Truckers have bitten off a bit more than they can digest when they advocate themselves as a "freedom" convoy. The implications of that one word are enormous ranging from its supposed opposite of responsibility, but also including obligation, privilege, on through to totalitarianism, dictatorship, and anarchy.
Fundamentally, however, the very small number of truckers, and their basic demographic, does not allow them to speak for anywhere near a majority. Many, arguably most Canadians, while sympathetic to the right to protest, are not sympathetic to the basic argument against masks and mandates, nor are they sympathetic to the trucker's imposition as a bunch of belligerents on the people of Ottawa. They are not a revolution, not even a movement, but mostly a ragtag group of white guys expressing their anger by taking it out in a public display of wilful defiance to common sense.
The truckers do not speak for the majority of Canadians and do not have the right to claim that they do. The majority of Canadians are vaccinated, the majority - while not liking it - are willing to use masks in order to maintain a modicum of public health (responsibility). All Canadians are and have been free to be vaccinated or not and there are consequences, known consequences, for not doing so.
A comment on Global News by a trucker expressed that he was protesting to get rid of vaccine mandates, not just for truckers, but also for nurses - incredible as these people are the ones creating a good part of the medical crisis for the nurses by not getting vaccinated nor wearing masks. Are there nurses not wanting to get vaccinated? Certainly, but the vast majority have, and in the meantime they are sweating it out on the front lines, absorbing huge emotional and physical strain, trying to save the lives of those seriously infected - now mostly the unvaccinated.
Most recently, as of this writing, the truckers have organized a group based on a U.S. vigilante group "Freedom of the Land". They are self proclaiming the right to arrest and detain people and to use force to do so. CSIS, Canada's equivalent to the FBI/CIA, views the movement as an "extremist threat". If this goes without a big escalation from the Canadian government, it will be a large political failure and only emphasize the racist nature of the truckers - and contradicts the very nature of freedom. [3]
Freedom does not give a citizen the right to form vigilante groups in order to control others. Freedom goes way beyond the vaccine mandates. Freedom implies an obligation to not damage the lives of others; it implies a responsibility to be proactive in helping others work through adverse conditions - otherwise it is just hedonistic narcissism and not freedom. Freedom and responsibility are complementary.
Freedom in its largest context makes the truckers' activities and statements pretty much irrelevant on the world stage. The status quo will be maintained regardless of the convoy's success or lack thereof in eliminating mandates. The oligarchs, the banksters, the militarists, the transnational capitalist class will still rule - and it is those groups that make the world a very unfree place.
Much of the world is in chaos thanks to the powers that be in the 'western' world. The truckers' "Freedom Convoy" is a small event on the global scale in spite of its mainstream and alt-right newsworthiness to distract from the real lack of freedoms. Canadians in particular need to inquire and reflect on their own status as an apartheid state that works with the global hegemon suppressing freedom in many areas of the world.
Ask the people of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela what freedom means. Ask the people of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Libya what freedom means at the barrel of a U.S. gun. Ask the people of Palestine about the apartheid society and its strict limits on freedom imposed by military law, annexations, house destruction, murder, torture, military attacks and a whole range of discriminatory laws.
Freedom requires critical thought, a reflection of a much broader humanitarian view of the world than either the miniscule truckers or the near overwhelming ruling elites care to consider.
[1] click here
[2] soflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_91629.shtml and soflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_91630.shtml
[3] Beau of the Fifth Column, "Let's talk about a development with Canada's truckers...."
.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw2CDzAU7EA
See also: "Let's talk about Indigenous causes, truckers, and playbooks...."
.youtube.com/watch?v=QOHGhn0o_pI
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