Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, July 29, 2011

Hume: In Rob Ford’s Toronto, less will be more

Suddenly it seems the future has arrived in Toronto. And for the first time in our history, perhaps, it doesn’t look better than the past. Indeed, it looks a whole lot worse.

After decades of ignoring the warning signs, it feels as if the globe has finally warmed and the climate changed. The empire is in decline and the centre can no longer hold.

All that remains for us is to carve up the remains of the city, now revealed to be a luxury we can’t afford. Turns out that the whole idea of Toronto the Livable City, the City That Works, was more than we could afford. We just didn’t know it until Rob Ford came along.

Why, in poor little old Hogtown, we can’t pay to remove the snow and keep the libraries open; it’s one or the other. All these years, we’ve been living a fantasy, actually daring to believe we could be an international city.

Thank goodness then for the Fords, the Rob and Doug tag team that will cut the city down to size, reduce its overly large girth, and get rid of the fat on the body politic. They will whip the city into shape, into something leaner and a whole lot meaner. Even if it means we have to organize armies of volunteers to do what the city now does on our behalf, it’s important to put the city in its place.

“For years,” the mayor told the executive committee Thursday morning, “our city has spent more money than it brings in. Instead of fixing the problem, we’ve kept passing the buck to ‘next year.’ Well, next year has arrived. It’s time we fixed the problem.”

And so the future has arrived; next year is this year. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, an anxious citizenry looks to you to lead the city out of this mess of its own making. Thank you, also, for reminding us that we must pay for what we have and that everything costs money.

As you said, “our city has spent more than it brings in.” Though some might take that as a cue taxes should go up, or that the country should rethink how public funds are distributed among the different levels of government, you have the foresight to decide — and even before the facts are in — that it’s better to cut than to grow.

You’re right; the world needs less Toronto, not more. Even Toronto needs less Toronto. And as your brother Doug, the deeper thinker, noted, there’s nothing wrong with closing the odd library here or there. Toronto’s library system ranks with the best in the world, but that’s no excuse.

People once said the same of the TTC, but we couldn’t afford that either. They came from across North America to see a transit system that actually worked. That was then; today, as you have so rightly pointed out, except for subways, transit is in the way. It slows down traffic and irritates drivers, especially when they’re on the cellphone and giving the finger to passers by.

Oh sure, some will shed tears for the way it used to be — the moochers, layabouts and gravy-train riders. But as was pointed out by your trusty little gofer, Giorgio Mammoliti — “Gino-boy” as you so fondly call him — they have nothing better to do than participate in the civic debate. Ford Nation, by contrast, is too busy working to show up.

In the end, you might have to destroy Toronto, but how else could you have saved it?

Origin
Source: Toronto Star 

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