Sympathy for the Devil
Twelve posts and over 250 comments later, I have become quite bored with the AngryFrenchGuy controversy rocking the Québec blogosphere.
The whole thing had very little to do with me or my blog. It was family affair and I was only an innocent bystander.
All I have to say about the whole thing is here: Sympathie pour le Devil.
For those who like Reality TV:
AngryFrenchGuy 
AngryFrenchGuy wrote:
“Qu’est-ce que tout ça a à voir avec mon droit d’écrire ce que je veux quand je veux où je veux dans la langue que je veux? (Go for it Mr. Kondaks!)”
I don’t have to because you said it perfectly yourself right there.
I would also add to that what you wrote in the preceeding paragraph:
” Ce n’est pas la loi 101 ou l’indépendance qui vont assurer l’avenir du Français à Montréal, au Québec et en Amérique du Nord. C’est la décision individuelle de chacun d’entre nous d’utiliser le Français dans les magasins du Centre-ville…”
Both of these quotes of yours champions individual choice and individual freedom and is what, to me, is more important than anything else.
Individual free choice and individual freedom in a marketplace — whether it is a commerical marketplace or the marketplace of ideas or culture — can succeed where no law can hope to succeed. You want French service at a bar in a province in which 80% speak French? Then don’t give your dollar to them. And CERTAINLY don’t speak English to them.
That’ll get you your visage linguistique francais faster than you can say “marked predominance”.
Individual freedom is so important to me that I am willing to trade my own country — Canada — to get it back.
Canada is a great concept. But there are other concepts that are more important. And, to me, the concept of individual freedom is more important than the concept of Canada.
So when there is a conflict between the two, it is Canada that has to be sacrificed for the concept of individual freedom and not the other way around.
That’s why I keep repeating here that I would rather live in an independent Quebec without a Bill 101 that respected freedom than in a Quebec-within-Canada with a Bill 101 that didn’t.
Tony Kondaks
February 29, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Well said Tony!
It all comes down to individual choice in the end and let’s all keep in mind that “you’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”
Speaking French never appealed to me in high school where it was being forced on us but now, I couldn’t care less either way.
This comes back to my original point that as an allophone, I’m sick of being forced to pick a side, I have no ancestral/historical stake in either language and I go with whichever one is easier for the person I’m conversing with. The language spoken doesn’t have to be political, it can simply be a matter of convenience.
Then comes the argument “Quebeckers should be free to speak French in their own province” but no one really “owns” a province… borders change, ethnic compositions change and if Quebeckers really want to win this, they should improve their dismal birthrate (through laws encouraging families, not laws banning abortion, johnnyonline) instead of passing democratically questionable language laws.
Allophone
March 5, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Tony said : Canada is a great concept. But there are other concepts that are more important. And, to me, the concept of individual freedom is more important than the concept of Canada.
—————
Well, Tony, the day you’ll have to fight for your freedom, you’ll see that a collectivity, a real strong one, is a lot more powerful than simple individuals fighting in their corner.
La collectivité est l’assise des libertés individuelles. C’est une chose que toutes les minorités on comprises, qu’elles soient linguistiques, raciales, etc. Ou en serait la lutte des homosexuelles sans un fort sentiment d’appartenance. Le problème c’est qu’en tant qu’anglophone, Tony, vous n’avez pas assez de recul pour voir que c’est la grande collectivité angolphone qui vous donne tant de pouvoir. Si l’anglais était une langue marginale, vous n’auriez pas le choix d’apprendre une autre langue et vous comprendriez vite que votre petite personne aussi individualiste et égocentrique soit-elle n’est pas grand chose quand elle se retrouve isolé.
Musael
March 8, 2008 at 11:05 am
Ca aussi, c’est bien dit (desolee pour les fautes, clavier Americain…)!
C’est vrai que les majorites ont souvent de la difficulte a comprendre les problemes des minorites et que dans un pays merveilleux et comparativement tolerant comme le Canada, aucune minorite ne devrait etre ecrasee mais on ne “chante pas la meme tune” quand les Musulmans demandent la Sharia (et je ne pense pas qu’ils devraient etre accomodes non plus, s’ils n’aiment pas les lois penchees vers les valeurs humanitaires et egalitaires, ils n’ont qu’a retourner aux trous perdus d’ou ils sont sortis). Il faut a tout prix encourager l’intergration avec du respect pour la culture d’origine mais pas des accomodements ridicules comme le droit des Sikhs de porter des sabres ceremoniaux aux ecoles primaires!
Allophone
March 8, 2008 at 4:47 pm
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January 14, 2009 at 12:27 pm