Reframing the COVID scapegoat: Trudeau is the culprit

                       Photo of PM Justin Trudeau being photographed signing photographs of himself (Globe and Mail)

Reframing the COVID scapegoat: Trudeau is the culprit

By Hendrik van der Breggen

November 29, 2021

During the COVID pandemic, Canadians have often been told this: Our public health care system is being overwhelmed.

I don’t dispute this reality, but I ask why.

Why has the capacity of Canada’s health care system not been built up enough so as not to be overwhelmed?

I ask because it strikes me as odd that in our war against COVID—an ongoing war of nearly two years—we have not re-directed resources to the war effort as in wars past.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would have us blame unvaccinated Canadians. But I think his narrative lacks insight.

I submit that the ongoing status of our healthcare system being overwhelmed is due primarily to our federal government’s mishandling of our tax dollars. It’s Trudeau who is the culprit.

Here is my reason: PM Trudeau has been engaging in wasteful, frivolous tax spending instead of directing those misspent tax dollars to the war effort.

Wasteful, frivolous tax spending?

Yup.

Lots of examples could be listed, but space permits two.

Example 1. A few weeks ago, our PM and his entourage (276 people) travelled in jets and limousines to attend a climate conference across the Atlantic—a conference that could have been done by Zoom.

Besides the hypocrisy of polluting the world via fuel-guzzling jets and limousines, this trip wasted millions of taxpayers’ dollars. Millions that could have—should have—gone to hospitals.

Reminder: We are in the midst of a pandemic, and our healthcare system is being overwhelmed.

Example 2. Last September the PM called an election during the fourth wave of our COVID pandemic. The election was unnecessary, but the PM saw an opportunity for more power. The election, which changed nothing, cost taxpayers 610 million dollars. $610,000,000. That’s a lot of money.

Reminder: We are in the midst of a pandemic, and our healthcare system is being overwhelmed.

Let’s pause and ponder the $610M election cost. In Canada there are 150 Liberal Members of Parliament. This means each Liberal MP cost us $4,000,000.

Surely, though, a $4M payment to each of 150 hospitals across Canada would have been more appropriate. Or imagine 75 hospitals each getting an $8M payment. Or 50 hospitals each getting a $12M payment.

That’s just two examples. The upshot is that in our war against COVID the federal government has missed huge opportunities to increase the number of hospital beds, ICUs, nurses, and doctors across Canada.

For many Canadians, this has been deadly. Not only did COVID take its toll, but so did non-COVID illnesses (due to missed cancer screenings, surgeries, etc.).

The moral fact is that wasteful, frivolous federal tax spending should long ago have been cut and those tax dollars—millions upon millions of life-saving dollars—should have been re-directed to our (the taxpayers’) hospitals. Sure, make vaccines available, but also increase the capacity and threshold of readiness of the health care system. We are in a pandemic are we not?

There’s more.

What about other costs of not increasing healthcare capacity, costs triggered by political policies to cope with the healthcare system’s ongoing status of being overwhelmed?

That is to ask: What about the cost of lockdowns? What about the cost of destroyed businesses, destroyed livelihoods, and destroyed people (by suicides and drug overdoses)? What about lost education?

And what about the PM’s slithery-slippery slide into political authoritarianism by pushing vaccine mandates that smack of coercion and crass government overreach?

Canadians are facing two pandemics: a COVID pandemic and a pandemic of prime ministerial power-mongering and ineptitude.

Whom should we blame for our healthcare system’s inappropriately low threshold-of-readiness resulting in its near-constant state of being overwhelmed? Whom should we blame for the life-destroying consequences?

The appropriate scapegoat is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

 

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba. Dr. van der Breggen is double vaccinated, and he is inclined to think vaccinations are wise (depending on, in discussions with one’s doctor, whether one has a high-risk profile for COVID or not), and he is skeptical about the wisdom and efficacy of COVID vaccine mandates.

