SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Tuesday January 19th, 2010
A friend pointed out that no matter how many times they show starving children from Africa on television, it will never have the same affect on him as the SPCA ad where abused animals are featured to the soundtrack of Sarah McLaughlin.
I suspect he is not alone. Nor is this specific illustration the only one it applies to. I find myself really, really upset when I hear about the mistreatment of animals. Not only that, but if I see something in the movies where an animal is tortured or killed, I react much more strongly than if it was a human being.
I don't like seeing human beings tortured, or killed, or starved, or drowned, or done in by any other violent act. I am not trying to say that I am OK with humans being tortured but not animals; I am simply saying that my visceral, "oh that is terrible" reaction is stronger when I see it happen to animals.
When I stop and think about this, I wonder why it is true.
There are a number of possibilities. Perhaps we have been so inundated with the plight of the poor that we no longer really feel anything when we are told someone is starving. Really, tragedy happens almost daily now. There are famines and floods, warfare and corrupt leaders, all of which contribute to the mess we have made of this world.
Some of it is our own fault, like warfare or soil erosion; but too often it is simply fate that sends a Tsunami, or destroys a city with an earthquake.
Don't get me wrong. When we hear of Port-au-Prince and the devastation and destruction they are facing in Haiti we do feel sorry for them. Almost everyone does. But it no longer moves us to tears. Nor does the feeling stick with us; I imagine many of you may have already set that bit of news aside by the time you read this column five days later.
So why tears when faced with an SPCA ad? Could it be that somewhere deep down we really do feel that human beings have the possibility of helping themselves; where animals do not? Do we feel more responsible for animals than for other humans?
Well, certainly they seem more helpless, more dependent, and therefore more in need.
But are the people in Haiti not helpless, dependant and in need right now too?
Of course they are.
Is compassion a limited resource? I don't think this is true. So what else stops us from feeling the full extent of tragedies that surround us?
I wonder what television has done to us. Since we have seen everything we can imagine happen on the big and little screen, has it built up a tolerance for real life disaster and violence? Or more pointedly, has it made everything we see seem fake whether it is or not?
I went to see the movie Avatar over the holidays, it was the best movie ever, and one of the things I have told people made it so good was that it was seamless in its integration of animation and real life. I honestly forgot that some characters, animals, and habitats were actually just cartoons. It seemed totally real.
Well, reverse that, if anything I can imagine can be made to look completely real on the screen; then what faculty do I trust in terms of determining credibility?
If you show me a starving girl, is she really starving or just made to look that way? Is she really in Africa or is that a backdrop in Los Angeles? Was that really an earthquake, or is it just some CGI animation? I watched my brother's production company "create" the Halifax Explosion for a movie. Perhaps it was a bit of history, but I also know it can be faked.
Which is not to say I think anyone is faking a natural disaster, or hunger, or pain of any sort. I am talking about our subconscious minds.
Perhaps it is easier to dismiss tragedy because we have seen so much staged tragedy as part of our 'entertainment.' Could that be true?
Is it easier not to think about because somewhere deep inside you suspect you could just change the channel and it would go away?
Here is the thing I have come to realize: tragedy is closer than you think.
People die all around you every day; and most of them were completely unprepared for it.
There is some chance that a hurricane, or earthquake, or tornado, or nuclear accident, or any number of catastrophic things might happen to devastate our part of the world. We should not think so much in terms of us and them, and pretend like we might never be on the receiving end of tragedy.
At the same time, we should work on getting in touch with the actual 'tragic' part of tragedy. Life is short as it is, and to have it ripped away unexpectedly is always an incredibly sad thing. We cannot let the frequency of tragedy, or the artful portrayal of death on television dry up what should be our real feelings.
We are connected to each other. That is true whether you are next door or thousands of miles away. The truth is that we all feel pain and loss, and it is never a good thing. Anything we can do to help one another should be done. At least, it's a start.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
AN ANNOUNCEMENT
Although it may not affect people who only read the online version of my column via this blog: The actual physical column is moving...
From page two Monday
to Page One Tuesday
This site therefore cannot legally contain the article until Wednesdays now. As the Newspaper owns all first day publication rights.
