I am not an especially politically motivated person. I don't even watch the news each day, particularly right now when the news is predominately distressing. I keep track of the broad strokes, rather than needing to know every pixel required to make each snap shot of the world's events. Some would be horrified by this philosophy, and that would be okay. I know my limitations and what is needful for me to maintain my own mental and emotional health in this time.
One thing that keeps me balanced is a daily dose of fiction. A recent favorite has been the work of Steve Berry and I'm on my second read through of one of his books. He writes against a framework of real places and documented historical fact, then adds the 'well, what if', and lots of other excitement. There is also a strong component of philosophy, some religious and some political, which challenges and provokes the characters and the reader.
The backdrop in this book, is the history of Napoleon and how he achieved the control of so much of the then known world. This is used to illustrate the interplay of those with vast sums of money, nations with vast amounts of debt, and the what is needed for effective political control of a people. It discusses how war is an effective tool that stimulates an economy, brings a people together with a common goal, and also allows a measure of governmental control not allowed in a peaceful time. It also demonstrates that times of peace do not appear to achieve the same goals.
It talks about the need of a 'creditable threat' as a necessary impetus to bind people to a common purpose. This book was written in 2009, so the events of 9/11 are used to illustrate that 'terrorism' provided such a threat, and how it caused a whole chain of events based on the prevention of/preparation for, this threat.
It was impossible to read this exciting story or think about these ideas without putting them in the context of our present world condition. You might think that a global pandemic what constitute a 'creditable threat'. Apparently not. Here in Ontario, we are in lockdown. No one is enjoying this, yet by and large, while griping and complaining, we are compliant. For a common goal. Those who have not been are paying a price, both monetary and physically, being now visited by this plague.
We are several generations past the last Great War. There is no collective memory of the sacrifice needed to end a threat of this nature. So, at this time what seems to be primary in most minds is their own comfort and their own 'rights' as opposed to any responsibility to a 'common good', which is going to be needed for us to come out the other side of this with our families intact.
As I look across our border to the south, I see this played out in a dangerous way. One of the most powerful men in the world could have treated this pandemic as the enormous threat that it is. He could have set a precedent of people over politics. He could have set a precedent in the innovation and research needed to overcome such a powerful enemy. He could have united the people in the common need to survive and bound them together as one in a way never before seen. He could have been, and set, an important and historic example.
However, instead he found a more 'creditable threat' to use as a weapon and energize people in a destructive path; 'difference'. Us and them. Black and white. Police and citizen. Red and blue. Immigrant and 'American'. Every word and action was intended to polarize; to create, emphasize and deepen a fissure in the people of America.
And it worked. There is such a chasm been created, that concepts like 'unity' and 'peace' may only find rocky soil to try to find root. There remains in parts of government an astonishing denial of scientific and historic fact. A seemingly insurmountable task is set before the newest man sitting in that powerful seat of authority.
Most Canadians have family and friends, work colleagues and acquaintances on the other side of our border. They matter to us. Your survival as a nation is important to us.
I wish every success to the man who must now face the those turbulent prevailing winds and bind a fragmented people together.
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