Well I see the legend of Brigette DePape continues to grow, like a red rose of hope in the darkness of Harperland.

Quoted in The Globe: “I have been really inspired because there have been thousands of people who have sent messages or commented on the Internet. People know that hope for change is possible when we start taking action.”

Michael Moore, who’s offered the fired page a job, thinks it’s an iconic moment for Canada. Heather Mallick thinks she’s the real thing.

And the right-wingers are in a foaming lather, howling this is not Egypt !!!!

From the National Post: “Ms. DePape says Canada needs a local version of the ‘Arab Spring.’ Perhaps she hasn’t noticed, but the Arab Spring is a revolt by oppressed individuals willing to risk their lives for the right to elect their own leaders. They are willing to die so they can make the same kind of democratic decision that Canada just made in electing Mr. Harper.”

But I think they are missing the point. Canada is not Egypt, but nobody should underestimate the depth of popular anger in this country. And nobody is more responsible for DePape’s popularity than Stephen Harper himself.

For five years he has governed like a political thug. He has pitted Canadian against Canadian with one cheap wedge issue after the other. He has treated his opponents like The Enemy. He has shown his contempt for Parliament over and over again.

Now he has a mandate to govern. But with less than 40 percent of the vote why should he be surprised that the other 60 percent don’t believe he has a mandate to change this country beyond recognition?

Why should he be surprised if that majority decides to fight any moves to dismantle Canada by whatever non-violent means necessary, including civil disobedience?

Why should he be surprised after the way he has assaulted women’s rights, that a young woman should step forward to challenge him?

DePape: “It is important to challenge the assumption that politics is the exclusive domain of politicians. It is really when ordinary people who voted against Harper take things into their own hands that we will hold him accountable.”

Why should he be surprised that her simple gesture should resonate with so many?

It seems so obvious to me. But what happens next is really up to Great Majority Leader. If he behaves himself, most progressives will spend the next four years preparing to defeat him in the next election.

If he doesn’t, he can expect to confront the greatest peaceful, passionate, and creative protest movement this country has ever seen.

Hey. I love red roses of hope. I love freedom. I love Brigette and her message of resistance.

Stephen Harper knows his Bible like he knows his attack ads.

So he should know this one eh?

If you sow the wind, you shall reap the whirlwind . . .

Perhaps you thought electroshock therapy was a thing of the past, persisting only in Hollywood films about the bad old days when the insane were locked up and treated inhumanely for the shits and giggles of the psychopathic staff. It still goes on today, though the preferred term is electroconvulsive therapy. It is primarily used in the treatment of extreme clinical depression, and mostly on women. According to Wikipedia, this is because women are more likely than men to seek treatment for depression.

What brings this to mind is some leftist propaganda I came across today. I hasten to add that I’m not using “propaganda” in any pejorative sense. The term may often be used to connotate deceit, but that isn’t actually a defining factor. In fact, truths (inconvenient or otherwise) can be much more powerful than lies as ingredients in propaganda.

The finest propagandist ever is Michael Moore. Leni Riefenstahl was a better cinematographer, but she could never come close to anything as effective as the way Moore weaves fact and opinion to the point where one is on the verge of believing that he is also somehow privy to George W. Bush’s internal monologue. Anyone who denies that Moore is a propagandist and is just a flat out, truth telling, no embellishing, documentary filmmaker has been totally taken in. And there’s no sin in that. Michael Moore is very, very good.

However, he had better watch out for up-and-coming propagandist Naomi Klein. Take a look at this tantalizing tidbit, this trailer for a documentary which does not yet exist, but no doubt will if her latest book, Shock Doctrine, sells big.

What interests me from a technological perspective is the complete lack of subtlety in the association between electroconvulsive therapy and disaster capitalism. It is so bold as to be almost beyond analogy, metaphor, or simile. It brings to mind the Bush administration’s “War on Terror,” where we are to take the metaphor so literally as to believe that GW is a war time president, and as such, entitled to extraordinary powers.

The only problem is, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a technology applied in order to produce a healing effect. With the exception of CIA experiments using it as a potential tool of control (“at 30 to 40 times the normal power”), there is little doubt, looking at the history of the technique, that the intention was palliative. The associated loss of memory is a sufficiently grave concern that ECT should only be used in extreme cases, and even then only in conjunction with anesthesia and muscle relaxants. But it is not a torture.

But to a propagandist like Klein, the image of the helpless patient jerking spasmodically as the current courses through her is just too good not to run with. And, once the image is established, the propagandist can extend the theme of “shock” to actual torture as outlined in the CIA interrogation manuals, and also to sudden collective trauma, such as that produced by the 9/11 attacks, always returning to that most basic image of the electrocuted person, spasming on her gurney. It’s quite a deft piece of work.

The ultimate measure of this ad’s success will be whether or not it sells the book. I wonder if the book can live up to it. Personally, I think I’ll wait for the movie. I’m a sucker for that “use old news reels for ironic effect” thing. One would think it would get old, but it works for me every time.

For more on Naomi Klein’s latest, check out the Democracy Now! interview with her. There are also links there to watch or listen to the show.