Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
The idea of being in an echo chamber suggests that you are surrounded by people, media, and information sources that are constantly reinforcing your beliefs… without exposing you to opposing viewpoints unless arguing convincingly against those viewpoints.
I’ve discussed, a number of times, my concerns that we are living more and more in dichotomies, where sides or factions are so diametrically opposed, no one can hold a stance in the middle without being considered to be from the opposing viewpoints. You either live in an echo chamber or you live in an opposing echo chamber. Because the voices in the middle are ‘othered’ and so not part of any stance or view that can be snuck into an echo chamber. The voices of the middle don’t get to echo. And so the echo chamber narrows, keeping exposure to outside views securely away.
The echoes are getting louder and it’s getting easier to listen to them and nothing else… which ultimately leads to us spewing the same echoes we hear. So it’s up to us to seek diverse stances and viewpoints. It’s up to us to actively extend our searches for reliable information. And it’s up to us to question the reliability of our sources. It’s either that or voluntarily be just another voice echoed in a narrow echo chamber that seems to be getting further polarized and biased every day.
And in a concluding post I said that I was going to share 7 virtues. I haven’t done that yet, maybe one day I will. The virtues I chose at that time were:
Love (including Chastity and Loyalty)
Discipline (including Patience, not just Diligence or Temperance)
Empathy (including Compassion)
Integrity (including Honour and Courage)
Kindness (including Charity),
Humility
Forgiveness
I remember intentionally putting Forgiveness last because I wanted to end with the noblest of virtues. I put Forgiveness on this pedestal because I think you can ‘go through the motions’ of the other virtues, but not forgiveness. You can virtue signal, intentionally or unintentionally, with the other virtues and have those virtues develop, but when it comes to forgiveness there simply isn’t an easy way to act it and have it grow. For example, you can do loving things towards someone, and eventually develop a love for that person. You can fake discipline and after a while that practice become disciplined. But if you aren’t truly forgiving, if you have hesitations, then they will be revealed… You can’t fake forgiveness. It doesn’t grow with time. You are either open to it, or you aren’t. You can half love someone, you can’t half forgive someone.
That said, I’ll hold off on discussing other virtues for a future date. Right now I am looking at a world where forgiveness is a lost art. Vengeance is everywhere. People want to say, ‘I told you so’. Social media is all over FAFO. Changing your mind (especially in US politics) isn’t met with compassion, nor forgiveness, but rather finger-waving and anger. The amount of variations of, “Oh sure, you only realize now that it affects your life”, that I’ve heard on social media posts is disconcerting. There is no room for forgiveness.
I understand why. Forgiveness is the ultimate virtue and not easy to attain. It requires love, empathy, and kindness. It is an affront to integrity, and the humility shared by those that did harm seldom seems like it’s enough to warrant forgiveness. Forgiveness is hard to fake and even harder to authentically give.
However, forgiveness is the best way to build a stronger bond than was there before. It is a place where real change can happen. The danger is that is also makes the forgiver more vulnerable to be hurt again. It requires trust. That’s what makes it so difficult to give.
Currently, I see a window of opportunity for real change to happen. I see hurt and disillusioned people openly admitting that they made a mistake. But I don’t see compassion. I don’t see forgiveness. I see hurt creating a gulf between the people who seek forgiveness and those who could, but do not forgive. And while I understand the hurt, while I see the fear of forgiving and being hurt again, I also see a golden opportunity being missed. Where there has been a great divide, there can be agreement. Where there has been opposing factions, there can be common ground. Where there has been arguments and yelling, there can be dialogue and discussion.
At this perilous time I have but one question: What if forgiveness prevailed?
It’s amazing just how high you can build a house of cards. But the challenge is that no one stops building, it’s too enticing to keep going. And so eventually the cards collapse.
I think the cards are about to fall. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Maybe it’s just the top layer that will fall and then it will be rebuilt. But I have a hunch that it’s the base that is crumbling. And you can’t build a house of cards without a strong base.
And finally, if you even remotely think I’m talking about a deck of playing cards, you are mistaken.
The invention of wheels made the movement of objects and ourselves so much easier. And they also assisted us in moving tools of war.
Machinery of mass production made life easier. And we also produce an over abundance of weapons that we use on both foreign and domestic lands.
