100%! I, for one, lost faith in everyone since about 2015. I trust no one. I assume everyone is lying to me or incompetent or both. I mercilessly demand and pursue accountability at every turn. I have my successes in doing so, but it’s painstaking and exhausting. But if I don’t do it, I know it’ll never happen. Our institutions, the people who run them and their reputations are all shit. Canadians need to seriously give their heads a shake. Yet, as Jen notes, everyone has been centrally preoccupied in how nice we are, how tolerant we are, how forgiving and good natured we all are, and how trusting we are — and Canadians (especially our leadership) are smug as fuck about that — regardless of the fact that we have no reason to be. It’s fucking irritating.
Whenever I look at most mainstream Canadian news media and get this disconcerting and slightly hopeless feeling about how divorced the information I am viewing is from reality.
How it's willfully blind to, and seems to be running interference for, something nasty that has eaten the country I grew up in. Like they are saying everything other than what they should be talking about. Making big deals out of nothing while ignoring real crises right in front of them. Relating what is technically 'information' while selectively failing to apply basic scrutiny or ask really obvious questions, to the point where the information is actually distorted through that lack of scrutiny and context. Tolerating things that shouldn't be tolerable and pretending they are just fine and normal.
Reading the G&M or watching CTV news is a really gross and bleak experience lately in a way I can't fully articulate.
The press of the 80's and 90's would tear this government a new one on a daily basis.
It would be Day 400 and whatever of their illegal failure to produce key documents on the Sustainable Development Canada Fund and that would be a front page headline among umpteen other scandals. There would be investigative reporters hounding the MP floor-crossers to determine what they were promised and whether that constitutes criminal bribery.
They used to take this role of holding power to account seriously and sacrosanct, above getting cheap views, holding an ideological position, or kowtowing for government favour.
A lot of Canadian complacency is caused, and some would say, actively nurtured, by the media environment's own complacency.
This isn’t some personal failing of the Canadian press corps though, it’s the natural outcome of the internet being the way communications is done now. Mass online communications and the attention economy may be incompatible with a 20th century style democracy.
You guys are getting better all the time. As always every coin has two sides, strengths and weaknesses as you put it. I generally still have faith in institutions and in those who choose public life to do it for the right reasons: trust. But delegation should never be abdication. I still need to notice that every development decision Doug Ford makes enriches his friends, and that the foundations of our social cohesion, equality of opportunity through great public education and caring for each other through public healthcare, are under attack from his government. Why is the media not on this? You answer that question well.
I moved here in 2018 and always wondered what would I characterize as the national identity of Canada and Canadians. I never found any strong sense of patriotism or pride or cultural belonging to the country among most Canadians.
Over time, I have come to the realization that the primary national identity among Canadians is actually COMPLACENCY. This is not actively cultivated, but never guarded against either. The idea that it's all going to be fine has generally been true for most of the past century after the World wars. And it becomes that much harder to acknowledge the opposite when things actually turn bad.
I would suggest that our complacency came from living next to a benevolent neighbor. Now that the neighbor is no longer so kind, we don't know how to handle the change.
Actually, one of our key attributes is politeness. When a foreigner makes a disparaging and bigoted generalization about Canadians, we reward it with likes instead of derision.
“ We believe we are good”. Isn’t that the definition of smugness?
“We believe others are moral”. Makes sense when you look at individuals but a recipe for extinction if you look at the turkeys (at best) and snakes (at worst) Canadians choose to lead them. Illustrates the point that the only difference between humans and animals is that animals would never choose the weakest and dumbest to lead them.
Noting how individual Americans are twice as generous as Canadians on a per capita charitable contribution basis it may have some basis in truth.
I found that Canadians - encouraged by first responders- are more likely to call 911 and drive on whereas Americans are more likely to stop and help. That comparison may be a bit biased since my opinion is based on Ottawa and Toronto behaviors vs Western US behaviors. Perhaps others could chime in.
The older *I* get, the more I see liberal democratic societies' openness as both a feature and a bug. For many years we in liberal democratic societies experienced (or noticed) only the features -- so much that we forgot that open societies also have inherent vulnerabilities. We also forgot what the contrast class really looks like.
Vulnerability is not a bad thing! It is the necessary counter-point to openness, as risk is to opportunity.
Openness to criticism (e.g., from the left, of social and economic inequalities; from the right, of the ebbing of valuable social norms) is a feature. It becomes a bug when these criticisms are weaponized to undermine liberal democracies at their core, which is precisely what has happened. It gets worse when people fail to realize that liberal democracy is the real target; it gets catastrophic when people themselves become weaponized as ideological foot-soldiers, unthinkingly braying out whatever now-extreme ideological party line they have absorbed.
