No, not the temperature, although that too is getting hot. I'm referring to the tenor of our social and political discourse. We're turning venomous, turning on each other. Society is degrading into camps, tribes.
We write off others, denounce them, vilify them and call them stupid childish names. We write them off at the very time when we most need to reach out and find common ground to restore and rebuild the framework of social cohesion.
When I began blogging about 10 years ago there was a marked difference between our side and the Tory camp. They were much quicker to pick up on the degeneracy of hyper-partisanship as it took hold in the United States. If you weren't in their camp you were a libtard or a lieberal or some equally puerile epithet. On their side it was constantly positing us, all of us, as their enemy. We might criticize their leaders but they had no hesitation in demeaning all of us. It was a shameful thing, a petty nastiness that they appeared to share with their American cousins.
Flash forward ten years and that same contagion of darkness has a foothold in our camp. The same hyper-partisanship, the same derogatory names, the same rage and hostility. And so we have fallen lower. The thing is, this demeans us. The other side, they don't care. It merely validates their own view of irreconcilable and warring camps. We confirm what they want, even need, to believe about us to justify their own ugliness.
This is not a harmless indulgence by an intemperate few. It seeks to divide us, pull us ever further apart. Some quest to destroy a political party that predates Confederation and that still commands the support of more than 30 per cent of our fellow countrymen.
To those who boast about wanting to destroy the Conservative Party, what then? What do they want, a one-party state? Do they want their party in perpetual control of our country and our society? Do they really imagine their party is infallible or magically immune to corruption? It's not. Two years in and we've seen that this government has plenty of foibles and a good many failures. It has reneged on the critical promises that got it elected. It's a pretty face on some pretty shopworn politics.
The Trudeau Liberals, on the strength of some major promises they did not fulfill, got 39.5 per cent of the vote. 60.5 percent of the voting public supported other parties. By a 3 to 2 margin, the Canadian public was defeated in that election. Trump got a much better share of the popular vote in his country than Trudeau did in ours.
It is not disloyal, it is not aiding the enemy, to roundly criticize the Trudeau government for its grievous failings. It is not disloyal to expect far more and far better from the Liberals than we had to accept from the Harper Tories. Moreover it is not loyal to sit mute when our side strays and falters as the other side did.
I want to hear no more of this rabid nonsense about destroying the Conservative Party. This is stacking up to be a hellish century. We need social cohesion more than at any time in humanity's past. This is a time when we need to be reaching out, finding common ground, restoring consensus wherever that can be achieved. We will need to win them over, not alienate them and not create rifts among ourselves.
7 comments:
A powerful indictment of the vicious factionalism that has taken hold, Mound. No party can be above criticism; to get some a free pass is to simply enable abuse of power, a picture we have seen many times before.
.. your observations deserve very serious thought..
as an inherent problem solver.. I try to not fall into obvious traps or arguements or repeat mistakes.. many of which I consider very foolish to engage in. There is thst old saying - 'if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem..
There's a lot of old soothsayings I find worth examining .. perhaps I am looking for why they became so useful. There must be reasons, non? Of course - I find ridiculous. 'Spare the rod - spoil the child'. Nobody spared me.. family, priests, teachers, nuns. Was it effective? No no and no. Was I or am I spoiled? No no & no. Bottom line, I was assaulted & bullied & insulted & even sexually groomed until I suddenly sprouted in size the summer before grade 11. I know it when I see it.. and within 5 years of completing grade 11 I began working with triple maximum security juveniles, drug addicted juves and the emotionally disturbed.. I have what some call 'standing
My point is, Mound.. I recognize all the signporsts or symptoms when presented via political parties or their backroom operators. And the behavior of partisans with zero 'standing' is just that. There are such obvious clues. I maintain I have never won an argument in my life.. snd gave up trying. My perspective, was white noise to those who simply had to 'get the last word. I have been interrupted so often I lost count. I have seen folks loading their retort or opinion when I was on word 4 of my explanation. As my brilliant older sister always says.. 'fight the battles you can win'
But here's the catch, Mound. You have a certain expertise and opinion.. and style.. a 'way of being' - and thus you attract.. indeed energize folks you've never met & never will. Of course you aggro some folks or even worse. In my own way I try to be informed & informative, non partisan, concerned, coherent.. via comments on Indy blogs, or twitter, Facebook. I see a huge value to what you do & so many of the Indy bloggers. I often repost such works to my facebook page, or email links or comments or requote. I try to resist 'feeding the trolls' .. but some need the harsh slap of crisp rebuttle to astonishing fallacies as long as the slap is supported by indisputable fact.
