4 - Sunday, October 12, 1986 - North Shure News Bob Hunter NOT AS much as you’d like to think has changed in political thought since the 18th Century. I have just finished a book on the sge of Napoleon and found myself struck by the distressing feeling that the great pclitical issues of our own time are mere deja vu. Oh, there have been refine- men’s, grotesque as well as cule, but i.> main themes of the mod- ern era had already emerged back then. At the time of the French Rev- olution, for instance, the fans of Jean-Jacques Rousseau all ac- cepted his thesis that natural man is corrupted by society and therefore could be redeemed by fixing society. That is, by intervening. To this day, Bob Skelly, an in- tellectual heir to Rousseau, does not seem to have shaken the belief that man is born good and therefore can be trusted, even when he joins a big government union. The Social Credit Party, for its part, has never been too heavy on abstract principals, unless you count funny money. Yet most Socreds, 1 am sure, would agree with the basic con- servative notion, laid down by Edmund Burke, that when tradi-, tion is broken, continuity is lost and man basically turns into a political beast. “*..since Napoleon’s times, what have we dreamed up that is new in politics?’’ rrose en ett ey cee The argument runs that society is a creature not only larger but fundamentally wiser than the in- dividual with his abstract notions about reform. The accumulated body of wisdom held in the cultural gene-pool, as it were, can be trusted to know the right thing to do, provided it isn't overly regu- lated. Rousseau’s theory that ‘‘natu- rat man’? can arise through Goodie Two-Shoes legislation, tradition notwithstanding, has certainly had plenty of hundred years, but somehow, 1} still don’t see him on the horizon. Mostly he got caught in the Gulag. Burke had only the Reign of Terror to point to in his time as proof that rash reform leads to ® strictly personal e bloody dictatorship. In our era, he would be wallowing evidence up to his armpits. So has anything changed? It would be nice to think that the great political questions of the modern era represent some kind of new peak in the search for practical ways to live together without causing to much damage to each other's moods. Yet more than being at the dawn of any political age, it seems to me we are simply caught in a trough of thought that began in the mid-1700s. There have not really been any major new politi- cal ideas since then. What have we got today? On the one hand, the idea of indi- vidual liberty in the pitiless capi- talist jungle, and on the other, the regimentation of the ant crawling through an utterly or- ganized heap. In between, a bureaucratic blur. The example of the first Peo- ple’s Court in Paris two centuries ago finds itself being repeated in modern Cambodia, whose own revolutionary tribunals unhesitatingly adopted the idea that society can be changed for the better by the extermination of your opponents. Total mass mobilization of a ! country, regardless of class, was the first ‘benefit’? of the French Revolution, by the way, paving the way eventually for modern Blitzkrieg and D-Day landings alike. Also, it was thanks to the orig- inal civic upheaval in France and the subsequent bloody purges that Napoleon was able to im- pose his tyranny, leading to such a squandering of young men’s lives that France, it has been estimated, took six full genera- tions to recover from the blood- letting, if, indeed, she ever did. It was Napoleon, tor. the end product of the revolu.. n, who initiated the quantum leap in the level of centralization of gov- ernment, inflicting Western Civi- fization with a new class of man- darins. It is in fact thanks to Napoleon's Civil Code, that the apparatus of madern government has acquired its own life, learning to feed itself. Really, since Napoleon's times, what have we dreamed up that is new in politics? Listening to Bill Vander Zalm, I can clearly hear the echo of Burke, whose metaphysical system, after all, was based on the belief in a God-given order. And meanwhile, the socialists still pay homage to the idea of the liberation of natural man, just as their intellectual forefa- thers in the Paris Commune did. The only element from 200 years ago that is missing in our little provincial election is some good old gonzo anarchy. Where is the Rhino Party when we need them? Where is Mr. Peanut? Festival gets WV grant THE COHO Festival run by the West) Vancouver) Chamber of Commerce, will be receiving a $1,243 grant. The grant will defray 50 per cent of the transportation costs incur- red during the Sept. 3 to 7 festival. West) Vancouver Blue Buses, charged out at $65 an hour per bus, brought back the 500 runners and 2,500 walkers that participated in some of the festival events. Chamber of Commerce presi- dent Mike Nicell thanked the managers and drivers of the buses, as well as municipal clerk Doug Allan and Parks and Recreation director Frank Kurucz for their support. BUY WATERFRONT from only $5,000 down * Complete Mechanical Repairs & Service * Complete Collision Repairs & Painting “All makes & models of cars, trucks & R.V.'s"' Bw 1.C.B.C. Vendor g All Work Conditionally Guaranteed. 183 Pemberton Ave., North Van. Ba re aera GET THIS COTTAGE FOR $14,900.00* MORE *estimated replacement cost $35,000.00 A RECREATIONAL DREAM COME TRUE! Sea Ranch located on Gambier Island, formerly the historic Glen Olbee Farm, features 24 hour security, private ferry service from Horseshoe Bay, year-round moorage, water and sewer service, riding, tennis, plus farm-seaside lifestyle. 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