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About the Author

Jason Robert Werbics was born January 6, 1970 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with distinct delusions of grandeur. Passionate about learning and life, Jason was drawn to knowledge, the desire to understand evident at an early age. >From the get-go, his particular obsession was philosophy. By age 10, Jason already knew that a life like the one Socrates had known would probably be the best for him. So it was no surprise when a Grade 8 guidance counsellor told Jason that he “would make a great plumber and should leave philosophy to the experts.” At that moment, Jason knew it was going to be a long and winding road filled with controversy and confrontation.

Vowing to prove the guidance counsellor wrong and make an end-run around the pitfalls and traps Canadian society had laid out before him (in a futile attempt to collar his determination to become a well rounded intellectual), Jason, at age 17, dropped out of high school. With only a Grade 10 education under his youthful belt and the hope of creating a place for himself in the annals of military history, Jason entered the Canadian armed Forces in 1988.

He served with the army until his honourable discharge in 1989.

Returning to civilian life, Jason enrolled in the University of Winnipeg Collegiate (taking a pass at Grade 11 and going straight into Grade 12 curriculum) and earned his high school diploma in one year. It was during this time that Jason saw firsthand what passed for the “intellectualism” of the day and realized that particular path of learning ended there. If he was to continue on with his interests unhindered and without hate and intolerance filtering its way into his work, Jason knew he would have to once again go his own way.

Looking for an outlet that would allow for the time and experience needed for his thoughts to mature, Jason turned to the arts community for inspiration and guidance. Jason joined the Winnipeg Film Group. It was here that he befriended Guy Maddin, the man who would later become his film mentor.

But again, the invisible fingers of manipulation, interference and control that seem to be at the root of Canadian society found Jason out. On the preposterous notion that his first film (a comedy) was not funny, Jason was turned down for funding necessary to complete his project…thus ending his dream of furnishing himself with at least one calling card of accomplishment. After this rejection by his peers, Jason left for his uncle’s farm in Saskatchewan. Having completely lost faith in the idea that he could find a place in Canada that would allow him to work out his ideas, Jason hoped that a peaceful and quiet life could be found toiling away in the soil. The attempt, however, was short-lived and his quiet life was disrupted in the spring of 1990 when he found himself embroiled in the Wilkie Revolt. His participation in this event rekindled his spirit and desire to learn–and to explore the ideas that had almost been driven from him entirely.

But this time Jason vowed to redouble his efforts to ensure no one stood in his way when it came to working out his philosophical positions and beliefs. To achieve this goal Jason brought forth a new strategy to counter this continued interference.

“The unjust will suffer the consequences (logic) of their own actions,” became Jason’s new guiding principle in this fight.

Returning to Winnipeg in 1991, after a short whirlwind tour of the Western World, Jason declared personal bankruptcy as a political statement against the economic and financial institutions of his time: a personal retaliation directed at the unethical actions of the Canadian banking system and the courts that were the underlying cause of the Wilkie Revolt. As an added poke in the proverbial eye, Jason sat himself on welfare to show that these consequences will also have a monetary bite.

Jason then created Real Life Productions, a small independent film and video production company specializing in documentaries, short films and videos. It was through Real Life Productions that Jason finished his first film: Undercover. It was also during this time that he affiliated himself with Video Pool. The ethos behind anything created hereafter would have to show his definition of social justice and utility in the medium.

Although not an award-wining filmmaker, some of his projects have nonetheless been notable for their exploits. We Have a Dream was specifically created with Allan Simpson to prevent the Government of Manitoba from closing down an independent living center for the disabled, the Qu’Appelle Project, in Winnipeg’s inner core. It was also seen at the United Nations Conference on Disability in Vancouver in 1992. The Sea Dinosaur: A Vignette was created to help the Morden Museum attract public interest and attention. Sea Dinosaurs was screened in competition at the Brussels International Film and Video Festival for best computer animation in 1994.

Feeling he finally found his calling, and sure that he and Canada were now working on the same page and in the same direction, Jason applied with confidence for a position with the National Film Board of Canada. But again his dreams would be dashed. Turned down with the absurd notion that he and his work lacked artistic merit (not to mention the fact that the selection process for the position offered was rigged), Jason did what only he could do while keeping to his promise of creating consequence for those who unjustly get in his way...

