Saturday, July 26, 2008

CANADIAN DIMENSION

For anyone who may be interested - or if you just want to offer Kudos; I just had a feature article published in the above magazine...

http://www.canadiandimension.com/issues/v42n4/

Be a hobbit and have hope for a better day

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday July 21st, 2008

In another incarnation there was this Master Sergeant who gave me a lot of grief. I actually forget his name, but not his signature yell of disapproval, "Anningson, what is your major malfunction?" which he pronounced with embarrassing frequency.

Well. It has taken a couple of decades but I think I have an answer for him. My major malfunction is cynicism. Of course, I am not alone in this. I have begun to think that the one major problem plaguing modern civilization is in fact the amount of cynicism we all have towards everything.

It really does not matter whether we are talking about your job, the television reporter, waiter at a restaurant, government, or even your friends and family --- we are actually a society that expects the worst from everyone. Or at the very least, we are not surprised when people do stunningly foolish things, or the wrong things, or cheat us out of our all important cash.

It was not always this way. Scholars point out that the human race used to be hopelessly enthusiastic to the point of being naive about just how much progress is possible. As we developed through the dark ages and into the age of reason the best and brightest thought that there was no limit to what was possible. For the most part they were right. This was the time when we invented steam locomotives, and iron clad ships, airplanes and penicillin. For every problem we could manufacture a solution. At the same time Mozart wrote music and Rembrandt painted pictures. Leonardo DaVinci even had plans to build a helicopter. Anything was possible. So what happened?

It could be argued, first and foremost, that the First World War got in the way. Then the Depression hit. Both of these events came as a monumental shock to the average person. Soldiers went to their death in the trenches reading Nietzsche who told them that we are beginning the age of the "supermen" who would overcome every problem the world would throw at them. Stock brokers were plummeting to their death from their office towers wearing pins that said "Every Day in Every Way Things are Getting Better."

We lost hope. It did not get any better; there was another World War following the war to end all wars, there was the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cholera and flu epidemics, right up to Ethiopian famines, Rwanda and the Middle East. There are very few of us who believe it is all getting better and better.

Really, if we could get over this one little stumbling block, personally and as a society, everything would be different. Whenever you stop and think about life and wonder what your response should be, I encourage you to go read anything by J.R.R. Tolkien; or at the very least have a Lord of the Rings movie marathon.

Tolkien wrote during the period when optimism was falling apart. He wrote fantasy about Elves And trolls in which he very clearly pointed out what was wrong with humans. Consider this, the evil characters of his stories are dark and angry folk, living in huge citadels, who use assembly lines to create weapons of mass destruction. The heroes live in close relationship to nature, in small villages or individual farms. They are always using the things they find around them and believe that the journey is more important than the destination.

Tolkien's favourite hero is the hobbit; the smallest and simplest of the lot --- who concern themselves mostly with good food, good song, and good beer; and yet are fearless when it comes to doing the right thing. The reason they do the right thing is not for personal fortune or fame, but simply because it needs to get done. These are the folk who are also not overly concerned when things go horribly wrong. Even in the face of certain death they simply shrug, make up a new song to sing, and keep trudging along.

If you know the story at all you know that the quest is to take an evil ring, which has the power to control the world, a power no one should have, back to the volcano it was forged in and destroy it. The Hobbit who was chosen for this task is Frodo, and at one point in the story, after people have died, they have been lost, tortured, alone and afraid and death seems certain says, "Still we have to try. It's no worse than I expected. I never hoped to get across. I can't see any hope of it now. But I've still got to do the best I can."

In their own understanding the company of the ring is only doing the tiniest of good deeds in a world increasingly filled with cosmic evil. But they believe it is worth the effort. They are hopefully optimistic in the face of everything that should make them cynical.

It is a powerful thing. It could change everything. Imagine if we could put all of our cynicism aside even for just a little while. Long enough, say, to go out and vote believing it would make a difference; or to expect that the person who cut you off is just having a bad day and forgive them, or to believe that we have always solved global problems before so it is likely that someone will invent another form of fuelling our lives before the oil runs out.

I firmly believe that the problem with society is that we are all depressed, in one way or another. So this is my challenge for you today: have hope; be optimistic. Everything is going to be OK.

Intolerance is wrong

RELIGION TODAY - Published Saturday July 19th, 2008

Religious news does not usually make it to mainstream outlets. So we can be forgiven if we missed the rift between Anglicans and Roman Catholics that happened last week. It turns out that the Church of England decided at its General Synod this year to allow for the ordination of Women Bishops.

This is not really news here -- the Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island currently has a female Suffragan Bishop, Sue Moxley.

Different areas of the globe progress through different levels of openness in their own time.

What is interesting is how the Vatican reacted; stating that it is disappointed in this "rift" between the apostolic tradition of ordaining only men and modern permissiveness.

The Anglicans simply asked, "What would Jesus do" which when asked correctly could be a useful question.

Jesus never named any women apostles, but then again, Jesus expected them to be missionary martyrs who risked their lives . . . he had more important work for women to do, after all, by Paul's day and age most churches were run by women.

You see, there are differences of opinion -- and all too often those differences lead to some pretty harsh reactions. Since Henry Morgentaler was just named to the Order of Canada abortion seems a good example to bring to the fore.

Those who are pro-life and pro-abortion have been battling for years, with disastrous consequences, including the assassination of doctors who perform abortions, because of a disagreement about when "life" begins . . . is it when two cells divide in the uterus or is it at the moment of brain consciousness?

You've heard of the expression "not one iota of difference?" well, we have sort of lost track of the original religious war that sparked the expression.