Addendum: Objection and reply (December 15, 2021)

Re: “Reframing the COVID Scapegoat: Trudeau is the Culprit”

Some readers of my article have set out variations of the following as a criticism: In Canada health care is a jurisdiction of the provinces, and in Manitoba the Conservatives have a history of making cuts to and weakening the health care system.

There is truth to the criticism, but I think the criticism misses the point of my article. Since I am the author, permit me to explain what I think the article’s point is. Here goes.

Trudeau has publicly blamed the unvaxxed for Canada’s healthcare system’s state of overwhelm (without, I would add, acknowledging the essential services provided by our many unvaxxed heroes over the last two years). By pushing his blame-the-unvaxxed narrative, however, Trudeau sidesteps the uncomfortable truth (uncomfortable for him) that because HE is Canada’s leader in the present war against Covid, HE is ultimately—and PRIMARILY—responsible for Canada’s response to the Covid crisis. Again: HE is Canada’s PRIME MINISTER, so HE should be LEADING us in the war against Covid.

How? By not letting provinces let their critical health services be overwhelmed (especially if they were or are not in a state of readiness) and by not misspending millions (probably billions) of tax dollars that should have gone to health services (especially in those provinces that needed it most).

My bit about not letting provinces let their critical health services be overwhelmed fits well with an annual report recently released by Dr. Theresa Tam, who is Canada’s chief public health officer. An article in CBC (December 13, 2021) states the following: “In that document [the annual report], Tam says the public health system is ‘stretched dangerously thin’ after two years of the COVID-19 crisis and a parallel opioid epidemic. To address some of the system's shortcomings, Tam said governments have to earmark more money for public health to bring an end to what she calls the ‘boom and bust’ cycle—a funding pattern where money flows during a time of crisis only to be clawed back when the situation stabilizes. Tam said money should be dedicated to recruiting and retaining health care workers, who have faced challenging working conditions during this pandemic.”

I suspect things may not have been differently handled under different prime ministers. And I would criticize them, too, if they did what Trudeau did. It remains, though, that: (a) Trudeau is our present prime minister; (b) he is scapegoating the unvaccinated; (c) he has wasted an awful lot of taxpayer money that could have—should have—gone to support hospitals, give raises and time off to overworked doctors and nurses, hire and train more staff, plus increase ICU beds, etc.; (d) his irresponsibility has hurt people who suffered from Covid directly or indirectly (by postponed treatments and surgeries); and (e) his irresponsibility has hurt people who suffered from the negative and even deadly effects of lockdowns—lockdowns triggered by the lack of readiness of Canada’s public health care system which Trudeau should have made ready.

Like pretty much everyone else in Canada, I would like to see the Covid situation change for the better. I believe it begins with Canadians demanding our Prime Minister be a better leader and with Canadians not permitting him to pass blame for his poor leadership to Canadians who have reasonable concerns about vaccines (and vaccine mandates).

Rainn Wilson (like Dwight Schrute from The Office) lacks nuance

 

APOLOGIA

By Hendrik van der Breggen

November 18, 2021

 

Rainn Wilson (like Dwight Schrute from The Office) lacks nuance

 

“The metamorphosis of Jesus Christ from a humble servant of the abject poor to a symbol that stands for gun rights, prosperity theology, anti-science, limited government (that neglects the destitute) and fierce nationalism is truly the strangest transformation in human history.”

—Rainn Wilson meme

 

Yes, it’s amazing how Jesus Christ gets misrepresented over history. I suppose some people like to make their own views look more important by “baptizing” them with Jesus. 

But also amazing is how some people—e.g., Dwight Schrute, uh, I mean, Rainn Wilson—can paint the views of others with an overly wide brush. At least many readers might overgeneralize because of his lack of nuance. I think his comment needs some important qualification. It would be much better if it read as follows: “The metamorphosis MADE BY SOME PEOPLE of Jesus Christ from…” 

Here are my reasons for thinking this. 

Re: Jesus as a symbol for gun rights. 

