Still, I had hopes that, if the CAP was successful, Canada could one day be a beacon of liberty to guide us back to freedom. With that thought in mind, I listened to their radio program that I spotlighted in a temporary “Alert” post.
I really didn't like what I heard. The speaker talked of “human capital” and spoke of government financed education. “Human capital” reminds me of the change I witnessed here, starting about 30 to 35 years ago. Personnel departments began changing to departments of “human resources.” People were becoming “resources,” much like a ton of coal, a pig of iron, or a barrel of oil to be used up in the manufacturing process and then disposed of as industrial waste. Here we have human beings as the capital used to build the economy of the State through education.
I have a special loathing for the idea of government “educating” the people. Both Hitler and Mao are sometimes credited with having said, “Give me the child at three and he's mine for life.” The Fabians may or may not have said the same, but they've certainly practiced control through “education.” Still, I don't think it's necessary for the state to control the child's mind as early as three. Many parents here have noted a marked change in their children's thinking after attending a few years of college. An intensive indoctrination campaign, even one begun at a later age, can work wonders.
One advocate of universal education by the state was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is one of my heroes. He was one of the wisest men I know of, but his wisdom was born of 20-20 hindsight. He was well read in history and was able to learn from the mistakes of the past such as the threat to liberty of combining the power of the state with the power of the church. But I don't think there were enough examples for him to see the dangers of combining the state with education, so he made the mistake of thinking state sponsored education a means to further liberty. Maybe this would be true if we had saints to run the state, but then, liberty might also be furthered by a bank run nation if we had saints to run the banks.
After reading a few more of CAP's newsletters, I couldn't escape the conclusion that the party is a socialist party. I don't think they try to hide it. While there is an element of nationalism, of patriotism, in the Canadian Action Party that can make them a worthy ally in the fight against NAFTA, CAFTA, and the North American Union, beyond that we cannot look to them as an ally in the fight for freedom. Socialism can never be a path to freedom. The four major socialisms of the past century, Communism, British/American Fabianism, German National Socialism, and Fascism are all rooted in the philosophy of Hegel. Hegel saw the individual as worthless except as a cog in the gears of the State machinery. Socialism, in any of its forms, is a negation of the individual. As such, it can never be a beacon of liberty.