Dr. Robert Bowman
Over the last ten years we have seen the rapid deployment of legislation that undercuts fundamental rights embedded in both the US and Canadian Constitutions, all in the name of “national security.” Innocent civilians can be incarcerated indefinitely without recourse to legal protection, the media have become the unthinking cheerleaders of this process and two invasions that are illegal under international law have been launched by Western powers, principally the US and Britain, with Canada playing its usual “me too” role. The “war on terror” meanwhile betrays its true nature as a war of hegemony and resource theft.
Dr Bowman speaks to the growing evidence of distinctly fascist trends in western society, loss of personal freedoms that are completely unnecessary in light of the threat posed by terrorism, the widespread use of torture in the “interrogation” of detainees, not to mention dificult questions about the nature of that terrorism in the first place. The question is whether a true democracy can survive under these circumstances. Is it being replaced by a sham democracy, with all important decisions of government emanating from a controlling faction that is a) unelected and b) not interested in or committed to democratic principles?
Dr. Bowman is a decorated Vietnam veteran (Lieut. Col. USAF) and a leading authority on national security, with many awards and decorations to his name. He has a PhD in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech and headed President Reagan’s Star Wars program. Bowman’s new take on politics typifies the scrambling of typical left/right politics that has resulted from the Neoconservative takeover of the Republican party and their subsequent influence on the new administra-tion to continue the Bush policies both domestically and in foreign lands. For Bowman, the issue is one of patriotism in its original sense; Do we wish to see democracy survive?
There is no direction in this presentation that favours either liberal or conservative politics in the traditional sense. Bowman’s insights cut across party lines and bring us jarringly into the 21st Century.
PLACE: The Wolfe Performance Hall — Galleria
TIME: Friday August 21 7:00 pm
ADMISSION: $5 at the door