Is Jesus a “symbol that stands for gun rights”? Yes, perhaps for some people, so Wilson’s meme might get some traction there. But he should make FOR SOME PEOPLE clear—to avoid overgeneralization. It should be noted that there are lots of Christians who are pacifists (think of Mennonites and Quakers, for examples). Also, there are lots of Christians who hold to just war theory and limited use of violence if needed, i.e., by the military and the police (I would belong in this group), and not all of these people are for gun rights. Surely the vast, vast majority of these folks—pacifist and non-pacifist Christians, and even those who support the right to bear arms—don’t turn Jesus into a symbol for gun rights. 

Also, there are lots of American Christians (and others) who take the threat of tyranny from government (their own or other’s) seriously, since that’s part of American history and its founding ideals (i.e., the seeking of religious freedom from overbearing, persecuting governments). Incidentally, the U.S. isn’t alone in this. My Dutch cousins, after they did their stint in the Dutch military, had to take their rifles home. Why? Because of the Dutch experience with Nazi occupation. I don’t think many of these people turn Jesus into a symbol for gun rights; rather, it’s more of a case of taking seriously Jesus’ teaching about sin and the fact that power can easily corrupt those who hold it. 

It seems to me that Rainn Wilson’s meme has SOME truth in it regarding guns, but we should be careful not to generalize—which is what his meme does and which the uncritical reader probably won’t notice. His meme needs qualification, in other words, so it doesn’t mislead. (Yes, that’s a drawback of memes, but, still, careful communication is needed, especially if one is attempting to discredit the views of a specific sub-group of people.) 

Re: Jesus as a symbol for prosperity theology. 

Yup, that’s happened with some large segments of contemporary Christianity, especially those with high profiles in popular media. I’m thinking of Joel Osteen and his prosperity gospel as well as the various similar televangelists of the past, such as Jim and Tammy Baker. Also, I’m thinking of Benny Hinn and others (a few years ago I stumbled across a televangelist whose last name is “Dollar”!). In addition, I’ve heard about other pastors in recent news who have multi-million dollar homes. Such “Christianity” misrepresents Jesus, for sure, as a cursory reading of the New Testament would make clear. I suspect many people simply don’t read a whole lot these days, at least not carefully. 

Again, though, it seems to me that Wilson’s meme needs some qualification on the prosperity theology bit, since the “metamorphosis” in question is not as wholesale or widespread as the meme would make it seem. The vast, vast majority of Christians today and through history are not subscribers to prosperity theology. These folks hold to a theology of humility and suffering in which even Jesus—God—humbles Himself to become human and suffers along with humans. Such folks usually don’t get on TV or on the news. 

Re: Jesus as a symbol for anti-science. 

No doubt there have been and are SOME Christians who are “anti-science” (e.g., some [not all] anti-vaccine folks, some anti-evolution folks especially in the days of the 1925 Scopes Trial, some climate change deniers). But Wilson’s meme needs to take into account the rich history of Christians who played major if not crucial roles in science. The following were Christians who were crucially important in the scientific revolution: Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Boyle, Vesalius, etc., etc. 

Sure, there was a huge conflict between Church authorities and Galileo. But it’s important to remember that the Church was willing to entertain Galileo’s view as a hypothesis that was even superior to the Ptolemaic earth-centered view, but Galileo refused.  (In Galileo’s day the Copernican sun-centered view wasn’t as well-evidenced as it later came to be; the scientific community of Galileo’s day wanted further proof, and reasonably so.) Instead, Galileo went ahead and promoted his view publically in a book that insulted an otherwise sympathetic Pope. As a result, Galileo landed in hot water (house arrest). It wasn’t just because of the insult to the Pope, though, it was also because other scientists (not just theologians) were unsympathetic to Galileo’s view for scientific reasons (i.e., there were competing scientific paradigms, as the historian of science Thomas Kuhn would say, and Galileo hadn’t solved all the objections to the Copernican paradigm). 

