{"id":218,"date":"2011-01-30T08:11:26","date_gmt":"2011-01-30T16:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/01-3\/wheat-from-the-chaff-a-discussion-of-george-grant"},"modified":"2011-07-15T12:20:32","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T19:20:32","slug":"wheat-from-the-chaff-a-discussion-of-george-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/218","title":{"rendered":"A Discussion of George Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/218\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"blog\"><!-- back and forward --><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogbody\">\n<p><span>As I&#8217;ve mentioned before, I think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tvo.org\/TVO\/WebObjects\/TVO.woa\" target=\"_blank\">TVO<\/a> is one of the best broadcasters in Canada [I started watching it when I lived in Toronto during grad school] and I wish we had more of this sort of broadcasting on our local Knowledge Network station. A case in point is a recent panel discussion [see below] of George Grant on Steve Paikin&#8217;s <em>The Agenda<\/em>. Grant was a Canadian philosopher best known for his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Lament-nation-defeat-Canadian-nationalism\/dp\/0886292573\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Lament for a Nation<\/em><\/span><\/a>. The occasion was the 45th anniversary of <em>Lament<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Other than a few who were occasionally shilling for their candidates, the panelists seemed like a thoughtful and representative group from both the left and right, and from both academia and the media. The initial point about Grant&#8217;s old Toryism being unrecognized today certainly resonates with my own experience. Even my sharper students are always surprised to hear about a Conservatism &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clarion-journal.com\/clarion_journal_of_spirit\/2010\/10\/the-red-tory-tradition-by-ron-dart.html\" target=\"_blank\">Red Toryism<\/a> &#8211; that appears to have no bearing on today&#8217;s politics. Like most philosophies, one has to be careful of conservatism&#8217;s historical character. It&#8217;s sort of like talking about pre- and post-1991 Russia: one has to be mindful of Canadian conservatism before and after its seismic shift of the 60&#8217;s and 70&#8217;s. It also reminds me of the belief that Charles Dickens&#8217; <em>Hard Times<\/em> is a socialist critique of capitalist industrialization; it is, however, a very Tory lament for the sclerotisation of society during the Industrial Revolution. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">I found it interesting that many of the panelists emphasized Grant&#8217;s religious convictions. I remember distinctly, as an 18 year old just out of 1st year college, that when I first read <em>Lament<\/em> it felt a lot like Roberston Davies, whose novels I had started reading around the same time. I felt the old high Anglican, Loyalist spirit in both. But I was surprised by the notion, as some of the panelists contended, that Grant&#8217;s religious convictions (as on abortion) would trump all else, and that Grant supported Brian Mulroney even with the latter&#8217;s continentalism. In a recent discussion with Ron Dart, a noted George Grant specialist from UFV, Dart disputes this contention. According to Dart, Grant&#8217;s concern with continentalism could not allow Grant to side with the newer &#8220;Blue Tories&#8221;, and that Grant, in fact, supported John Turner&#8217;s (belated) economic nationalism. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">One thing I never found convincing about Grant&#8217;s thesis was his equation of technology with liberal American capitalism, and I agreed with the point in the panel discussion that technology shows its alienating effects in a number of different socio-economic melieus. I guess it has something to do with coming of political age in the early 1980&#8217;s, when the scary post-war, liberal bureaucratic machine had become a punch line for the neo-conservative counter-revolution. As with Daniel Bell&#8217;s &#8220;end of ideology&#8221; thesis, the threat of liberal bureaucracy, and the technological empire it apparently constructed, seemed &#8211; dare I say &#8211; obsolete. I&#8217;m more appreciative of the issue now, to be sure, but it wasn&#8217;t my lament back in the 80&#8217;s. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">In any case, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com\/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&amp;Params=A1ARTA0006728\" target=\"_blank\">Red Tory doctrine<\/a> is a fascinating part of Canada&#8217;s philosophical tradition, and has tremendous impact on other traditions, like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/pss\/139794\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian socialism<\/a>. It&#8217;s also affected Canadian politicians, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.collectionscanada.gc.ca\/2\/4\/h4-4049-e.html\" target=\"_blank\">R.B. Bennett<\/a>, John Diefenbaker and Joe Clark. It is an important aspect of our Canadian political heritage, and deserves our attention. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XshT34FIGLc\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"480\" height=\"293\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"posted\">Posted by <a href=\"mailto:cwelch@lexiconic.net\">Colin Welch<\/a> at 1:27 PM<br \/>\n<em>Edited on: Sunday, January 30, 2011 2:52 PM<\/em>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I&#8217;ve mentioned before, I think TVO is one of the best broadcasters in Canada [I started watching it when I lived in Toronto during grad school] and I wish we had more of this sort of broadcasting on our local Knowledge Network station. A case in point is a recent panel discussion [see below] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[61,60],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canadian-politics","category-in-a-philosophical-mood","tag-grant","tag-tory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}