Sunday morning sermon from an aging curmudgeon

I have always been intrigued by the term curmudgeon. Such a funky-sounding word. The definition is “a cranky, ill-tempered individual, a person who is always angry and never socializes with others.” 

After all these years I may be morphing into a curmudgeon. There are a lot more things that annoy me now than when I was younger. There are countless new things I’m having a problem buying into.

What is being called “woke” is simply a philosophy, an opinion. But their ideas can be dangerous.

The gender-less society that is being shoved down our throats is a classic example. Mother Nature created two genders and designed them so that the whole idea was to procreate. Use the bathroom nature designed you to use.

And quit referring to individual people in the plural ‘they’ when it is either he or she. And major sports leagues trying to out virtue signal each other.

I’m also not buying into the climate religion. The activism associated with this is actually a form of zealotry. There’s just too much bull mixed in with the hot air. Driving us all into the poor house in order to force us into electric cars doesn’t add up. But somebody is making a lot of money, and it’s not me.

I support pipelines and fossil fuels – the world cannot function without them. And I still like plastic grocery bags. 

Education has become indoctrination than actual learning. For example, VIU is staging a conference this month to “explore concepts of eco-literacy and eco-activism in youth and children’s literature and culture.” So, that’s where it all begins.

The concept of diversity is the opposite of equality which, upon close examination, is really a modern form of racial identity.  It’s separation into convenient pigeon holes into which we can stuff people. I believe in the concept of a Canadian being a Canadian with special privilege for none. We cannot have two-tiered citizenship.

And rewriting history does not erase the past. Removing statues and renaming buildings does not wipe the slate clean. If anything, it can breed resentment.

One set of rules for all, regardless of Canada’s unsavoury history. What is past is past and today’s generation did not commit the atrocities of the past and should not be held to account for the transgressions of others in another century. It should not be a weapon used to extort money from the rest of society. It has turned into government handing out guilt money, and that is simply political gamesmanship. Many of those cases of conscience money have become regular installments, many have already been paid again and again in the past. It never seems to end

Various government rebates of taxes – like gasoline and insurance rates, for instance – are little more than political grift. Taking our money and redistributing it.

Remember when government solved real problems instead of creating them with diversions for the ills they are not capable of and willing to cure. The magic brush decriminalizing certain behaviours does not solve those problems, it only sweeps them under the carpet temporarily. Legalizing drug possession (the call it decriminalizing) is another step toward all of us meandering about in a permanent haze.

And oh yes, whoever came up with the idea of automatic telephone systems where you never get to talk to anyone, only pressing a bunch of numbers. Big business and government are particularly guilty of this. If they don’t want to talk to me, why should I do business with them?

It’s the same with self checkouts at retail outlets. In both this and the telephone answering, Canada has a lot of people looking for jobs.

Call me a curmudgeon for my discomfort with the direction society is heading with total disregard for personal responsibility. I think of myself as awake rather than woke. After all, they are both based on opinion – I have mine and they have theirs. The standard response nowadays is trotting out the bigot label which the dictionary describes as “someone having a view contrary to the prevailing view.”

I don’t hate anyone, I don’t dislike anyone. As a matter of fact, I like a lot of woke people, I just disagree with them. And that’s totally fine.