Few in Canada eh .. have a smidgen of your perspectives, talents or energy.. or the wide sweep of what catches your attention. So they do exactly what I do, and in their own unique way. They 'try' .. they try to add voice.. and energy.. to connect to some sort of concerned, coherent other stubborn believers.. and believe they are not alone. Now few will ever lay down what you have. And they may be more shrill.. even on the edge of coherent.. but in this brave new world of social media.. they are trying & doing & have found some voice.. Are they resilient? Are they kinda well intentioned? Could be maybe.. & I think so
I grow long winded.. and have a long day tomorrow. As always will reread your latest work & enjoy the comments.. These sre not 'interesting times' - no, they are wild wooly & at many times.. insane times.. dangerous times. A time for Canadians to pay attention. Canada is the last redoubt.. we need to see it as such. To let it strangle or founder or sell out via captured political parties during my lifetime would be.. well I have no words for such an atrocity.. such negligence, such destruction..
I think in so may ways.. so many Canadians try to express this.. not always succeeding..
but that's OK .. its about 'trying' .. the rest just follows..
Yes, Sal, I too believe that Canada is "the last redoubt." Why then do we allow ourselves to be so divided, to constantly lurch further apart?
.. I try to understand why people, pundits, politicians.. supposedly 'defending' Canada & Canadians.. are insistant in selling it & all of us out? Is extirpating habitat and species, forests, inland waters, coastal water, the air we breathe so important 'to grow the economy' ? Its a source of extreme wonder to me.. not to mention extreme anger & resolve.. i do not 'abide' or tolerate such ignorance..
Destroy the Conservative party? No problem they have themselves destroyed The PC party, the CRAP and the Reform party in the past few years. Now the spawn of Mulroony, Manning, McKay, Harper et al, Sheer is if not destroying the CPC , driving if into a misogenistic, racist, nativist , sexist corner where decent Canadians fear to tread. The CPC will after becoming more nasty and irrelevant lead to a unite the progressive right in a few years.
We allow ourselves to be divided because that's the way we've been raised since birth. Religions divide people into "believers" and "infidels," with believers being trustworthy and infidels being lesser beings. The school system is all about division - division into different schools, classrooms and teams. Sometimes the division is at random, but more often it's by ability. We get used to being grouped into categories like "special needs," "advanced standing," and "gifted." We notice the parents of "gifted" students bragging about their kids, while the parents of "special needs" students stay silent. We come to attach value to these categories and see ourselves as better or worse than others. This carries on throughout life. The companies we work for divide people into workers and management, with workers expected to obey managers or be fired. Achievement is generally measured by income and those who earn more see others as inferior.
Through all this division it's easy to miss the essential truth that we're all in this together and in a real sense are all one. The pain we cause others affects us all and we can expect consequences from that. We see this principle at work in the sexual misconduct accusations coming to light against famous men, we see it in the blowback that comes from waging continuous war in places around the world, we see it here at home in the indigenous people saying enough is enough.
There's a beautiful Persian rug that hangs inside the entrance to the UN, a gift from Iran. Beside the rug are the words of the great Persian poet Sa'adi:
"All human beings are members of one frame,
Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
When time afflicts a limb with pain
The other limbs at rest cannot remain.
If thou feel not for other’s misery
A human being is no name for thee.”
Yet far too often, we elevate those who cannot feel the misery of others to positions of power - corporate leader, religious leader, president. This has to stop.
Cap
Thanks for your thoughts, Cap. You're right. The way we're going has to stop.
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