I don't think this is at all unique to Canada, although we definitely leaned in on the complacency.
The only way through this, to me, is to get back to the core of what liberal democracies are premised on, including freedom of expression, equality under the law, the right to bodily autonomy, the right to privacy, the separation of church and state, the division of powers, fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, territorial autonomy and the right to self-defense, open markets, etc. etc. etc.
All our other differences, left and right, now pale in comparison to the question of whether we are committed to the defense of liberal democracy -- or to its destruction.
[I really think things in the West took a wrong turn when, after 9/11, Americans looked at the risks freedom involved and decided they were willing to trade off freedom (and its inherent) risks) for security. That was Americans' form of complacency, and now it is costing all of us. The Canadian equivalent, our Kryptonite as it were, is probably our wish to be seen as 'nice.' How that has been weaponized against us!]
Small point on the US revolution. Obviously it was not just about minor taxation. Slavery and the fact that the Brits were beginning to crack down on it hugely in Britain and many were advocating by 1770 stopping British participation in this trade including the colonies.
What happened to the puppy? Also it seems our ability to do anything and actually get it done is lost in Canada. During second world war we built hundreds of fighting ships to protect our convoys to Europe. We built airplanes by the score. Now to get two ice breakers built we have to get China to do it. Corruption a factor “hmm” Look whats happening south of the border. To think its not happening here is sure a weakness. We need to get our head out of the sand and keep hands out of our cookie jars. Then perhaps we can be a Country again.
Bravo Jen!! This is master level Gerson! It’s a bleak read but a bit of reality for sure. We do need to start focusing more on results than a sanctified process. Feels a bit like we are red-taping ourselves to death. But having said that some of our ‘Canadian’ institutions are worth preserving (even if they’re really struggling) like health care and education. Sadly the only obvious answer for those is more money, which means more taxes, and hence the tailspin continues because it’s unpalatable. We need a thriving economy to have thriving health care and education, and we don’t have that.
For me, we have been headed this direction for years. My son is 35 - when he was a boy the self-esteem industry broke into the fabric of our culture and embedded itself. Nobody had to fail any more. Everyone gets a gold star. Everyone gets a medal for participating.
It defies logic because we all know that life isn't fair, nor does it give a crap about your shitty situation.
Human beings are still a species on this planet and our brains have not evolved enough for humanity to understand the ramifications of the technology we create. Add to this that we have programmed acceptance of failure as a sign of success and progress. We have excused failure for the reason JG points out in this excellent column. Good enough is just fine and leading, not so much. Every kid gets a bucket of gold stars.
Technology has hastened global change in everything from trade to how we choose a mate.
If we accept that good enough is enough, then how can Canada ever hope to 'take the lead' or 'set the example for the world' like the Liberal party would like us to believe. (This is about creating the myth of Canada which the Liberals are masters of.)
I agree that the “self esteem industry” has done much to harm our society. It has taught us that it doesn’t matter if you try to succeed, you are still great. Once that mindset is there, we fall into the trap of thinking that society can make everyone equal whether we can afford it or not.
Health and education are prime examples of this. We now believe that every person needs to be kept alive no matter what the cost and no matter what they do to themselves to destroy their bodies. We believe that every child has to pass through the system without failing whether they try or not.
At some point, we will run out of resources to accomplish this (we actually have already).
I wonder which way the correlation runs here. Do we trust more than most because we are high on our moral superiority or do we feel morally superior because we trust more? I think we trust more than most because we are high on our moral superiority. If you are a smug bastard you would logically think you are better than others in every conceivable way. Whereas, just because you trust others it doesn't seem to necessarily follow that you should think you and those you trust are morally superior in *other* ways. Indeed, it seems that moral superiority ought to entail some form of humility. As Jen put it right in the piece:
"As Canadians are wont to do every time a graph comes around that puts us at the top of something, we shared this fascinating bit of research with a very characteristic helping of smug glee. This is the kind of unearned self-regard that a genuinely moral person would try to guard against....." Unearned self-regard is something we have in SPADES.
Our strengths are, in fact, our strengths, whether or not the current government has the courage to leverage those strengths for the benefit of all Canadians.
100%! I, for one, lost faith in everyone since about 2015. I trust no one. I assume everyone is lying to me or incompetent or both. I mercilessly demand and pursue accountability at every turn. I have my successes in doing so, but it’s painstaking and exhausting. But if I don’t do it, I know it’ll never happen. Our institutions, the people who run them and their reputations are all shit. Canadians need to seriously give their heads a shake. Yet, as Jen notes, everyone has been centrally preoccupied in how nice we are, how tolerant we are, how forgiving and good natured we all are, and how trusting we are — and Canadians (especially our leadership) are smug as fuck about that — regardless of the fact that we have no reason to be. It’s fucking irritating.
