Gvaskas

In English we have "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations".

Making endless excuses to deny women agency and accountability is a far larger problem IMO

We might have only given it a name 200 years ago. It was the default state for all of human history, and still is in the animal kingdom.

A population of people of shared blood and history sharing a homeland in pursuit of common values and ambitions, violently defending it from foreigners whenever necessary.

Not a soulless economic zone where foreigners are treated like royalty by traitors and treasonous authorities.

No amount of reading is going to make this possible. It's not chance. It's not a lottery.

The foal doesn't choose to be born to a mare any more than a lamb to a ewe.

That's not luck. See my reply to the other guy.

You are your parents' son. Unless your parents are Tanzanian hut-dwellers, there was no chance of that occurring.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

He is his parents' child. As they are the children of their parents, and they are of theirs.

There is no sperm or egg that could have had him born as a Japanese man in outback Australia. He is the culmination of generations of ancestors' accomplishments, as is the civilisation they have built for themselves and their descendants.

>I don’t feel pride in being Canadian because pride, to me, is reserved for accomplishments

>I had no part in being born in Canada, nor shaping this lovely country ... a country filled with opportunity and beauty, where hard work is rewarded, and life is governed fairly and predictably

>I am proud of my ancestors ... who crossed oceans, who spoke no English, and settled in the rugged, frozen prairies of Saskatchewan.

Does he think the modern Western democratic country we now know as "Canada" was always there and his fortunate ancestors stumbled upon it? Does he not consider carving this beautiful and just land of opportunity from a frozen wasteland an accomplishment of his ancestors?

How can you not feel pride in that? Does he not consider himself - a strong, healthy, intelligent, thoughtful man - an accomplishment of his ancestors; the result of millions of years of toil and struggle and selection?

Does he think it's random chance that he was not born in a hut in Tanzania?

How can one express pride in his ancestors and their achievements in the most abstract sense, while being very sure to completely reject any pride in himself and what they built? Indeed, what else is there? If you asked them, I'm sure they would say that their family and home are their greatest accomplishments - things that he explicitly excludes from eligibility for any sense of pride whatsoever.