Also Wilson’s meme should take into account Christians such as the following: Michael Faraday (Faraday belonged to a very conservative Christian sect, he discovered the laws of electromagnetism, and is known as a “father of electricity” along with the likes of Thomas Edison); Gregor Mendel (Mendel is the Austrian Christian monk whose experiments began the science of genetics); Georges Lemaître (this Belgian Catholic priest and physicist showed that Albert Einstein’s equations concerning gravity allow space itself to expand and Lemaître connected this to Hubble’s observations that distant galaxies were flying apart, and thus we got a beginning to the universe, now known as the Big Bang). (By the way, I studied the history and philosophy of science for my undergraduate and graduate degrees at non-Christian universities. Subsequently, I had my philosophy of science classes watch and write review papers on the fine NOVA films on Galileo, Newton, and Einstein at the beginning of the semester to help them become familiar with the history of science, which was news to most students.) 

Also, as far as I can tell, there are lots of Christians today who are scientists and who are pro-science. Think of the evangelical Christian Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.  Collins was director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, former director of the Human Genome Research Institute, and recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science. One of my friends was a book review editor for the American Scientific Affiliation and is now president of its Canadian cousin, the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation (this affiliation is loaded with Christians who are scientists). One of my former colleagues is a super-highly-respected biologist. When I was PhD student at the University of Waterloo, the head of the physics faculty was a Christian. 

Rain Wilson should acknowledge this sort of stuff, to avoid feeding a popular misconception about Christians in general being anti-science. (This is how propaganda works: take what might be true of some individuals or a subgroup and generalize to the larger group. Wilson should stick to acting, not propaganda.)

Re: Jesus as a symbol for limited government that neglects the destitute. 

Here I think that it would be fair to Christians to note that Christians differ on what the government’s role should be. Some (many) think big government is good. Some (many) disagree. As far as I can tell, those Christians who think the role of government should be limited also think that the poor and destitute should be looked after by social programs run by local communities. The idea is that the government is too distanced from the needs at hand and government involves too much (expensive) red tape, whereas groups that minister to the poor are living closer to those in need, can thus discern people’s needs more accurately, and can use money more efficiently (and there’s more money to be used because of fewer taxes and less red tape). I’m thinking here of groups like Samaritan’s Purse, Mission to Children (my wife used to work for this group), World Vision, Salvation Army, Little Sisters of the Poor, Hope Manor (a group my wife also used to work for), Siloam Mission, Choice42, Crisis Pregnancy Centres, church-sponsored homes for refugees, church-sponsored orphanages (my wife and I used to support one of these for several years), etc., etc. So it’s important not to misrepresent Christians who favour limited government as if they also don’t care for the poor—which is what Wilson’s meme does. 

Note: I’m not saying that people who aren’t Christians don’t help the poor (I know many who do). I’m merely saying that Wilson’s meme is unfair to Christians (kind of like the unfairness of, say, a meme that asserts, falsely, that Atheists don’t help people because some Atheists don’t).

 

Re: Jesus as a symbol for fierce nationalism. 

Again, this may be true of some, but not of the vast majority. Generally, followers of Jesus hold that Jesus is King of kings—and that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world (as Jesus said to Pilate).

 

Yes, some people, whether Christian or whatever, often co-opt historical figures or events for their own purposes. But it’s unfair, it seems to me, to suggest (as the Rainn Wilson meme does) that all people of particular group do such co-opting, when in fact only some do. 

 

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired professor of philosophy who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. And Hendrik loves The Office!!! 

About anti-Logos: Exposing the darkness

 

“The Deeds of the Antichrist” (c. 1501) by Luca Signorelli; detail showing the Antichrist directed by Satan (fresco in Orvieto Cathedral, Italy)

About anti-Logos: Exposing the darkness

The spirit of our age is Anti-Logos—a.k.a. Anti-Christ—and his name is Legion.

 

By Hendrik van der Breggen

 

Philosophically, the concept of anti-Logos helps me understand all the dark goings-on in the world (and in my soul).

