I’m doing something a little bit unusual this week. Normally, The Voice Magazine is all original content, and I’m proud of that. But we were running a little light on content this week and I happened to see a story published by a fellow member of the Canadian University Press that I think hits an issue that all students should keep at the back of their minds. So, reprinted from Quills, the student paper from Brandon University in Manitoba, is an article about a job scam that nearly caught a recent graduate. Let me know what you think. Especially if it scares you as much as it scared me.
In other news, I’m currently grappling with the decision of the Liberal party to abandon its promise of electoral reform. I’ve got strong views on the subject, the issue being the primary one that brought me over to voting for the Liberal Party in the last election despite their stance on bill C-51. To say I’m unhappy about this recent turn of events is understating the matter. However, it does bring to light, once again, how even though most of our modern society is based on words and agreements between people, how little those agreements really mean if the people involved change their minds.
There is no natural justice system that enforces truth. It can be argued that, when it comes to politics, there’s no system at all. But our world works, primarily, on the idea that people will generally do what they say, generally not do what they say the will not, and that agreements rely on each party believing the other. To understand why this should frighten you, consider the idea of MAD, Mutally Assured Destruction. That which has helped to ensure that no side decides to fire nuclear weapons, because of how the other side has said it will do the same, and we all lose.
But those are just words. What happens if one side stops believing the other? What happens if Mr. Putin one day decides he has enough influence over Mr. Trump (whether he actually does or does not is unimportant) that Russia can safely turn to a nuclear option, say against the Ukraine or Syria, without risking a counter-attack? When you think about it, you realize it is only words and the belief in them that hold our existence in place. More important, it is the shared belief, the idea that we both have the same interpretation of those words, that ensures our safety.
This then leads to the idea of questioning the meaning that words have, and in that vein, we have a couple of great articles to make you think twice about what it is you’re reading. Something that we call could probably do more of. Our feature article, for instance, “Planting Explosives in Quebec,” by Wanda Waterman, had me worried about what kind of watch lists The Voice Magazine might be placed on. It still does, but for different reasons now. And with Barb Lehtiniemi’s article, “News Flash”, half the fun is realizing just how much of the article has a double meaning.
But then we look back down south, and, try as I have been to avoid it over the past week, Mr. Trump keeps pushing himself into my news feeds. His is an interesting case because it seems his words hold either no meaning at all, or are exactly what he said. And strangely, I find myself unsure if that’s any better. It’s something to think about at least. Enjoy the Read!
P.S. If you didn’t already know, The Voice Magazine has a Facebook page and a twitter feed if You’re into that kind of thing!
