Essays in Idleness

“More Canadians shop at Dominion than at any other store, … and it’s mainly because of the meat!”

I encountered this ancient slogan and jingle for the first time since, I think, the 1960s, while irresponsibly “scrolling” through the Internet this morning. It was so effectively written and composed, that the tune immediately came back to me, clearing some fog out of my brain.

How distant that time, when the word “Dominion” still conveyed pride in a country, that is now post-national. The term has been systematically suppressed, by our controlling political Orcs, and the company that used it as a name for its grocery chain has been unnamed, broken up, or bankrupted (it is hard to say which). Except, apparently, in Newfoundland and Labrador, it says here.

But their slogan should have survived, for after decades of bleak veganism, meat has somehow been revived, even by the health nazis. Meat is good for you, even they now declare. It contains protein, which is all the rage. According to leading heart surgeons and nutritionists, if you eat ketotonically, you may actually outlive me. But you might not if you only eat Tim Horton’s donuts.

It is important to be, much more than to do. Indeed, doing should generally be discouraged, in most circumstances. It is important to make art, and to avoid expressing yourself, for art is not a form of knowledge, as all the idiots say. For it consists instead of making. Nor is knowledge power, when we come to that. Truth is not power, either, especially in this country.

Still, it is more honourable than lies. It has always been so, and it will always be. And it is mainly because of the meat.