Keep in mind that the Logos—the divine Word/ Reason/ Logic/ Wisdom who is personal—permeates the universe (though isn’t the universe), giving it order, harmony, goodness, and beauty, and has made the universe intelligible to human minds by having created it as well as us (though our knowledge is fallible and non-exhaustive). Keep in mind that Jesus is the Logos (John 1:1) and we are to follow Him.

With these things in mind, the concept of anti-Logos helps me understand that the disorder, disharmony, evil, and ugliness in the world are due to a rejection of the Logos. It seems to me that human beings are choosing anti-Logos (whether they consciously acknowledge or understand the Logos to be Jesus or not) and, according to the Bible, other beings are also doing so (and apparently some influence us in these matters; 1 Timothy 4:1).

Such a rejection explains at least the following (note 1: the categories/ headings are set out in no particular order, some of the examples probably fit into multiple categories, and probably more categories and examples could be added; note 2: I do not hate the people who engage in any of what is listed, but I hate the activities, of which some/many I am guilty either in deed or in thought):

 

Disrespect for the image of God in others

Examples: Oppressing/hating others because of race, ethnicity, nationality, vaccination status, religion, sex, sexuality, etc.; elevating group identity (one’s skin colour, sex, “gender identity,” etc.) over individual identity as Imago Dei (note: all individuals are made in the image of God and thus have great individual worth, regardless of disabilities, size, dependency, development, race, sex, etc.); human trafficking (whether the trafficked are adults, children, or the body parts of aborted children); ignoring the plight of the Uyghurs in China; etc.

 

Acceptance of killing weak and innocent people

Examples: Murder in general; abortion (the targeted killing en masse of pre-natal human beings of which the vast, vast, vast majority of killings are not essential for health care); the promotion of MAiD/ Medical Assistance in Dying (a euphemism for doctors killing patients) without first providing accessible and top-notch palliative care for all; etc.

 

Denial of actual knowledge of real moral truth

Examples: Moral subjectivism (if I feel X is right, then X is right); cultural moral relativism (if my culture says X is right, then X is right); etc.

 

Acceptance (dismissal) of reason/logic/truth/objectivity as mere cultural creations

Examples: Radical skeptical philosophy that sees reason, logic, truth, and objectivity as mere social constructions; political spin on news to the point of turning “news” into propaganda; “my truth” versus actual objective truth; growingly inconsistent political policies (whose inconsistencies go unnoticed because of general lack of intellectual acumen and/or shared anti-reason etc. ideology in media and population at large); etc.

 

Rejection of one’s sexual design as male or female

Examples: Transgender ideology (e.g., embracing “feeling” over physical reality when the feeling doesn’t correspond with physical reality [note: when it comes to anorexia nervosa we rightly tell people who “feel” they’re overweight when they in fact aren’t that they’re mistaken, but such correction is now alleged to be “transphobic” when it comes to the transgender issue]; drag queen story hours for young children (which confuse young children about sex, to say the least); allowing men to compete in women’s sports because they “identify” as women; etc.

 

Rejection of one’s humanity

Examples: “Otherkin” (i.e., people who believe they are cats, dogs, or dragons).

 

Embrace of lust

Examples: The flourishing of multi-billion dollar pornography industry (adult as well as child pornography that nowadays include violence); sexualized advertisements becoming normal; sexualized music lyrics; etc.

 

Embrace of covetousness

Examples: Desiring others’ spouses (I’m reminded of the old and seemingly innocent song “I wish I had Jessie’s girl”); desiring or envying the riches/ possessions of others; desiring power over others, etc.

