For anyone who's interested in the future of North America...
The collective psyche of Quebeckers goes a long way in explaining why Canada is where it is now. Here's how it was brought to be. Notice the recurring pattern.
The British came and militarily conquered and subjugated us living here. The French king abandoned us to our fate, most of the higher classes and administrators fled, leaving the Church as sole local administrative body over the people. Some of us wanted to fight the British, but most were kept in obedience by the priests, who collaborated with the British in exchange for maintaining their status. They were too many of us for them to deport us like they deported the Acadians. Outnumbered in a remote, hard to access land, the British army played it safe. It toned down any unnecessary oppression, bringing in fresh administrators.
Then 20 years later the American revolution came. Having thrown the British out of the 13 colonies, the Americans sent expeditions north to finish the job in the last remaining english-controlled land, the "Province of Quebec". Some Quebeckers saw the Americans as liberators and joined ranks with them to throw the British out of their land. Others were told to fight with the British by their priests who were afraid that American republican values were contrary to the Church and traditions of the Monarchy, they were told that their language and faith was protected by the British, that it wasn't a liberation but an invasion. In exchange, the British gave privileges to collaborators, and killed off as traitors those fighting for their freedom with the Americans. Those Quebeckers who collaborated helped fight off the Americans and in a way saved this land for the British, not knowing that they would soon pay the price for it. The war ended and throves of loyalists, Americans who fought on the wrong side of the revolution and lost (traitors to the Revolution and its values), move into Quebec to stay British. These were the original English-Canadians, cowards and traitors back home technically. Then began the slow and steady process by which the original Quebeckers went from being the majority to being the minority, gradually drowned in British immigration.
About a third of the way through, the Rebellions of the 1830s came, again plotting collaborating loyalists against freedom-seekers. Again, one camp was punished while the other was thanked for loyalty. The ordinary Quebecker was then pushed back in obscurity as a 2nd class citizen for generations. The trouble started again when the Church got out of the picture. The fight for civil and collective rights brought back ideas of self-determination, which brought back fear of dissent and fresh threats and gifts to insure loyalty and collaboration. The same old pattern...
The underlying theme to this saga is fear, real and induced (for collaborative purposes). This fear lead to a watering down of key values (self-respect, pride, self-determination, solidarity) common in any society. The sweet and sour treatment a group of people receives over the years, brought by a pattern of gift/punishment responses to behavior (some of which contrary to human nature) has lead to a schizophrenic social mindset among modern-day Quebeckers.
This is why to this day, there are two types of Quebeckers, the collaborator and the rebel (freedom-seeker). The collaborator pursues the same sick tradition (first set by the priests) of being bought for staying faithful, like *****s, they are given money, investments, high-ranking government jobs (Prime Ministers...), apparent rights (even though rights are to be taken, not given). etc. in exchange for continued loyalty. The other Quebecker, the freedom-seeker, wants to break away from from this model, stop the cycle, stop acting like a ***** or a primadona, go out on its own, do what the Americans did. [There's also a 3rd type that recently appeared, a kind of hybrid, these are in fact collaborators that pretend to be freedom-seekers as a tool to getting the "goods" from Ottawa.] Only the 2nd type of citizen is mature and healthy for the sake of Canada's and Quebec's future. It is highly unhealthy for Canada to pursue the model of buying Quebec loyalty, it's demeaning for both. Canada is no longer a British territory needing collaboration to fight off the US. This obsession against US independence has been transferred to one against Quebec independence. Canadians (and their Quebec collaborators) are loyalists at heart, they feel that "have" to fight "rebellion", without thinking, even when divorce appears to be the only healthy and mature thing to do.
The collective psyche of Quebeckers goes a long way in explaining why Canada is where it is now. Here's how it was brought to be. Notice the recurring pattern.
The British came and militarily conquered and subjugated us living here. The French king abandoned us to our fate, most of the higher classes and administrators fled, leaving the Church as sole local administrative body over the people. Some of us wanted to fight the British, but most were kept in obedience by the priests, who collaborated with the British in exchange for maintaining their status. They were too many of us for them to deport us like they deported the Acadians. Outnumbered in a remote, hard to access land, the British army played it safe. It toned down any unnecessary oppression, bringing in fresh administrators.
Then 20 years later the American revolution came. Having thrown the British out of the 13 colonies, the Americans sent expeditions north to finish the job in the last remaining english-controlled land, the "Province of Quebec". Some Quebeckers saw the Americans as liberators and joined ranks with them to throw the British out of their land. Others were told to fight with the British by their priests who were afraid that American republican values were contrary to the Church and traditions of the Monarchy, they were told that their language and faith was protected by the British, that it wasn't a liberation but an invasion. In exchange, the British gave privileges to collaborators, and killed off as traitors those fighting for their freedom with the Americans. Those Quebeckers who collaborated helped fight off the Americans and in a way saved this land for the British, not knowing that they would soon pay the price for it. The war ended and throves of loyalists, Americans who fought on the wrong side of the revolution and lost (traitors to the Revolution and its values), move into Quebec to stay British. These were the original English-Canadians, cowards and traitors back home technically. Then began the slow and steady process by which the original Quebeckers went from being the majority to being the minority, gradually drowned in British immigration.
About a third of the way through, the Rebellions of the 1830s came, again plotting collaborating loyalists against freedom-seekers. Again, one camp was punished while the other was thanked for loyalty. The ordinary Quebecker was then pushed back in obscurity as a 2nd class citizen for generations. The trouble started again when the Church got out of the picture. The fight for civil and collective rights brought back ideas of self-determination, which brought back fear of dissent and fresh threats and gifts to insure loyalty and collaboration. The same old pattern...
The underlying theme to this saga is fear, real and induced (for collaborative purposes). This fear lead to a watering down of key values (self-respect, pride, self-determination, solidarity) common in any society. The sweet and sour treatment a group of people receives over the years, brought by a pattern of gift/punishment responses to behavior (some of which contrary to human nature) has lead to a schizophrenic social mindset among modern-day Quebeckers.
This is why to this day, there are two types of Quebeckers, the collaborator and the rebel (freedom-seeker). The collaborator pursues the same sick tradition (first set by the priests) of being bought for staying faithful, like *****s, they are given money, investments, high-ranking government jobs (Prime Ministers...), apparent rights (even though rights are to be taken, not given). etc. in exchange for continued loyalty. The other Quebecker, the freedom-seeker, wants to break away from from this model, stop the cycle, stop acting like a ***** or a primadona, go out on its own, do what the Americans did. [There's also a 3rd type that recently appeared, a kind of hybrid, these are in fact collaborators that pretend to be freedom-seekers as a tool to getting the "goods" from Ottawa.] Only the 2nd type of citizen is mature and healthy for the sake of Canada's and Quebec's future. It is highly unhealthy for Canada to pursue the model of buying Quebec loyalty, it's demeaning for both. Canada is no longer a British territory needing collaboration to fight off the US. This obsession against US independence has been transferred to one against Quebec independence. Canadians (and their Quebec collaborators) are loyalists at heart, they feel that "have" to fight "rebellion", without thinking, even when divorce appears to be the only healthy and mature thing to do.