Jason sued the National Film Board of Canada and the Government of Canada for their abuse of the Canadian Constitution.

Acting as his own lawyer, Jason created and filed all legal documents with the Court of Queens Bench in August 1994 but not before enlisting the legal opinion of long-time family friend, the Hon. Alfred M. Monnin, OC, Om, QC, who lived two doors down.

Over the next two years, Jason continued his trips to the University Of Winnipeg Library, which he had been visiting since his return to Winnipeg in 1991 to secretly build his own curricula and reading list – in essence, studying each and every subject that was of interest to him without academic interference. But now he included regular trips for research to the Great Law Library of Manitoba. It was on one such visit that Jason met lawyer Regan Thatcher, son of Colin Thatcher. Feeling the court case was nearing an end in terms of knowledge and experience, Jason enlisted Regan’s help to try and foster a greater awareness of the case among others.

Hoping to generate greater momentum, Jason tried a new approach to the constitutional challenge. Attempting to entice major business, academic and artistic leaders to join the debate fostered only a dead end. Even a media blitz to try and encourage public support failed.

Feeling he perhaps should not have made the 1994 phone call to inform the National Film Board of Canada that they only had 24 hours left to file a statement of defence with the Court of Queens Bench in Manitoba or lose their Employment Equity Program and much more, Jason faded away to Saskatchewan in 1996. To this day Jason continues to wonder whether or not winning on a technicality at the very beginning would have been more beneficial than settling out of court in 1997.

But a victory it was and Jason took solace in it.

It was in Saskatchewan in 1997 that the essays and ideas for “The Thoughts of a Peasant Philosopher” began to take shape. Jason finally put pen to paper and began to explain to the world the philosophical perspective that had been so summarily dismissed by that guidance counsellor so long ago. It is a work that attempts to unravel the prevailing myth that a logical and reasoned answer to today’s fragmented intellectual question – where do we go from here? – does exist. It is a work that counters and admonishes most of today’s entrenched philosophical positions with a new perspective founded upon its own unique structure, forms and ideas. This new position or perspective can be most broadly defined as “The Middle Ground.”

Ironically Volume I: Politics was finished in the middle of a Canadian winter while walking the picket line against Maple Leaf Meats as a member of the U.F.C.W (United food and Commercial workers Union) in North Battleford, Saskatchewan – Canada’s largest labour dispute ever.

Volume I: Politics examines individual self-determination in a world that rejects the concept of political duality. In particular, the early part of this work focuses on the fabricated political structure known as “Left” and “Right” and the role they play in the ineffective form of political discourse known as representational democracy. It is a work that offers a solution to this ineffectiveness by linking individual self-determination to the very creation of Law itself. This idea is defined by what Jason terms “Primary Democracy.”

Volume II: Morality, Ethics & Love: A Dialogue chronicles the 4-year relationship in Jason’s life (1996-2000) during which he attempted to help a young lady find herself and her place in the world. This work was published in the United States in 2002 and is related to the overall theme of “The Thoughts of a Peasant Philosopher” and the “Middle Ground” in such a way as to be a guide or a reference for those individuals who reject the rigidity of modern-day compromise of God=Religion, Science=Truth. It offers a moral and ethical code of conduct that is much more this or that than take it or leave it.

Volume III: Virtual Philosophy is Jason’s latest contribution in his attempts to create a more accessible, practical and reasoned approach to post-modern thought. Working within the simple framework of duality, dichotomy and juxtaposition in regard to the placement of ideas, Jason sets down the final parameters for that mysterious area of balanced thought known to the reasoned and logical as the “middle ground.” Continuing the trend set forth in his earlier works of employing non-traditional forms of investigation and argument, Virtual Philosophy uses sly humour and a collection of thought-provoking essays to illuminate the “middle ground” hidden by today’s fragmented intellectual world. Volume III: Virtual Philosophy also includes the ground-breaking, reversible essay about Time: “It Was All There in a Photograph...”

New Musings offers published and unpublished short stories from Jason's journeys and travels through the United States of America that have consumed his life for the past few years. It also serves as Jason's stylized and up to date blog whenever he feels compelled to write...

Today, Jason lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

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