Essays in Idleness

“You can’t argue with stupid.” — This phrase, used recently by one of my favourite old ladies, is typical of her charity and kindness.

I, on the other hand, yield too easily to the “mendacious” analysis; for when anyone destroys everything he touches (Justin and Jagmeet come to mind), I too quickly assume he is doing it on purpose. Take Justin, for instance. I have endured him in power for almost a decade, but like my friend Stephen, I became aware that Justin was one of Canada’s stupidest public figures long before that. But he had nice hair, a cherubic smile, and swept the women’s vote, so his rise in Canadian politics was irresistible.

He is probably slightly less evil than I have assumed. This is true of most presently or formerly popular politicians. Not having the ability to make “muchmoney” as an enterprising businessman, yet wanting to make a name for himself, he contrived to master what takes little brains, and fly quickly on the family name through the pedestrian ranks of party politics. Because the successful politician can more or less help himself to the taxpayers’ billions, he easily collected a retinue of low-intelligence bureaucratic types, come to share his good fortune. They have spotted the gold coin lying in the ditch, or loose in an unattended pocket.

The hereditary principle indeed comes into play. Justin actually inherited “muchmoney” from the start, as his father Pierre did from his own (genuinely enterprising) father. Pierre, though a notorious skinflint with his own money, was unprecedented for his extravagance as a politician, and we (the humble, taxpaying Canadians) are still paying off his public debt. And just when the budget was finally balanced, after thirty-something years of great pain, Justin appeared, to revive the Trudeaumanic spending. He appears to be the new record-holder for irresponsible profligacy, helped by his subscription to the “climate” fraud.

To listen to him during Question Period in the House of Commons — and the many criminal scandals he is being asked to account for — one might form the wrong impression. His shrieking, bawling, girlish postures might be mistaken for demonic inhabitation. But this would be unfair. More simply, the man is an idiot.

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THE HIGH DOGANATE has been overrun with complaints about this Idlepost: that it is offensively mild. By turning away from God, and to some foolish distractions, Justin represents not citizens but the Ministry of Lies. My attempt to defend him by showing that he is an idiot, will not do. Prince Myshkin is our standard for a holy idiot. He is “a fool with a heart and no brains.” But those with brains and no heart are also unhappy (in the religious sense). Does that make those who lack both less wicked? And, what about Jagmeet?