The scientific method has led to innovations in fields like medicine. And we also make tools of mass destruction, with the soul purpose of maiming and killing each other.
We are innovative, technological, and creatively brilliant. And yet we are divided and we concoct global issues created by old religions, tribal lines, and broken ideologies.
Humanity chooses to be inhumane, and to develop propaganda to justify our actions. We do it for country, for money, for power, and for ideologies be they economic, political, or theological.
We have innovated. We have modernized. We have claimed to be civilized… but in the matters of being human we have stagnated. We have not evolved, we have merely advanced and innovated ways of perpetuating our barbaric tendencies.
Technology progresses. Humanity stagnates. History repeats.
On March 1st, I ended my blog post, ‘In Rome’s Shadow’, with this:
“The protests will start. The unrest will be violent. The response will escalate the violence.
The worse part of this will be the lack of civility. Peaceful protest is part of democracy. Violent unrest and insurrection are weapons of tyranny. We aren’t going to see democracy and western principles prevail through force and violence. Instead we will just see a once vibrant nation that promised its people a dream and left it in the shadows of ruin.”
In that post I also said,
“I actually want to see the US survive and even thrive, because I think that democracy and world peace are likely both casualties of a fallen US ‘empire’.”
So as we head into the weekend with a cold war styled showboating military parade and a countrywide series of ‘No Kings’ protests, I’m hoping to see peaceful protests and an uneventful parade with no violence and no sensationalized reporting. But I fear the worst.
I fear that this might be the start of civil unrest like none ever seen south of our border before. As a Canadian, I want to see America thriving. I want the metaphorical tide to help lift up all ships. But I truly fear a titanic level sinking. I wonder though, is this democracy drowning, or is this a submerged democracy fighting to the surface?
We’ve lost our plot as a species. We’ve lost our way. I haven’t been a fan of the news for a while now, but I still see enough of it to be disappointed and underwhelmed.
“If it bleeds, it leads.”
Give us the dirt, highlight the disaster, sensationalize everything. If it’s not a big enough story, find a more controversial angle. And sadly, if that’s not enough, exaggerate. Or worse yet, perpetuate a blatant lie… which is somehow ok by news standards because then they are still reporting (fact-checking can come later). This is awful because when you highlight a lie over and over it becomes more believable. It becomes the story. The apology or correction won’t get the same attention.
And we eat it up. We share before we fact check. We trust one-sided narratives, especially when they sensationalize in our favour. Meanwhile we are equally quick to discredit the ‘other side’ as fake news.
We are lost in sensationalism. And we can’t seem to find our way out. Polarizing points are thrown at us. Anger, hate, disgust, and disasterare worth our attention. Nothing else matters, nothing else makes the headlines, gets retweeted, or reshared, or discussed on podcasts and news stations.
And now AI is producing such realistic video content that it’s almost impossible to know if what you are watching is real. This is like putting sensationalism on steroids. Pump up the fake news, create doubt and division. Promote anger and disgust. Get those clicks, those likes, those reposts, and you will be financially rewarded. So what if you also leave everyone upset, confused, and lost.
I was listening to Chris Williamson on a podcast and he said this quote.
“People think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
~ First attributed to William Fitzjames Oldham
This reminds me of another often quoted phrase, regarding there being three sides to every argument, the one side, the other side, and somewhere in the middle is the Truth.
I had a phone discussion with a friend recently and we were discussing politics. We saw the topic from two totally different perspectives. I then had face-to-face discussion with another friend about a global issues and again we came from completely different perspectives. In both cases neither of us changed each other’s minds.
In one case I want to be wrong, in the other case I wish that I was wrong, and that my bias, ultimately my prejudice, could be changed. In both cases I recognize that getting new information really didn’t change my view… even though I might be happier and see things more positively if the other person was right.
Am I just a symptom of the times? Am I a victim of misinformation, who is choosing to believe perspectives that are intentionally biased? Am I not able to see the truth somewhere in the middle because I lack perspective, or am I blind to my own prejudice?
It’s getting harder and harder to find narratives that are clearly true. Arguments tend not to be about seeking truth but rather earning airtime, and garnering clicks & shares. The math is such that a false accusation will get millions of social media likes and reshares, but the correction barely gets seen. A fake video gets major attention. A blatant exaggeration or even a lie is simply accepted as close enough to true and accepted.
