Democracy for Vancouver

We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save ourselves. Thrall is mental imprisonment by shared illusions.

We have some shared illusions: Iraq attacked us. The climate crisis isn't real. It's OK to use the atmosphere as an open sewer. There's no such thing as a serious budget deficit. It's OK for 40 million Americans not to have health care. It's OK to torture people. It's OK for eavesdrop on millions of Americans without warrants. It's OK to lock up American citizens with charges, even for life, if the executive says 'Do it.

Candidates gather on a stage, and express their support for torture and the audience applauds and then another candidate is even more enthusiastic in favor of torture and the audience applauds even more enthusiastically.

Who we are as citizens of of this country depends not just on what we learn in school, what our parents teach us, it depends on how we communicate with one another, whether we trust one another, whether we believe we have a shared obligation to seek out, with our collective best efforts, what's the truth.