Essays in Idleness

“O my God!” was my reaction, when the news finally reached me, that morning a quarter century ago. I had a column to write that morning, but first some telephone calls to make, one of them to New York City. It was a social call I was finally returning. I found out about the Islamic terror attacks in that way, for a telephonic recording told me that all connexions to Manhattan were down at the moment. Why on earth would that be?

My then more primitive Internet service was also mostly down, and when I turned on my radio I had an interminable CBC “arts” interview to get through. (I had not previously used the radio attachment to my CD machine.) Finally, in my frustration, I found the Times of India, where, at one glance, I took in the picture of the burning Twin Towers. (After more than another hour, CBC “breaking news” was reporting that a “far right Oklahoma bomber” might be responsible.)

I, of course, was not as thick as a CBC newsroom. As at the last World Trade Centre bombing, in 1993, I knew instantly whose terrorists had done it. I was too old to believe, for instance, Mr George W. Bush’s blather about Islam being “a religion of peace.” Having been a child in Pakistan, of all places, I knew from the age of six that Islam was a religion of war. That was when I had my first opportunity to witness an “incident” near my school in Lahore. Human slaughter makes an indelible impression on young minds, though in places like Palestine it turns them into enthusiasts, in that case for killing Jews.

I had a column to write, that morning in 2001; it would be my first on 9/11. I wrote it to discourage readers from freaking out. My first worry was that Christian America would retaliate mindlessly. When an old Hindu friend, a journalistic colleague, called me later that day from the Subcontinent, his first question was, “What is wrong with the Americans?” He was genuinely puzzled that reprisals against Muslims were not happening, coast to coast.

“If that attack had happened in Delhi,” was his view, “there would have been ten thousand Muslim bodies floating face down in the Yamuna by now!”

Well, yes, I had to agree: approximately.

It does not make sense to send me money any more (if you ever did), except from the purest generosity and kindness, for I don’t think I can “perform” any more, as a commentator on various miscellaneous and mostly stupid topics, except rarely while I am not seeing double. Even the beloved Catholic Thing has had to sign off on me, and if you sent me a cheque (or check — for most come from the United States) I would currently be unable to cash it. Indeed, the evidence is that the few of my fellow Canadians who notice me, despise me as much as I despise them. Meanwhile, all my past Idleworks will continue to be available gratis, in the hope of afflicting them.

I do not like to cheat anybody, even Communists or Muslims. So they may read me at their leisure.

This is because I am a convinced “Christianist,” who necessarily follows some eccentric doctrines. I think, for instance, that all contrary beliefs, without religious faith, are worthless, and potentially quite evil. Strangers may have been raised with alternative sincere beliefs, for instance Theravada Buddhist under the Pali canon, but as for the majority of liberals, leftists, socialists, progressives, … “for me, you may hang ’em, or drown ’em.” … (May God protect us from these atheist savages!)

The most superlative protection comes through making art. It is the natural expression (additional to prayer) of faith in action. The greatest threats come through bureaucrats and bureaucracies. I am for creative freedom, and voluntary acts, and against taxmen and oppressors.

But as I will continue to mumble my opposition to them, as long as I am able, please, some-time readers, pray for me.

Still moving, now that I have been slightly jostled by the by-election results, up here in “Canada,” where the Liberals have swept ridings in B.C., Ontario, and Quebec. They won by insuperable margins, after Carney intentionally picked a fight with Trump, again. Using such devices, his party has been able to laughably misrule our country for many, many years.

There are thirty-eight members of the OECD, and Canada is in dead last place. Yet still these low-intelligence mediocrities continue to win elections, just by telling lies.

An erstwhile Czech immigrant, and dear friend, who has returned to old Europe, notes, “I believe by losing the connexion to its real history it has in effect lost the right to call itself Canada. Perhaps it should now be called New Canada to distinguish it from what its people lived by, up to say the 1960s–1970s.”