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Cargando... A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canadapor John Ralston Saul
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Saul's "A Fair Country" made me stop and rethink some of my assumptions about Canada, it's history and culture. There were a few moments when it all dropped into place and became so obvious. But there were also a few points were I felt Saul may have belaboured the point a bit much. Overall, the book gave me a lot to think about. ( ) I was puzzled by this book. I admire the author as public intellectual who had years to gain a privileged view of the country at the side of the then-Governor General. I wait to hear more from him. For now, I was not persuaded that the founding generations of the country were much influenced by Metis or First Nations thinking. To be frank, an English loyalist Protestant triumphalism dominated, and I say that counting myself as a hopefully chastened later member of the clan. The dominant (thankfully not exclusive) attitude to Native culture was a religious racism later seen in the residential schools catastrophe. I suspect the first generations looked down on the natives. Maybe Saul is not religiously sensitive himself and mislabeled an accommodating trait of Christianity in a context that was plural (Anglican/Catholic/Methodist/etc) from inception. Did I read aright that he implies in the first section that European thinking would be natural in Europe and transformed somehow by the geography when Europeans traveled to the New World? If so, not persuaded. I imagine the old thinking would be transmogrified in the new land and old traditions displaced, as was the case in New England, and begin its unique evolution, but the roots would remain in place. We are still celebrating Christmas though for most folks the religious aspects are, lets say, muted. Many interesting aspects, esp the accommodation of the Supreme Court to First Nations approaches in deciding their cases, orality over literacy, et.c., but the case overall fell short. Open to discussion. I think this book should be required reading for all new Canadians. Not least because John Ralston Saul says such nice things about new immigrants. And because it makes such a lot of sense. It gets very political in the middle, but the historical perspective on how Canada was forged out of the Aboriginal approach to welcoming the 'other' is absolutely fascinating and I was nodding my head all the way through the early chapters. This man knows his history and has a clear vision of how it can be incorporated in a national vision for the future. Which is unfortunately a lot more than can be said for most of the current crop of leaders of the county. “In the circle of life, the circumference nurtures the centre.” P 62. This describes the web of relationships of First Nations society of the northwest coast, in BC. Many nations, each considered themselves different, yet the relationships of stories, myths, economic roles linked them into a larger more complex culture. “In the circle of life, the circumference nurtures the centre.” P 62. This describes the web of relationships of First Nations society of the northwest coast, in BC. Many nations, each considered themselves different, yet the relationships of stories, myths, economic roles linked them into a larger more complex culture. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
In this startlingly original vision of Canada, renowned thinker John Ralston Saul argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas: Egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all Aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. An obstacle to our progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn't believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink it's future. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)971History and Geography North America CanadaClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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