Yesterday we shared this videoclip of Councillor/Acting Mayor, Carolyn Parrish as she summarized the benefits of Democracy during the Port Credit Library Debate.
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Then I wrote:
"I can tell Councillor Parrish one thing with certainty. She's absolutely wrong when she said, "Sit there long enough on those hard benches you get what you want." But let's leave that for the subject of our next Blog entry."
OK,. this is the next Blog entry, so... Here's why the good Councillor is wrong about "Sit there long enough on those hard benches you get what you want.". Doesn't matter how long I sit on those hard benches, I won't ever get what I want because I'm experiencing the opposite of "it's turtles all the way down!"
What does the expression "turtles all the way down" mean?
Wikipedia states:
"Turtles all the way down" refers to an infinite regression belief about cosmology, the nature of the universe.
The most widely known version today appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which begins with an anecdote about an encounter between a scientist and an old lady:
A well-known scientist (some say it was the philosopher Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"
"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
Follow me so far?
"It's turtles all the way down!" is why Councillor Parrish is wrong when she says, "Sit there long enough on those hard benches you get what you want." (Harrumph, I know what's what.)
I get it now.
--Federal Governance.
--Provincial Governance.
--Municipal Governance.
Same Toxin --Different Strength.
And I'm here to tell you I won't ever get what I want no matter how long I sit on hard benches at any level of Government because --
it's no heroes all the way UP!
Signed,
The Mississauga Muse