I despise the sort of breathless, self-righteous emails that get forwarded around the ethernets just slightly more than I hate penis-enlargement SPAM1. They're terribly written and seldom have even a nugget of truth in them. The few times they hold a bit of truth, it's so surrounded by bullshit that it hardly matters.
Here's a case in point.
*Oh Canada our home and native land
True patriot love in all our sons command
With glowing hearts we see thee rise
The true north strong and free
From far and wide oh Canada
We stand on guard for thee.
**God** keep our land glorious and free
Oh Canada we stand on guard for thee
Oh Canada we stand on guard for thee.
This is not sent for discussion. If you agree, forward it .. If you
don't, simply delete it. By me forwarding it, you know how I feel.
I’m guessing the response came as a big surprise to CBC to the question :
Do you believe that the word “God” should stay in the iconic National
anthem . a part of Canadian culture?
CBC, yesterday morning, had a poll on this question. They had the
highest number of responses that they have ever had for one of their
polls, and the percentage was this:
86% for* *the word **“God”* *keep our Land**, in the National Anthem
14%* *against
That is a pretty 'commanding' public response.
I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't ..
Now it is your turn. It is said that 86% of Canadians believe the word
“God” should stay, therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why
there is such a controversy about having the word “God” in the anthem!
**Should the country cater to this 14%?
*
*If you agree with the 86% , pass this on, if not, simply delete.*****
(Goofy formatting and crazy inclusion of quotes and asterixes retained to highlight the inherent nuttiness.)
I suppose that in a way I'm passing this on, but I hardly agree with it. To be honest, I neither care for nor about the inclusion of any deity in the national anthem2. I'd be more inclined to change the bit about the country being in the command of only our sons. ("Shut up, bitches. This land is our land!" ~the boys) But I just can't abide such terrible thinking. There are three things about this junk mail that I think are truly pathetic.
1. A web poll is far from scientific and so using one to back up your point is far from compelling. The people who vote treat them like petitions. To give you an idea of how that can end up misleading rather than enlightening, think of which group has quick and easy access to large numbers of same-thinkers they can call up or email to vote in an online poll: those who go to a church or those who don't.
2. "Should the country cater to this 14%?" I'll ignore the likely inaccuracy of the number for now, since I think there probably is only a minority (small or large) who would like the word "God" removed from the anthem. The actual number doesn't matter. The principle does. I have four words: tyranny of the fucking majority. Yes, the country should cater to the 14% if the 14% are being oppressed by the 86%. Now, this is hardly a big oppression issue. I'm not arguing that. I'm simply saying that having a majority is not an excuse to do whatever you want. The idea that a small portion of the nation can and should be ignored is a repugnant one.
Nobody is asking for "God" to be replaced with the opposite, are they? There's no call to be singing "there is no God" to the tune of "O Canada". (At least not that I've heard, and if there is I would argue against it.) But including a reference to the beliefs of some Canadians disenfranchises the rest, especially in an anthem which is ostensibly for the whole nation. (So who's being catered to?) Removing that tiny bit of government-sponsored religion gives each of us the freedom to believe as we see fit yet still be together nationally3.
3. This last one is rather subtle and I don't imagine it was intentional but I still think it's important. In fact, the very unthinkingness4 of it is what makes it interesting to me. It's like a little picture of the larger issue. It ends with an admonition to pass the message on to more people if you agree and to delete the message if you disagree. Reading between the lines: express yourself if you agree with me, but shut up if you don't.
In the end, I want to stress that I am in no way wanting people to shut up. I believe very strongly in people's rights to express themselves, no matter how moronic, wrong, or even hateful that expression might be. So go right ahead. I'm just indulging my own right to criticize it. This has been a rather intense blog post, so to brighten things up I'll just quote another email I once got5; one with a little more class and intelligence:
My limbs stiffened under the strain of violent cramp. They examined the sea with the most careful attention! This worthy animal may allow!!!
1 At least the penis ones can be funny sometimes.
2 Unless it's Ahura Mazda. Seriously, who names their deity after a car manufacturer?
3 Not that I'm a huge believer in nationalism, either.
4 Is that a word?
5 Yes, a penis-enlargement SPAM email.
Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. Someone just sent me this same e-mail. I hate it. I always seem to get a different e-mail message around XMAS or Easter with the same theme.....basically....somebody's right to honour their god is being threatened by somebody else. Oddly enough, I could find nothing about any CBC poll on-line?? Regarding this e-mail, in addition to directing the individual here to your post (no sense my rehashing your good points) I also sent them to SNOPES.com where basically the same e-mail (even the same 14% / 86% split...what a coincidence!!!) was circulating since 2006 but concerned NBC and "god" in the pledge of allegiance. In that instance, there was no NBC poll...the story was false. There was no CBC poll.....it was just the 2006 NBC story regurgitated. http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/godpoll.asp
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