Name: Disruption and Suffering for the Common Good – Insights Mar 15 2025 by Cardus Insights
Duration: 7 min 49 s
Description: I am away on a pre-planned vacation this week, checking out the Panama Canal instead of following Canadian political happenings. I am thankful to my colleague, Cardus CEO Michael Van Pelt, for filling in and providing his insights on the week that was. One question has preoccupied Michael's mind for months now: What role does disruption, and even suffering, play in the common good?

I am away on a pre-planned vacation this week, checking out the Panama Canal instead of following Canadian political happenings. I am thankful to my colleague, Cardus CEO Michael Van Pelt, for filling in and providing his insights on the week that was. One question has preoccupied Michael's mind for months now: What role does disruption, and even suffering, play in the common good?

Disruption and Suffering for the Common Good – Insights Mar 15 2025

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Reading international headlines these days, I can’t help but notice that much of the nationalism we see around the world shunts aside values and ideas, elevating a version of history and identity in their place. This is not to say that history and identity don’t matter. As a history major, I celebrate history. Of course, I also have a national identity, among other identities. But the idolatry of history and identity is deeply problematic and interferes with how we understand nationhood. 

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Most take it for granted that ancient Aztec religious practices, which included human sacrifice, don’t deserve constitutional protection as a freedom of religion issue. In other words, freedom of religion is not absolute. It has reasonable limits. Defining that limit, agreeing who makes that decision, and sorting through enforcement, however, are trickier matters. 

No Religious Freedom for Aztecs - Insights Sep 20 2025

It’s not so easy to define the word “America” anymore. In fact, the concepts of America and the American way are being redefined before our eyes. It can be tough to see that this is what’s happening when we’re bombarded with news from around the globe.

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Nobel Prize announcements in the last week were hard to miss. Questions about whether US President Donald Trump would win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize attracted more than the usual attention—especially considering his own campaign to win the prestigious award. Of course, we know now that he didn’t win. But focusing solely on who receives these prizes overlooks a crucial question:
 
Should an award like a Nobel Prize celebrate past accomplishment, or should it draw our attention to the ingredients that make accomplishment possible?

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Numbers are at the heart of budgets, and this week, we’ve received plenty of hints about the kind of counting we should expect in the federal budget on November 4. But all of it becomes moot if the minority government can’t manage the arithmetic of votes in the House of Commons so that the “yeas” outnumber the “nays.” Less discussed, but at the moral core of the debate, is how democratic legitimacy expresses itself through these processes.

Disruption and Suffering for the Common Good – Insights Mar 15 2025

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