Individually, one to one, Canadians are generally trustworthy. Our institutions, however, are absolute garbage, and lie incessantly.
This happens because the otherwise honest Canadians who work in them are happy to trust their dishonest leaders.
Whenever I look at most mainstream Canadian news media and get this disconcerting and slightly hopeless feeling about how divorced the information I am viewing is from reality.
How it's willfully blind to, and seems to be running interference for, something nasty that has eaten the country I grew up in. Like they are saying everything other than what they should be talking about. Making big deals out of nothing while ignoring real crises right in front of them. Relating what is technically 'information' while selectively failing to apply basic scrutiny or ask really obvious questions, to the point where the information is actually distorted through that lack of scrutiny and context. Tolerating things that shouldn't be tolerable and pretending they are just fine and normal.
Reading the G&M or watching CTV news is a really gross and bleak experience lately in a way I can't fully articulate.
The 5th estate has lost interest in its job, and goes in for the pay cheque.
What is it reminiscent of? The rest of the federal bureaucracy.
Through subsidy , it submits.
The press of the 80's and 90's would tear this government a new one on a daily basis.
It would be Day 400 and whatever of their illegal failure to produce key documents on the Sustainable Development Canada Fund and that would be a front page headline among umpteen other scandals. There would be investigative reporters hounding the MP floor-crossers to determine what they were promised and whether that constitutes criminal bribery.
They used to take this role of holding power to account seriously and sacrosanct, above getting cheap views, holding an ideological position, or kowtowing for government favour.
A lot of Canadian complacency is caused, and some would say, actively nurtured, by the media environment's own complacency.
This isn’t some personal failing of the Canadian press corps though, it’s the natural outcome of the internet being the way communications is done now. Mass online communications and the attention economy may be incompatible with a 20th century style democracy.
You guys are getting better all the time. As always every coin has two sides, strengths and weaknesses as you put it. I generally still have faith in institutions and in those who choose public life to do it for the right reasons: trust. But delegation should never be abdication. I still need to notice that every development decision Doug Ford makes enriches his friends, and that the foundations of our social cohesion, equality of opportunity through great public education and caring for each other through public healthcare, are under attack from his government. Why is the media not on this? You answer that question well.
I moved here in 2018 and always wondered what would I characterize as the national identity of Canada and Canadians. I never found any strong sense of patriotism or pride or cultural belonging to the country among most Canadians.
Over time, I have come to the realization that the primary national identity among Canadians is actually COMPLACENCY. This is not actively cultivated, but never guarded against either. The idea that it's all going to be fine has generally been true for most of the past century after the World wars. And it becomes that much harder to acknowledge the opposite when things actually turn bad.
I would suggest that our complacency came from living next to a benevolent neighbor. Now that the neighbor is no longer so kind, we don't know how to handle the change.
Actually, one of our key attributes is politeness. When a foreigner makes a disparaging and bigoted generalization about Canadians, we reward it with likes instead of derision.
The neighbours we trust, but shouldn't, are our neighbours in Ottawa.
Bravo Jen!
“ We believe we are good”. Isn’t that the definition of smugness?
“We believe others are moral”. Makes sense when you look at individuals but a recipe for extinction if you look at the turkeys (at best) and snakes (at worst) Canadians choose to lead them. Illustrates the point that the only difference between humans and animals is that animals would never choose the weakest and dumbest to lead them.
Noting how individual Americans are twice as generous as Canadians on a per capita charitable contribution basis it may have some basis in truth.
I found that Canadians - encouraged by first responders- are more likely to call 911 and drive on whereas Americans are more likely to stop and help. That comparison may be a bit biased since my opinion is based on Ottawa and Toronto behaviors vs Western US behaviors. Perhaps others could chime in.
The older *I* get, the more I see liberal democratic societies' openness as both a feature and a bug. For many years we in liberal democratic societies experienced (or noticed) only the features -- so much that we forgot that open societies also have inherent vulnerabilities. We also forgot what the contrast class really looks like.
Vulnerability is not a bad thing! It is the necessary counter-point to openness, as risk is to opportunity.
Openness to criticism (e.g., from the left, of social and economic inequalities; from the right, of the ebbing of valuable social norms) is a feature. It becomes a bug when these criticisms are weaponized to undermine liberal democracies at their core, which is precisely what has happened. It gets worse when people fail to realize that liberal democracy is the real target; it gets catastrophic when people themselves become weaponized as ideological foot-soldiers, unthinkingly braying out whatever now-extreme ideological party line they have absorbed.
