Of Canaries and Colleges

Girl With Dead Canary - Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725 – 1805)

"The diagnostic process not only paves the way for treatment, but also functions as a type of treatment itself. Both behavioral and physical problems can respond to diagnosis properly used as a therapeutic tool."—Brody, H., & Waters, D. B. (1980). Diagnosis is treatment. Journal of Family Practice, 10(3), 445-449.

Disease

Ideology blinds inquiry to anything but that which conforms to the ideology driving what should be the objective investigation of facts. That universities are more often than not hotbeds of ideology and propaganda, rather than forums for robust debate and rigorous analysis, is missed by many if not most of those working is said institutions.

It matters not that the scientific method, which relies on an honest appreciation of the facts and the skill to see relationships that are real, is subject to the demand that everything and everyone should appease the disordered passions of the powerful, the popular and the prurient. Research proposals and projects, failing to rely as they should on a faithful orientation to actual data, and the outcomes they produce, are, then, merely forgone conclusions modelled in the crucible of self preservation (and self deception).

Those who have lost their moral bearing cannot possibly conduct objective research. They, being without integrity, are only fooling themselves into believing they are capable of conducting research. Research, consequently, is an excuse to perpetuate personal myths, the myths which fornicate their way into the impressionable minds of undergraduates who dare not challenge the fables of their maladjusted professors for fear of a loss of achievement and status.

Where is the evidence of decline? Are there net effects that confirm a downward trend?

1. The protection of inalienable rights has become optional. The Charter does not apply, so saith the courts, on university campuses. Link.
2. Censorship of a kind that sees faculty interrogated and harassed for attempting to foster free and open debate: http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/heres-the-full-recording-of-wilfrid-laurier-reprimanding-lindsay-shepherd-for-showing-a-jordan-peterson-video
3. A loss of true diversity. Bolstering the (weak) secular myth while marginalizing (the intellectually strong) opposition. Private universities that resist contemporary sophistry will now be denied the opportunity to develop educational programs that reflect their Charter protected values, values that accord with the natural law. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trinity-western-supreme-court-decision-1.4707240

Given the serious nature and wide ranging affect on society that each one of these landmark decisions represents, decisions that impinge upon freedom of expression, religious freedom and the right to freely associate with whomever one chooses, it seems reasonable to suggest that such evidence points to a darkening of the Canadian mind. The places where the cognitive darkness is most profound are university and college campuses that fester with ideological viruses intent on infecting the body Canadian and diminishing its health to the point of death.

Let us consider one last example of how the darkening mindset is affecting society. Do recall the policy of then candidate Justin Trudeau who as much said that people of conscience need not apply to run as Liberal candidates in the 2015 federal election. Trudeau's policy, challenged by the Archbishop of Edmonton, indicates that, not being able to win the argument using reason, Trudeau and those promoting the culture of death have lost the argument and are resorting to extortion to marginalize the voice of people of conscience.

The canary in the public university coal mine is conscience. Judging from the number of dead birds littering secular college corridors, its a wonder that students continue to subject themselves to the toxic air of academia. It is a wonder that Canadians tolerate the toxic influence of academics who promote the darkening of the Canadian mind.

Postlude

Judging by our nation's moral, legal, political and social character, cancer has invaded the mind and body Canadian. If diagnosis is treatment, as Brody and Waters contend, then voices must continually be raised to:

1. confirm the presence of cancer
2. identify the type of cancer
3. identify the grade of the cancer (how abnormal the cells look and behave)
4. find the site where the cancer started (primary tumour)
5. determine the stage of the cancer (how far the cancer has progressed)
6. help plan cancer treatment
7. monitor response to treatment
8. help determine if cancer has returned (recurred)

—Canadian Cancer Society

Let the surgery and/or chemotherapy begin the purification process. And, with that or those treatments, may a healthy diet of faith and reason sustain the health and well being of university and college campuses.

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A Worthy Read

Free to Believe: Rethinking Freedom of Conscience and Religion in Canada, by Mary Anne Waldron (2013).