 

Lying

Examples: False advertising, fake news, broken political promises, deliberate use of ambiguity or vagueness to hide/distort truth (e.g., “products of conception” or “clump of cells” or “parasite” to describe pre-natal human beings so they can be dehumanized and killed; e.g., “medical assistance in dying” to describe doctors killing patients); historical revisionism about racism (e.g., falsely claiming that only whites are racist and have been slave owners and are evil, and indoctrinating school children to think this); epidemiologists saying anti-racist protests are not a Covid concern but also saying anti-lockdown protests are a Covid concern; U.S. government officials lying about funding of research at a Wuhan lab; Ontario doctors falsely stating that in MAiD cases the cause of death is a disease that’s not the cause of death (when it’s actually the doctors’ poisons that cause the death in MAiD); U.S. media lying by saying Rachel Levine is “the first female four-star officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps” (Levine is a man who “identifies” as a woman, he is not female); doctors telling girls who feel they are boys that they are boys and then performing double mastectomies on those girls (aided and abetted by schools and media); authorities calling abortion, MAiD, or Covid vaccination a “choice” or “option” when real alternatives—respectively: pregnancy care centres, palliative and hospice care, and alternative treatments/ remedies along with continued employment—are not made readily available; historical biblical revisionism by so-called “progressives” (to make the Bible affirm morally what it doesn’t affirm morally or to say miracles such as Jesus’ resurrection did not occur or cannot be known to have occurred); etc.

 

Embrace of sexual activity outside of God’s design for sex-in-marriage between one man and one woman

Examples: Adultery, pre-marital sex, same-sex sex, polygamy, polyamory, adult-child sex, sex with animals (there’s a zoophile group in Germany), etc.

 

Theft

Examples: U.S. government-permitted shoplifting and looting; U.S. and Canadian government’s staggeringly huge debts (these debts are so huge that they burden—steal from—our grandchildren); taxes galore and wasteful spending of those taxes (in Canada taxes have been spent on a giant boat-sized yellow rubber duck; also, Canadian taxes funded Canada’s prime minister’s $1.6 million family trip to India complete with personal celebrity chef; Canada’s federal government spent $8.1 million on a temporary hockey rink in front of Ottawa’s parliament buildings on which only relatively few skated; last September, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasted $610 million by calling a federal election during a pandemic, i.e., when tax money was desperately needed to help overburdened hospitals and over-worked doctors and nurses); dishonouring promises/ treaties, etc.

 

Spoiling of environment

Examples: Neglecting care and stewardship of God’s good creation; dumping garbage into oceans and rivers; disallowing pipelines of liquefied natural gas that could reduce dirtier energy use; importing oil from countries (notorious for human rights abuses) via pollution-promoting ships and trucks; general stupidity and hypocrisy (e.g., world leaders and their entourages gather in Scotland in person during pandemic for climate concerns conference in hundreds of fuel-guzzling private jets and limousine motorcades when all of this could have been done safely [health-wise and pollution-wise] and cheaply [tax-wise] via Zoom); etc.

 

Embracing false gods

Examples: Self as #1, my feelings as #1, political leaders/ parties/ ideologies as #1, etc.

 

Miscellaneous

Example: U.S. military withdraws from Afghanistan before the people it’s supposed to protect have been evacuated (plus leaves millions of dollars’ worth of weaponry for enemies who are known to oppress women, murder gays, engage in terrorism); etc.

 

(As I mentioned, more categories and examples could be added.)

 

What I’m getting at is that the concept of anti-Logos is helpful in understanding the popular idea that the self and its desires are, or take the role of, God. The human “I am” becomes—pretends to become—the great I AM (Exodus 3:14-15). God’s design and wisdom are rejected for merely human designs and agendas that aren’t centred on God/ the Logos. The Logos—true wisdom and understanding—is rejected and anti-Logos embraced. Light is rejected and darkness embraced. As a result, the human creature becomes morally ugly, delusional, and stupid. The world becomes insane.

This helps me understand the dark goings-on in the world (as well as in my soul).

Jesus is Lord (God who became human flesh). Jesus is the Christ, the Logos. Thus, whatever is anti-Logos is anti-Christ.

Anti-Christ is the spirit of our age—and his name is Legion.

 

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My prayer: Lord Jesus, help us return to truth, goodness, and beauty. Amen.

 

 

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.