs of printing and mailing, and the fact that electronic distribution is faster and far more efficient, we would like to convert as much as we can of our mailing list to an electronic format. In sum, we want your-e-mail addresses.

Those of you who lack an e-mail capability, or who want to go on receiving material in the old-fashioned way, are free to ignore this plea. Also, we will continue to send hard copies to libraries and collegial institutions as we always have.

For the rest of you, we are planning on developing new products and services that will only be available via the internet, and so encourage you to participate this way.

-- JT

The Laws of War and al Qaeda 'Prisoners of War'

It is amazing how much importance is placed on the Geneva Conventions by Western publics, considering how seldom soldiers from our nations encounter any adversary who respects them. It's also amazing that many Canadians think that these laws should be applied to Omar Khadr.

On the first point, the last opponent that Canada fought who abided by the laws of war was Nazi Germany – who only observed them (with numerous violations) with respect to Western militaries. The British and Americans have a similar experience. Of all the hostile forces engaged by the British since 1945, only Argentina in the 1982 Falklands War observed the Geneva Conventions. The Americans haven't encountered an enemy since 1945 who respects those laws.

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To Fight for Freedom of Speech

Recently (June 16th, 2008) that magnificent enfant terrible Ezra Levant gave a talk in Toronto to an audience largely made up of Jewish civil rights lawyers on some of the things he has been learning in his battle with Alberta's Human Rights commissars. Levant, as he so often does, cheerfully ladled out a lot of food for thought -- not all of it appetizing to his audience.

There were people in the audience who had backed the evolution of human rights commissions, and one or two who played supporting roles in this process. Levant ruffled some of their feathers. In contrast, many others in the audience were not lawyers but members of the blogger-sphere, for whom Ezra is a champion and an inspiration.

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Surviving a Destructive Elite

"For civilization is not something inborn or imperishable; it must be acquired anew by every generation, and any serious interruption in its financing or its transmission may bring it to an end." - Will Durant

"Whatever its faults, middle-class nationalism provided a common ground, common standards, a common frame of reference without which society dissolves into nothing more than contending factions … a war of all against all." - Christopher Lasch

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Alexander Mackenzie's Bookshelf

Hitler with a Smiley Face

It is a good rule that one must never judge a book by its cover, but with every rule there are always exceptions. The illustration on the dust jacket of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Doubleday, New York, 2007) is a fairly accurate representation of his thesis: The iconic 1970s’ Happy Face, with Hitler’s patent clipped mustache on it. We are confronted with a new form of fascism, without uniforms and boot-stomping marchers, but with an endless supply of petty authoritarian-inclined do-gooders all cheerfully focused on stripping autonomy from individuals and saving us from ourselves.

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"When asked once which of the two virtues was finer, courage or justice, he declared: 'Courage has no value if justice is not in evidence too; but if everyone was just, then no one would need courage'."

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it wrongly and applying unsuitable remedies."

"When there is a great cry that something should be done, you can depend on it that something remarkably silly probably will be done."

The Mackenzie Institute

The Institute was formed in 1986 to provide research and comment on such diverse subjects as terrorism, organized crime, political extremism, propaganda, conflict and other such matters. It does not shy away from controversy.

The Institute holds to the proposition that our democratic institutions need to be defended and enhanced, and works to do what it can to protect the stability of Canadian society.

Those who support its purposes are invited to become Friends of the Institute, and those who contribute $60 (or more) to it, receive its publications for the next twelve months.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca