The Idle No More Movement - 1478 Words

Friedrich Nietzsche is a German philosopher that has a great influence on Western philosophy. One of his works called On the Genealogy of Morals discusses an overlying theme of superiority and power as well as â€Å"good and bad†. This book discusses the difference that the power that superior people have compared the the weak and poor. Nietzsche exemplifies how the powerful seem to â€Å"forget† about issues that do not pertain to themselves where as the weak fight for the issues (Nietzsche, 2007, pp 14). This idea of the powerful overlooking the weak in On the Genealogy of Morals, directly relates to the â€Å"Idle No More† movement. The Idle No More movement is a social and political protest consisting of indigenous people voicing their struggles†¦show more content†¦The Canadian government has continually entered indigenous protected land to have diamond, gold, and oil mines, as well as run oil pipelines. These operations have given the Canadian gove rnment billions of profits. Unfortunately, only little of that profit gained by the Canadian government is given to the aboriginal peoples. I believe that that the fact that the Canadian government is profiting off of illegal activity and not sharing a large portion of the profits with the rightful owners of the resources is wrong. This action and lack of respect for the law goes directly against Nietzsche’s idea of utilitarianism. Nietzsche describes the idea of utilitarianism as involving how â€Å"we ought to be made of finer stuff than Utilitarianism† (Lecture, 2016). He describes it as a pursuit of pleasure and good that has a positive and maximized effect for the majority of people (Lecture, 2016). This idea is how indigenous people live their life. They live their life so that the future generations can use the same land as they used it. If one person were to destroy the land for the pursuit of profit, then it should create wealth for the greater number of peopl e. Christoff’s article on Idle No More exemplifies this when Chief Spence says great riches are being taken from our land for the benefit of a few, including the government of Canada and Ontario, who receive large royalty payments, while we receive so little, outlines Chief