Editor:
Re: Last week’s open letter to Jason Kenney
It’s been a long time since a letter has so incensed me as this did. I am a strong fiscal conservative and support the current administration and their handling of the current situation.
A simple reading of the text allows one to conclude that the authors feel that their future wealth is threatened by the imposition of “stay home” and “social distancing.”
Further that the authors are prepared to sacrifice a significant part of the population to preserve this. Let’s examine their logic is the light of facts.
1. The people most at risk, built the foundation upon which we live at times where civil liberties were, of necessity severely restricted. They sucked it up. Many of them did die in warfare, but many more survived and returned to rebuild our nation. It was war then, as it is now.
2. This time, they should be prepared to put their lives at risk again to preserve our way of life.
3. They base this on “analysis” of a small data set and a suspicion that “public safety will be used by nefarious forces to subvert our liberties." Dangerous precedent.
4. References to “media frenzy” further support this position.
To rebut these conspiracy theories, I proposed to use their own words and explain to them using the moral code in which I was raised.
1. The “business of mankind” is to preserve life and protect each other first and only then to line our pockets and the pockets of the less fortunate.
2. The “clear and present danger” is to the lives of each other. The fact that they are skewed by age, physical health, gender and quality of life, should be a matter of concern to all of us first, before our own personal wealth. I was raised as a Christian and though I am no long active in any faith group, I am firmly committed to the principles. The golden rule comes to mind as does “respect your elders.”
3. I am a scientist and engineer by trade and have a natural bias to believe and trust those who are trained and qualified to use data to guide decision making. In this case, I am extremely happy that our politicians, regardless of party affiliation, are bowing to the wisdom of highly qualified scientists and physicians to plot our path.
4. I have always found the term “informed opinion” as an oxymoron. Opinion, by itself is highly subjective. For it to be truly “informed”, the person rendering it should be capable of a complete understanding of all the facts at hand, including the knowledge and capability to synthesize it, hence my faith in qualified experts.
5. Media frenzy is inescapable in our highly connected world to the point of allowing anyone to draw any conclusion they want, especially if they are selective or draw on disinformation (fake news). In this case, in North America (except Fox News), all major media outlets are remarkably well aligned and the politicians seem to be well aligned (with on possible exception).
In summation, Jason Kenney is doing a great job and meeting my expectations.
As long as we are quoting famous people, Friedrich Neitzsche said: “That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
Collectively, those of us who survive this will emerge stronger.
David Austen,
Canmore
