By DONALD DeMARCO
The postage stamp is a subtle but effective means of propaganda. Though it has been circulated widely and for some time, it has not received much scrutiny as a propaganda device. It does not offer an argument but a settled image. The message it conveys is certified and approved by a nation’s higher authorities and is not to be questioned.
Communist countries have utilized the postage stamp as a medium for propaganda extensively, particularly Russia, China, and North Korea. Proud pictorials of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, and other dictators decorate their stamps along with glowing images of people saluting their flag and looking forward to a glorious future. Recent stamps of North Korea depict fists, guns, and nuclear warheads pointed at the U.S, capital. Propaganda arouses, but it does not enlighten.
The Canadian Postal Service has been slow in entering the propaganda game. It produced just a single stamp in 1967 in commemoration of its 100th birthday, that being an image of Queen Elizabeth along with the simple inscription 1867-1967. Canada’s sesquicentennial in 2017 is a far different matter.
The 2017 year book of stamps, Collection Canada, is an elaborate celebration of Canada’s 150 years as a nation. It awards special place to ten “stories” of “courage, compassion, innovation, and diversity” that highlight Canada’s past 50 years. Hailed as a “great story” is “Marriage Equality,” unveiled on May 9, 2017. The stamp is cut in the shape of a maple leaf and depicts the rainbow flag alongside the words “Canada 150” and “Marriage Equality” (Le mariage égal). Canada Post regards what the stamp signifies as one of the “10 iconic moments and milestones from the past half century of Canada.”
The underlying message the stamp conveys is that it would be downright unpatriotic not to embrace same-sex marriage. It would also be politically incorrect not to applaud the diversity for which it stands.
One might ask, however, how something could be a proud moment in Canadian history when it not only excludes but offends all orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all others who hold to the traditional notion of marriage. Such is propaganda, sending a message that is not anchored in objectivity and used to influence people to accept a particular agenda. The “marriage equality” stamp arrives, without fanfare or ceremony, in the homes of untold numbers of Canadians and silently, but effectively, announces that same-sex marriage is not only established, but is an iconic and celebratory moment in Canada’s great history. Case closed!
Yet how great can Canada’s history be if it neglected so seemingly fundamental a notion as “marriage equality” for 149 of its 150 years? Collection Canada offers neither apology nor explanation for this apparently embarrassing omission. How could Canadians have been so collectively blind as to be resolutely opposed to same-sex marriage for virtually the entire duration of Canada’s history?
Propaganda and philosophy, of course, do not mix. A philosopher may write a 500-page disquisition and feel he has barely scratched the surface of his subject. A mere postage stamp is a sufficient text for propaganda interests. Propaganda does not require reason, logic, or argumentation.
No philosophy worth anything was ever communicated on a postage stamp. What is the essence of marriage, the philosopher would ask? It is a conjugal bond between a man and a woman that is open to procreation. This has been the understanding of marriage for millennia and in virtually all the countries of the world. Can anyone, even a nation, alter the essence of marriage by fiat?
The notion of equality with respect to marriage is egregiously misleading. Is it possible that a marriage between a man and a woman is equal to a marriage between a man and a man? Author John Wauck has expressed the matter in such politically incorrect terms that he would risk losing his job if he said it today:
“The Church teaches that sex must be open to the transmission of new life; homosexuals have helped open it to the transmission of death.” Are life and death equal? Wauck does not see much equality between a man-to-man sexual relationship and that between a husband and wife. Certain truths today are simply too inconvenient to be accepted.
It has been said that the only lesson to be learned from history is that we do not learn anything from history. The Greek playwright, Aristophanes (391 BC), wrote The Assembly of Women to demonstrate how foolish it is to extend the notion of equality to absurd degrees. In the play, women have taken over the city of Athens and are determined to make everyone equally happy. It is a noble ideal. Therefore, a law is passed that requires young men to please old and decidedly unattractive women in order to make them as happy as young and beautiful women are.
The play makes it clear that such an attempt to establish extreme equality results in a revenge of the disadvantaged groups against the less disadvantaged. Resentment, not a thirst for justice, is the motivating factor. Chaos and injustice, not equality, are the inevitable results. The noble attempt to make everyone equally happy makes more people decidedly unhappy.
Equality must have its limits so that it does not violate justice. The elastic stretches until it snaps. We are all equal in humanity and equal under the law. But it is ludicrous to believe that the government can make all of its citizens equally happy by fiat. It is the individual who is the agent of his own happiness, not the state.
Not long ago in Canada, a blind fencer demanded the right to compete with sighted fencers. In order for this to happen, of course, the rules of fencing would need to be changed. But this would not be fair either to able-bodied fencers or to the sport itself.
Equality is not a moral principle that can stand on its own. It needs to be wed to justice, nature, and common sense. Let us learn something from philosophy so that we are not susceptible to propaganda.
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