(since monday is the lowest circulation of a weekly paper - this is in fact a bit of a promotion (grin)
From page two Monday
to Page One Tuesday
This site therefore cannot legally contain the article until Wednesdays now. As the Newspaper owns all first day publication rights.
(since monday is the lowest circulation of a weekly paper - this is in fact a bit of a promotion (grin)
Monday, January 11, 2010
Why New Year's resolutions never seem to last
SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday January 4th, 2010
New Year's resolutions never last long do they?
How many have you broken already?
I have a theory. I wonder if the problem is that most of our resolutions are self centred, and so personal -- and more importantly, so independent -- that we are doomed to failure.
"I am going to stop smoking" or perhaps "I am going to lose weight" or even "I am going to run a marathon" are the types of things most of us say.
We might even get around to personality driven resolutions like "I will be happier" or "I will be a better father," but they are similar to the type I am describing.
And here is where they go wrong; the first word . . . "I."
Do you know that it has really only been over the last 30 years that we as a culture have moved away from the concept of "we" and focused on "I"? That change came about because of the 1960s. That is the simple truth of it.
A lot of people blame the past for a lot of things. I want to make it clear that there are hundreds of things that happened in the 1960s and 1970s that I am fully in favour of and think made society a much better place: the emancipation of women for example, or the civil rights movement and a greater move towards equality. I would even say the Vietnam War protests changed things for the better when they showed us that we can question motivations for government action.
Here is where it fell apart: the 1960s brought to consciousness the philosophical ideal of relativism. Relativism began the slippery slope to individualism. Individualism, well, it destroyed the fabric of society.
In a basic way, relativism is exactly what it sounds like, everything is relative. Which might not sound like much, but do not be fooled; if everything is relative, well, then nothing has any meaning.
There are certain truisms which we say all the time now, such as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or "that may be true for you but it is not true for me" that are the hallmarks of relativistic philosophy. It has so invaded our culture that we forget there was another way of seeing things.
For thousands of years philosophers and artists argued that there was such a thing as "beauty" which was universally true -- you could look at something and it would be beautiful. Whether or not you liked it was another thing altogether, but you had to admit it was beautiful. There was no such thing as beauty in the eye of the beholder, in fact, very few people were felt competent enough to judge real beauty; and the majority of people just accepted that a master work was just that, masterfully beautiful.
Same thing with the concept of true; when the folks sat down to draft the American Declaration of Independence that said: "We hold these truths to be self evident . . ." There was no question that everyone would agree it was true that everyone was created equal, that everyone had the same rights to life, and freedom. There were just certain things, certain axioms that were inviolate; no matter who you were or what you thought, they were true.
Relativism changed the focus from universal truth to independent truth. This is true for me; and that is all that matters. So you might think smoking marijuana is bad, but I think it is good, and who are you to tell me what to think? You might think that God exists, or that modern art is interesting, or that chamber music is boring; but in the end your opinion really does not matter to me and I will live my life the way I want to. Period.
Here is a concrete way that this has changed society for the worse: professionals. No matter what you do, most of the people you encounter will think you are doing it wrong if you are not doing it the way they want. Doctors, lawyers, ministers, politicians, dentists, writers, lawn care experts, life guards, waitresses . . . no matter who you are you are consciously questioned and people second guess you.
This is relativism and individualism at its worst. When someone off the street is able to say with confidence, "I don't believe you that it is just the flu, I think it is chicken pox and you are not going to convince me otherwise!" to a doctor and believe that their opinion is just as valid, there is something wrong.
We simply no longer believe that some things are just universally true, which makes it difficult to navigate how to be around other people.
Take that one step further and the focus becomes getting my needs met; sometimes at the cost of the needs of others. What is important to me is of course the most important thing in the universe. So I should get the promotion and the rest of the company be damned. If there is one Pinkie Pie My Little Pony left in the store before Christmas, my kid should get it, even though she has 100 other presents and the father who just missed picking it up is buying the one thing he can afford for his daughter and it is all she asked for and he is crying, and well, tough . . . me first.
And so, relativism has destroyed our society by making us believe that we are more important than we are.
Which is a long way around to telling you why your New Year's resolutions are doomed to failure; you will fail because for some strange reason we all think it is completely up to us to make it work.
