If the militarization of our society had been mostly creeping in the five years of minority government, it has achieved full-blown scale since the 2011 ushered in a majority.
While we all are true patriots respecting and celebrating the accomplishments and successes of our armed forces, the maniac overtones of the new twist imposed to the theme is becoming naively caricaturesque, if not simply grotesque.
This begun with the militarization of the Arctic and the cooption of inuit communities in this project. It continued with the launch of a massive modernization programme (much needed to be fair) of our military hardware.
But its social and ideological ambitions became clear when the Harper announced plans to lay accent on militaria in the new citizenship study guides released in 2009. It continued this year with the decision to field a soldier or two to be present to all new citizenship celebrations (perhaps as a new post-Afghanistan "expeditionary" role?)
More recently, the 2011 Canada Day celebrations were a whole glorification of our (military) role in Afghanistan.
And let's just pause a second to consider the schedule of the Dukes of Cambridge's 10 day visit. Has there even been one day not marked by a military reference, whether in speech or in deed? The answer: No...
What is alarming is that it is starting to rub off. Have you all seen how inappropriately militaresque is the new Winnipeg Jets logo and theme??
Recall President Eisenhower's (a Republican, incidentally!) words:
"we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." (1961)
Adapting them and paraphrasing them to the Canadian context, we can say:
we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-cultural complex.
We should put an end to this ridiculous tendency, before some crazy thinks they can grab a machine gun and start walking down our cities.
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