Marc Simard, Ph.D.
The author has a doctorate in history and a lawyer
Lives in Sainte-Foy, Quebec.
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The hour of glory ……. 
We live in a great time,
" unbelievable " even, some journalists from the electronic media will add. In this Quebec at the start of the XNUMXst century, no more project, of whatever nature, escapes the publicized opposition of citizens and popular lobbies.
Harnessing rivers, gas power stations, moving casinos, LNG terminals, construction of highways, tourist complexes, increases in utility prices or electricity costs, nothing finds favor in their eyes. Only wind farms, these symbols of the ecological religion escape this new global refusal, and there are oddballs to criticize their ugliness.
The defenders of development always have a wetland, an exceptional woodland, a heritage building, a fragile socio-economic environment, the destitute, an endangered species, a danger to collective health and safety to oppose to managers and developers. The middle of the XlXe century had known the “war of the extinguishers”, carried out against the creation of the school taxes. We are now experiencing the apogee of these extinguishers, gathered in occasional and heterogeneous coalitions whose objective is the end of development. Let’s see who these keepers of going in circles are.
ANTICAPITALISM 
The anti-capitalist is part of all these fights. He hates money, a dirty object (he also often believes that it would be necessary to return to barter to put an end to its symbolic and evil power), and finds that any profit is suspect. Orphans of Marx, he is a communist at heart, but does not dare to claim this utopia degraded by the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. He prefers to call himself a citizen. For him, any project where the private company is on the tip of its nose is to be cut down.
Its motto is "everything by the state, nothing outside the state". He can enjoy an honest ease and even more (he does not spit on a residence in the countryside or on a chalet located by a lake) and enjoy his comfort (eat foie gras, drink bordeaux and drive a Volvo). As long as the money he earns and spends has been purified by passing through the channels of taxation and taxes before reaching him. He sings the International in his bath.
THE APPARATCHIK
The apparatchik of popular groups and community organizations feels invested with a mission. That of relieving the suffering of his destitute fellows. He lives most often in poverty, with a meager salary drawn from government subsidies, but he considers that personal suffering is negligible and even necessary to achieve collective redemption. His fear is the gaps between the rich and the poor. He would prefer a country where everyone lives in poverty to any form of social differentiation. He thinks governments can't do enough and doesn't give a damn about taxpayers, who are all privileged to him.
Any money invested other than in the immediate relief of misery and social problems is wasted in his eyes. He considers heresy the aphorism about the poor who can be given a fish or who can be taught to fish. He loses his calm when he is told that poverty can only be overcome by economic development leads to sputtering in the face of his interlocutor for long minutes. He sees economic development and job creation as pipe dreams. He has a strong tendency to believe that government resources are unlimited and, above all, misused. His indignation is permanent and unquenchable.
THE ECOLOGIST 
The Edenist-type ecologist is a new avatar of the medieval Christian. His whole worldview is modeled on the paradise-sin-sacrifice-redemption-paradise scheme. For him, the disappearance of any plant or animal species is a sin committed against Mother Earth and everything that can be qualified as a natural environment must be fully preserved. He dreams of a return to the Garden of Eden or to pre-Columbian America, but might be content with the immediate end of the changes.
Misanthrope without admitting it to himself, he thinks that the planet would be in much better condition if the human species did not exist. It is also one of his hidden fantasies.
In his spare time, he rereads Malthus and Rousseau. He only feels good when He is in communion with virgin nature, but cannot enjoy it for long because he is immediately the victim of nightmares where this paradise is destroyed by 10-wheel trucks, chain saws, 1 products. chemicals, hordes of tourists, condos and fast food restaurants.
He senses an impending disaster that he desires even in his heart of hearts, because he believes that this is the necessary sacrifice to save the planet. He hopes those who survive can start over, but aware of the mistakes of the past.
THE HARBOR 
The surly skidder suspects the presence of friends of the ruling party and profiteers behind any project. He repeats ad nauseam that politics is rotten and secretly flirts with Bakunin's Ideas. He is against any a priori project, because he is deeply convinced that the common good will still go behind the satisfaction of selfish appetites. He also thinks, like the apparatchik, that big companies do not pay enough taxes and that the rich enjoy exorbitant tax havens. For him, promoter and good faith are incompatible terms. It suffices that one presents him with a project for him to defend the contrary option, believing that he is thus demonstrating sagacity. He adheres to all the urban legends and denounces economic interests at all times and in all places, and serves these common places to those around him with the air heard by those who know more and understand better than ordinary people.
THE OPPONENT
The political adversary takes advantage of the opposition aroused by any project to denounce the amateurism and improvisation of the government which launched or authorized it. He does not use partisan language but drapes himself behind major ethical principles or rules of public administration that he seems to know inside out. He is happy to be ironic and always has a joke to tell about the inability or mediocrity of the ruling party.
He rejoices in the failure of any project, even when he knows it to be valid, provided that the stampede brings down the voting intentions for the hated party. He encourages all other types of snuffers and can even borrow their language under certain circumstances.
THE "NOT-IN-MY-COURT"
Finally, the “not-in-my-yard” is the cannon fodder of epic struggles. He moved to the countryside but complained about the smell of pigsties. He buys a building in a neighborhood where a factory already exists, only to report unbearable odors or the dust generated by it. He builds his dream house near a port where a transport network and then goes into whining about the fact that the government or entrepreneurs are using this infrastructure and thus damaging his Eden.
He writes opinion letters to the dailies and willingly gives his point of view to cameras and microphones pointed at him, and can even cry in public if the cause demands it. The fight against the cursed project finally allows him to come out of his flat life and generates in him a feeling of completeness as he has not often experienced, so that he is both enraged and elated for the duration of his fight. He finally has the impression of being part of something bigger than himself and dreams of slaughtering on his own the state or corporate monster who has dared to attack his peace or his inalienable rights as a citizen. He fades into the gray as soon as the project is abandoned, but is immediately replaced by his clone.
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Together, these extinguishers with various motivations constitute a formidable force thanks to the complicity of the media, whether they are right or wrong.
Too bad they never have solutions to offer! 
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We reap what we sow ...