"I" cannot do anything alone. "We" can do anything together.
My New Year's resolution is to stop believing I have the power to change myself or anyone else without asking for a lot of help.
Anything is possible!
New Year's resolutions never last long do they?
How many have you broken already?
I have a theory. I wonder if the problem is that most of our resolutions are self centred, and so personal -- and more importantly, so independent -- that we are doomed to failure.
"I am going to stop smoking" or perhaps "I am going to lose weight" or even "I am going to run a marathon" are the types of things most of us say.
We might even get around to personality driven resolutions like "I will be happier" or "I will be a better father," but they are similar to the type I am describing.
And here is where they go wrong; the first word . . . "I."
Do you know that it has really only been over the last 30 years that we as a culture have moved away from the concept of "we" and focused on "I"? That change came about because of the 1960s. That is the simple truth of it.
A lot of people blame the past for a lot of things. I want to make it clear that there are hundreds of things that happened in the 1960s and 1970s that I am fully in favour of and think made society a much better place: the emancipation of women for example, or the civil rights movement and a greater move towards equality. I would even say the Vietnam War protests changed things for the better when they showed us that we can question motivations for government action.
Here is where it fell apart: the 1960s brought to consciousness the philosophical ideal of relativism. Relativism began the slippery slope to individualism. Individualism, well, it destroyed the fabric of society.
In a basic way, relativism is exactly what it sounds like, everything is relative. Which might not sound like much, but do not be fooled; if everything is relative, well, then nothing has any meaning.
There are certain truisms which we say all the time now, such as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or "that may be true for you but it is not true for me" that are the hallmarks of relativistic philosophy. It has so invaded our culture that we forget there was another way of seeing things.
For thousands of years philosophers and artists argued that there was such a thing as "beauty" which was universally true -- you could look at something and it would be beautiful. Whether or not you liked it was another thing altogether, but you had to admit it was beautiful. There was no such thing as beauty in the eye of the beholder, in fact, very few people were felt competent enough to judge real beauty; and the majority of people just accepted that a master work was just that, masterfully beautiful.
Same thing with the concept of true; when the folks sat down to draft the American Declaration of Independence that said: "We hold these truths to be self evident . . ." There was no question that everyone would agree it was true that everyone was created equal, that everyone had the same rights to life, and freedom. There were just certain things, certain axioms that were inviolate; no matter who you were or what you thought, they were true.
Relativism changed the focus from universal truth to independent truth. This is true for me; and that is all that matters. So you might think smoking marijuana is bad, but I think it is good, and who are you to tell me what to think? You might think that God exists, or that modern art is interesting, or that chamber music is boring; but in the end your opinion really does not matter to me and I will live my life the way I want to. Period.
Here is a concrete way that this has changed society for the worse: professionals. No matter what you do, most of the people you encounter will think you are doing it wrong if you are not doing it the way they want. Doctors, lawyers, ministers, politicians, dentists, writers, lawn care experts, life guards, waitresses . . . no matter who you are you are consciously questioned and people second guess you.
This is relativism and individualism at its worst. When someone off the street is able to say with confidence, "I don't believe you that it is just the flu, I think it is chicken pox and you are not going to convince me otherwise!" to a doctor and believe that their opinion is just as valid, there is something wrong.
We simply no longer believe that some things are just universally true, which makes it difficult to navigate how to be around other people.
Take that one step further and the focus becomes getting my needs met; sometimes at the cost of the needs of others. What is important to me is of course the most important thing in the universe. So I should get the promotion and the rest of the company be damned. If there is one Pinkie Pie My Little Pony left in the store before Christmas, my kid should get it, even though she has 100 other presents and the father who just missed picking it up is buying the one thing he can afford for his daughter and it is all she asked for and he is crying, and well, tough . . . me first.
And so, relativism has destroyed our society by making us believe that we are more important than we are.
Which is a long way around to telling you why your New Year's resolutions are doomed to failure; you will fail because for some strange reason we all think it is completely up to us to make it work.
"I" cannot do anything alone. "We" can do anything together.
My New Year's resolution is to stop believing I have the power to change myself or anyone else without asking for a lot of help.
Anything is possible!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
