Divide and Perish

 

Poinsetta

The death and destruction spawned by World War Two doesn’t need to be reiterated for those of us alive during that unbelievable debacle and its aftermath. For “baby boomers” and others born after the blood had all seeped into the earth and the rubble had been cleared, a need for education about the facts of the war, the psychology and sociology making it possible can’t be overstressed.

Two relevant allegories coming out of that war could be helpful, but only if reading skills are up to appreciating deep truths illuminated by story, like Jesus’ parables, for instance. The first—Animal Farm, by George Orwell—has been taught in schools as an exposure of the folly of Communism. Published in 1945, it’s “story” may indeed have been inspired by the descent into brutality of the Communist Revolution in Russia, but it much more importantly exposes the basic human tendency to sink into self-serving, into embracing doctrinaire ideologies that serve individuals over collectives, herd the public into competing groups and turn human cooperation back into another zero-sum game. The game we call war when in its most destructive iteration.

A second allegory coming out during the post-WWII period was Lord of the Flies by William Golding, published in 1954 after much rewriting. In it, English school boys evacuated for reasons of a nuclear war end up on a remote tropical island with no adults in sight after a crash. In a situation where interdependence and collective action are vital to survival, Lord of the Flies traces the descent into competitive individualism, tribalism.

It's surprising to me that with our aggressive and divisive electioneering and the personal attacks among competing political parties, that as long as election results are honoured in Canada the nation works as a cooperatively functioning, democratic nation state. Much effort  toward changing our democracy into zero-sum, winner/loser games is evident all around us. Republicans in the USA seeking ways to subvert election results, a trucker convoy in Canada seeking ways to subvert a collectively, constitutionally legitimate public health mandate, conservative ideologues creating a strawman called “Woke” so they have a named enemy to justify their push toward tribalism. If Golding’s and Orwell’s thoughtful allegories are as prophetic in our time as Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s were in theirs, we are inching our way toward a Lord of the Flies future.

So how do we who’ve been labelled “woke,” or the barely-left-or-right-of-dead-centre citizens respond to the threats?

1.      Realize that free enterprise, socialist, capitalist or any of the other terms used to divide people into baskets are all irrelevant distractions in Canada. Our success has largely resulted from the adoption of a mixed economy: public ownership where that works best, private ownership where that works best. Individual choices balanced by group responsibility, not one or the other. Resist the temptation to call the Conservative Party of Canada a free enterprise party, or the New Democrats a socialist party. They may well lean slightly more one way or the other but history should tell us that ideologically, our politic has succeeded when it’s focus is mixed.

2.      Don’t get sucked into the dividers’ propaganda, otherwise you’ll find yourself riding on the coattails of whoever most eloquently sets your biases and repeatedly confirms them. It’s very important to set your own standards regarding what news you listen to, and to assess critically what you hear, otherwise you’re in danger of being taken in by Alex Jones’ contention that Sandy Hook massacre was staged by actors, for example, as many were. News sources may be somewhat biased ideologically, but the mainline news sources are at least aware of that accusation and make an effort to be politically fair. Like you, I’m often critical of CBC, CTV and Global, the Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press on individual choices they make, but I don’t expect anything approaching unbiased news from Rebel, Daily Wire, Fox News or Epoch Times, whose biases are explicit, divisive and obvious. Be aware that division is fostered when the dividers work to turn you against news sources that are balanced, or try to be.

3.      Revisit your stances on so-called moral and ethical matters: gay marriage, abortion, the death penalty, justice/mercy tension, reconciliation with indigenous people, MAiD, discrimination, gun laws, etc. Do you choose to take positions on these, or not? If you have stances on such current issues, were they inherited? were they derived from faith? were they reflective of a political party you support? do they coattail on someone whom you respect?

4.      Learn to discuss; particularly develop the good-listening part of dialogue. Don’t be one of those people who avoid news because “it’s generally bad” and therefor stressful. That attitude is pure gravy to dividers, who know the uninformed are the easiest to propagandize. Learn to control your natural rage reaction when someone disagrees with an opinion of yours that you consider obvious and critical. Learn to say, "I could be wrong."

5.      Always vote for the person you consider best equipped to represent your constituency in Ottawa, Regina or your town council. Every party has candidates driven by their sense of civic duty; they are also likely to have candidates who are recognition-hungry, or who are politically-driven ideologues. Weigh the difference, then vote.

6.      Finally, do read Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm, even re-read them if you've already read them in high school. And if you want to talk about them, call me and we’ll talk.