Way back in the beginning of the Christian church, scholars started a fight over two words: whether Jesus was homoousias and homoiousias.

The first one means that Jesus is of the same substance as the father and the second one that Jesus is of the same nature.

Believe it or not the church violently divided over that one too.

The original followers of the Prophet Mohammed, Peace be Upon Him, had no problems with Christians either until the Crusades, when we proved to them not to be very good followers of our own teachings on compassion and love.

Some people argue that the entire point of the crusades was to get all the violently unemployed knights out of France in order to keep the civil peace -- so an enemy was created.

Since then, we really don't have a good history of tolerance and understanding on the Christian side of the fence.

Think about the Inquisition or Ghettos for Jews in Europe, not to mention the holocaust, the KKK and various other incidences; both large and small.

On the other hand I do not ever recall hearing of an act of Jewish violence towards a Christian organization.

Any Islamic violence seems to be far more political than religious.

And yet, as witnessed over and over again, even here in the sleepy Maritimes, Christians are still far too arrogant, racist and bigoted.

It is our culture that spawned the vandalism last week in Moncton. The Swastika, like it or not, is actually a cross.

I am often accused of being relativistic -- so I want to point out for the record that I believe strongly in Christianity. It is my chosen faith, my cultural identity, and a powerfully transformative thing when used properly.

What it clearly has no corner on is being "right". When the great religions of the world developed they all had common ideals and understandings; reached independently; about the awesomeness of the universe, the limited grasp of human life, and an ultimate meaning beyond what we could understand.

However you choose to see God, God was at work in the creation of Buddhism, Shintoism, Animism, Islam, Judaism and the even Christianity.

I don't see us developing our potential very much further until we can come to understand this. What's more, racism and intolerance of any sort is just plain wrong.

Monday, July 7, 2008

My name is Brett . . . and I am Canadian

Published Monday June 30th, 2008

What is patriotism? A friend of mine recently asked me why it is that on Canada Day we will go so far as to tattoo, or perhaps just paint, Canadian flags everywhere; but you would be hard-pressed to find one flying by August. It is a good question. We should ask ourselves not only what patriotism is, but why it doesn't "stick".

So, according to Webster's, patriotism is: love for or devotion to one's country. That sounds easy enough. The follow through is difficult though, because for the most part we have tended to define ourselves over and against others as opposed to what we have going for ourselves.

Consider this, much of English Canada was first settled by United Empire Loyalists. Now, for whatever reasons, these were the British Patriots who took the losing side in the American Revolution and fled north after 1783. That was the beginning of our anti-American flavour --- and from it stems the sentiment we might all recognize which states that what it is to be a good Canadian is to be "not an American." When America declared that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" was the greatest virtue; those of us up North turned in the British North America act to the sturdier, more English virtues of "peace, order and good government."

So not only were we anti-American, we were pro-British. During the World Wars we came down forcefully on the side of the Empire --- with all of its quirks, including a love of tea. We have never really let go of the whole idea that this is a Dominion, part of the British Empire.

One more thing could be thrown into the mix. One of Canada's best-known philosophers, John Ralston Saul, argues that Canada's contribution to the world has been to build a new type of quiet nationalism, characterized most fundamentally by the tradition of compromise between our three founding peoples: French, English, and First Nations.

But does all of this make for an identity worthy of patriotism? Others have clearly doubted this, there was an editorial in the New York Times on Jan. 24 1890 that concluded with these statements: "If it be really for the advantage of Canada to suffer annexation to the United States, . . . what is there to which a reasonable or even a reasonably sentimental creature can appeal to obstruct the unions? . . . At any rate, Canadian patriotism is not a sufficiently substantial or well-grounded sentiment to be successfully invoked against annexation."

Luckily something stopped them, but I am not sure we have come a long way yet in terms of our own self identity. When I was growing up there were a lot of places I considered living and quite a few of them were abroad. I remember wishing I lived in Hawaii for the beaches, or in New Zealand for the beauty, or in Florida for the Palm trees . . . any number of things I held in higher regard than our own natural and rugged beauty. Having travelled to what Facebook tells me is 12 per cent of the world now, I have changed my tune. There is more beauty here than almost anywhere. There is much for us to be proud of as a nation.

It is interesting that Molson Breweries has done the most in recent memory to instil a sense of pride and patriotism in us. While some of us might shake our head at a beer company promoting cultural identity I should point out that Molson is the second oldest company in the entire country --- the only company that has operated longer is the Hudson's Bay Company. Not only that, but it is such a powerhouse of Canadian Identity that when Coors, the largest brewery in the United States wanted to buy it, they all ended up creating an entirely new "co-owned" company Molson-Coors. So if anyone knows Canada --- they do!

You might remember their ad, which is titled "the rant" although no one knows it by that name. It featured a normal enough looking guy standing in front of a movie screen and saying, apologetically at first but then with greater and greater conviction:

Hey, I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader . . . I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled . . . and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I'm certain they're really, really nice.

I have a prime minister, not a president. I speak English and French, not American. And I pronounce it 'about', not 'a boot'.

I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. I believe in peace keeping, not policing, diversity, not assimilation, and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal. A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced 'zed' not 'zee', 'zed'!!!!

Canada is the second largest landmass! The first nation of hockey! And the best part of North America. My name is Joe!! And I am Canadian!!!

So yes, we have patriotism --- it is just perhaps quieter than our closest neighbours. I for one am proud of the way we are proud of ourselves. We could do better. People need to open their eyes to what we have, and celebrate it not just today, but every day. Happy Canada Day.