It doesn’t add up. It doesn’t lead us to the Truth, ‘somewhere in the middle’. No, instead we are left rearranging our prejudices and biases, and sticking to our points of view without ever really thinking.
I don’t get it. A lie used to be something that was called out and the lier paid consequences.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Sounds silly, but metaphorically a call out to say that you are going to catch heat for what you said. And people in important positions of power were held to a standard that lies and deceit were called out and the consequential backlash was severe. There would be embarrassment, a public apology, and reputational consequences as a result of being caught in a lie.
No more. It’s still embarrassing, just not to the person sharing the lie.
I could mention his name, but I don’t have to. Isn’t that crazy? I can literally say everything I said above, which is completely generic, and relevant to any one of importance. But the moment I say ‘I could mention his name, but I don’t have to,’ the vast majority of the world’s population will know who I’m talking about.
And still he lies. It will continue. When will this unacceptable behaviour catch up with him? When will the backlash be too large to ignore?
Last year, globally there were 60 countries that had elections and, “the staying power of right-wing populism” was a noted trend. And if you looked at the polls just two months ago, it looked like Canada would follow suite with the Conservatives having a significant lead under a very populist leader.
But that all changed when Justin Trudeau resigned and Mark Carney became Prime Minister. Last night Carney was elected for another 4 years. And although I really wanted to see a majority win, a win is a win, and the fact that the upset happened is victory enough. Maybe, just maybe this is a pendulum swing away from more right wing populist parties? Maybe we can see some more centrist, less polarized views shine through across the globe in the coming months and years.
But hopes aside, here are a couple things that I think all Canadians can look forward to with Mark Carney as Prime Minister… no matter who they voted for.
1. Diplomacy
Mark Carney put the President to our south on notice from day 1. When he replaced Trudeau, who Trump was calling governor of the 51st state, Carney immediately did three things: He strengthened economic ties with with Europe & Asia; He reminded the US president that he could sell American debt; And, he signed a defence contract deal with Australia (a deal that would have gone to the US). He did not go to see the US president right away. And the President’s response once they did speak:
“I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada,”
No 51st state rhetoric.
And here’s the simple truth about Carney versus Poilievre… Carney starts with diplomacy and Poilievre lacks it. When Trump said this yesterday, on our election day, “
“Good luck to the Great people of Canada. Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America. No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER. ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE! America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”
Poilievre responded publicly on Twitter with,
“President Trump, stay out of our election. The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box.
Canada will always be proud, sovereign and independent and we will NEVER be the 51st state.
Today Canadians can vote for change so we can strengthen our country, stand on our own two feet and stand up to America from a position of strength.”
This is not a show of power, it’s grandstanding. I would have been willing to bet real money that had Poilievre won last night, we would have seen ‘51st state’ and ‘Governor Poilievre’ rhetoric surface from the American President.
Carney won’t play the populist all-caps ‘NEVER’ kind of game, he will be firm, strategic, and straightforward. Last night he said,
“I have been warned, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. These are not these are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never, ever happen.”
And,
“We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons that we have to look out for ourselves. … When I sit down with President Trump, it will be to discuss the future economic and security relationship between two sovereign nations, and it will be with our full knowledge that we have many, many other options than the United States to build prosperity for all Canadians.”
Not empty, boisterous rhetoric, but a firm message that we don’t only have to rely on America, with the underlying threat that this will cost America.
2. Fiscal Conservatism
The simple fact is that with respect to finance, I’d consider Carney more right rather than left on the political spectrum. He actually would have made a good Conservative candidate, one I could have voted for unlike Poilievre. Now that doesn’t mean he won’t run a deficit, but in these trade war times, no country is coming out unscathed. However, I believe that Carney will lead us out of the next few years as a global powerhouse, and Poilievre has neither the experience, skill, or ability to plan any such success. We would have been bullied by the US under him, and that simply will not happen under Carney.
So hopefully Canadians can drop the lift/right wars that seem to consume politics these days. Hopefully we can stand ‘elbows up’ with one another, and let the political pendulum swing a bit to center. While things are going to get tough economically, we have far more to hope for prosperity as a unified country supporting our new Prime Minister.