I don't think this is at all unique to Canada, although we definitely leaned in on the complacency.
The only way through this, to me, is to get back to the core of what liberal democracies are premised on, including freedom of expression, equality under the law, the right to bodily autonomy, the right to privacy, the separation of church and state, the division of powers, fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, territorial autonomy and the right to self-defense, open markets, etc. etc. etc.
All our other differences, left and right, now pale in comparison to the question of whether we are committed to the defense of liberal democracy -- or to its destruction.
[I really think things in the West took a wrong turn when, after 9/11, Americans looked at the risks freedom involved and decided they were willing to trade off freedom (and its inherent) risks) for security. That was Americans' form of complacency, and now it is costing all of us. The Canadian equivalent, our Kryptonite as it were, is probably our wish to be seen as 'nice.' How that has been weaponized against us!]
Small point on the US revolution. Obviously it was not just about minor taxation. Slavery and the fact that the Brits were beginning to crack down on it hugely in Britain and many were advocating by 1770 stopping British participation in this trade including the colonies.
What happened to the puppy? Also it seems our ability to do anything and actually get it done is lost in Canada. During second world war we built hundreds of fighting ships to protect our convoys to Europe. We built airplanes by the score. Now to get two ice breakers built we have to get China to do it. Corruption a factor “hmm” Look whats happening south of the border. To think its not happening here is sure a weakness. We need to get our head out of the sand and keep hands out of our cookie jars. Then perhaps we can be a Country again.
Bravo Jen!! This is master level Gerson! It’s a bleak read but a bit of reality for sure. We do need to start focusing more on results than a sanctified process. Feels a bit like we are red-taping ourselves to death. But having said that some of our ‘Canadian’ institutions are worth preserving (even if they’re really struggling) like health care and education. Sadly the only obvious answer for those is more money, which means more taxes, and hence the tailspin continues because it’s unpalatable. We need a thriving economy to have thriving health care and education, and we don’t have that.
For me, we have been headed this direction for years. My son is 35 - when he was a boy the self-esteem industry broke into the fabric of our culture and embedded itself. Nobody had to fail any more. Everyone gets a gold star. Everyone gets a medal for participating.
It defies logic because we all know that life isn't fair, nor does it give a crap about your shitty situation.
Human beings are still a species on this planet and our brains have not evolved enough for humanity to understand the ramifications of the technology we create. Add to this that we have programmed acceptance of failure as a sign of success and progress. We have excused failure for the reason JG points out in this excellent column. Good enough is just fine and leading, not so much. Every kid gets a bucket of gold stars.
Technology has hastened global change in everything from trade to how we choose a mate.
If we accept that good enough is enough, then how can Canada ever hope to 'take the lead' or 'set the example for the world' like the Liberal party would like us to believe. (This is about creating the myth of Canada which the Liberals are masters of.)
I agree that the “self esteem industry” has done much to harm our society. It has taught us that it doesn’t matter if you try to succeed, you are still great. Once that mindset is there, we fall into the trap of thinking that society can make everyone equal whether we can afford it or not.
Health and education are prime examples of this. We now believe that every person needs to be kept alive no matter what the cost and no matter what they do to themselves to destroy their bodies. We believe that every child has to pass through the system without failing whether they try or not.
At some point, we will run out of resources to accomplish this (we actually have already).
I wonder which way the correlation runs here. Do we trust more than most because we are high on our moral superiority or do we feel morally superior because we trust more? I think we trust more than most because we are high on our moral superiority. If you are a smug bastard you would logically think you are better than others in every conceivable way. Whereas, just because you trust others it doesn't seem to necessarily follow that you should think you and those you trust are morally superior in *other* ways. Indeed, it seems that moral superiority ought to entail some form of humility. As Jen put it right in the piece:
"As Canadians are wont to do every time a graph comes around that puts us at the top of something, we shared this fascinating bit of research with a very characteristic helping of smug glee. This is the kind of unearned self-regard that a genuinely moral person would try to guard against....." Unearned self-regard is something we have in SPADES.
Or maybe they are not correlated at all?
Can’t think of what I could add to that? Thanks Jen!
I’m standing. Clap, clap, clap, clap, Bravo.
"Recently, I was re-reading a spot of U.S. history"
If you don't mind me asking, what were you reading?
Our strengths are, in fact, our strengths, whether or not the current government has the courage to leverage those strengths for the benefit of all Canadians.
A sound theory. But how do we fix it?
I can envision one structural fix: an equal and elected senate, with investigational powers.
I cannot see it ever happening.
I do not support Alberta independence but the desperation within that misguided movement is not much different from what Jen describes here.
Is that what it would take to shake the system of its complacency - and measurably change its structure?