Ideas
Middlemen
In religion, the middleman does not protect me from God; he protects God from me.
8 min readWrite it down. Think it through.
Essays on Québec, ideas, and culture and technology. Some of these views are still changing.
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Ideas
Where is America’s Rubicon?
The real question may not be “Will the president cross the river?” but “Is the river still there?”
17 min readCulture & technology
Encounters in the Wild
We may be the last generation who could still stumble on great creations “in the wild” while our taste was still taking shape.
11 min readIdeas
Freedom in the Plural
When medieval people spoke of freedom, they used the plural.
15 min readCulture & technology
The Golden Age of Piracy
The higher the tower grows, the more leaks down from it.
14 min readQuébec
Nothing Is Free
What public services, subsidies and the absence of competition really cost in Québec
12 min readQuébec
Should the law punish incivility, or ban the freedom that might lead to it?
The law should punish incivility, not confiscate everyone’s freedom in advance.
7 min readIdeas
The Empty Shell
Honesty means not deceiving; heart means staking your whole self.
12 min readQuébec
The Stationer State
School supplies, supply management, and the bill the central neighbourhoods never see
12 min readIdeas
What do I believe?
I believe human beings have enormous creative power, but in the end we are not God.
12 min readQuébec
Every riding has a member, so why is the National Assembly still skewed?
The Parti Québécois won nearly half the seats with 28% of the vote. The CAQ won 13% and no seats at all.
5 min readQuébec
What is left of the Parti Québécois’s independence ideal?
Where the PQ’s case for a new country falls short: its vision, its record on governance, and its positions on Indigenous nations, immigration and language.
10 min read