Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. - George Carlin
We have all seen the various news reports of the angry crowds of fairly well-organized gangs of protesters attempting to disrupt some of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election events. In some ways this is not new, but in others, it is both new and troubling. One of the concerns is that the individuals are so focused on one issue, not climate change, not the economy, not housing or some other important, and typical election issue, but anger over the necessity of vaccinations and mask mandates. These newly “woke” champions of justice are demanding that they be exempted from any and all regulations that are aimed at helping us all (including them and their families) to get out of this horrible pandemic. The second, and I believe greater, concern is that the same or similar gangs are now descending on hospitals so that they can target health care providers, nurses, doctors, respirology technicians and the like, whom they must somehow believe are at the root of these, perceived, public health outrages being perpetrated on their precious liberties. While the gangs of anger shouters and hasslers are overstepping the bounds of the norms and folkways of election protest behaviour (recently Trudeau had gravel thrown at him which has upped the ante in more troubling ways) at least it is not uncommon for politicians to receive a certain amount of vitriol. But health care workers; the people on whom we depend in some of our most vulnerable times? This is a different and very distressing dynamic.
We appear to live in strange, even malign and dangerous times. Typically we have for years been taught that the Middle Ages were a kind of primitive, anti-reason era ruled by superstition and violence. Of course, it really wasn’t nearly quite so benighted (see the very interesting book, “The Light Ages” by Seb Falk) but I digress.
In the last decade or so we have experienced the advent of a significant movement of anti-intellectual, superstitious and violent individuals, intent on establishing an epoch of high-octane confusion and rage. It is the ascendency of cheap grifters, flim-flam men and purveyors of snake oil and pseudoscience. We might call it, “The Age of Rubes, Marks and Suckers”. In this contemporary age we see various phalanxes of aggrieved know-nothings demanding that the most egregiously vacuous claims and inane flapdoodle of tv evangelists, venial politicians, conspiracy theorists and chancy social media sites, receive equal or more credence in the media and be allowed to dictate our lives. Alternatively, they scream out to demand that educational institutions from JK to university be regulated so that no theory or set of facts be addressed or questions raised that might be seen as challenging their own comfortable belief systems. (Think the zany kerfuffle over any inclusion or consideration of “Critical Race Theory” which it is doubtful that the great majority of these whiners could define with any appreciable accuracy).
The most recent targets of this dangerous wave of excited ignorance in this country are those who are involved in the health care professions. The idiotic and callous demonstrations against front line health care workers is the most recent manifestation of the insanity. It is one thing to mount crazed and aggressive demonstrations against political people, particularly in an election period. But they are, or should be expecting, some rather rough stuff.1 But health care workers? The people who have been working their buns off caring for our friends and relatives who have become coronavirus patients. This strikes one that there is a particularly abhorrent, contumelious mood among certain, let’s be clear, right wing, elements in the country. As Chantel Hebert (2021: 8) observes, “... the racist, misogynist abuse hurled at the Liberal leader ... suggests many in the mob are using the pandemic to air other grievances”. This element exalts a kind of toxic individual “freedom” over the needs and rights of the common good. These are people who have come to believe, like the ultimate anti-socialist, Ayn Rand, that there is some sort of sacred quality of an individual’s will to power. The idea that we are social beings is, practically speaking foreign to them. In effect, we are confronted with a group, though most might never have heard of Thomas Hobbes, that believes that the normal, even the preferred, state of being is, "the war of all against all". They reject the common good and efforts to arrive at the collective solutions that will allow, even impel a better world for all of us.
What Can and Should Be Our Response? It seems to me that there are two principles that should guide a response to these anti-democratic and anti-social threats. First, we are fundamentally social beings. By this I mean that it is in our human nature to live successfully as a species only when we seek to work together and show an ability to strive for the common good. Second, we are citizens. We have the responsibility to engage with important societal issues, not simply at election time. Very few progressive changes have occurred or regressive change countered only through the work of the political class. It has taken individuals and community and social movements to stand up against the selfish and greedy and for the rights of the many.
Given these two principles, it is up to us, as citizens, to mobilize our power and use our voices as engaged social beings to acknowledge and strengthen the common good. We have to make our voices heard, not only in condemnation of these scrofulous, antediluvian, blackguards, but in full throated support of those who, like the front liners who have rendered so much wonderful service to the public good. I’m sure that we have the strength of forming the majority. But it is only a strength if we use it. If we stand collectively for decency and common sense in the face of this kind of anti-intellectual, anti-social bully boy behaviour, we can strengthen our social bonds. If we sit back and let the minority of obnoxious, akratic thugs dominate the public square, we put at risk the common good of the present and the possibilities of a future, caring, humane polity.
______________________________________________
Resource
Hebert, Chantel (2021). Opinion. Toronto Star. Sept. 8 (p.1&8) 1 Which, clearly, should not include projectiles, (like the gravel, as experienced by Justin Trudeau)
We appear to live in strange, even malign and dangerous times. Typically we have for years been taught that the Middle Ages were a kind of primitive, anti-reason era ruled by superstition and violence. Of course, it really wasn’t nearly quite so benighted (see the very interesting book, “The Light Ages” by Seb Falk) but I digress.
In the last decade or so we have experienced the advent of a significant movement of anti-intellectual, superstitious and violent individuals, intent on establishing an epoch of high-octane confusion and rage. It is the ascendency of cheap grifters, flim-flam men and purveyors of snake oil and pseudoscience. We might call it, “The Age of Rubes, Marks and Suckers”. In this contemporary age we see various phalanxes of aggrieved know-nothings demanding that the most egregiously vacuous claims and inane flapdoodle of tv evangelists, venial politicians, conspiracy theorists and chancy social media sites, receive equal or more credence in the media and be allowed to dictate our lives. Alternatively, they scream out to demand that educational institutions from JK to university be regulated so that no theory or set of facts be addressed or questions raised that might be seen as challenging their own comfortable belief systems. (Think the zany kerfuffle over any inclusion or consideration of “Critical Race Theory” which it is doubtful that the great majority of these whiners could define with any appreciable accuracy).
The most recent targets of this dangerous wave of excited ignorance in this country are those who are involved in the health care professions. The idiotic and callous demonstrations against front line health care workers is the most recent manifestation of the insanity. It is one thing to mount crazed and aggressive demonstrations against political people, particularly in an election period. But they are, or should be expecting, some rather rough stuff.1 But health care workers? The people who have been working their buns off caring for our friends and relatives who have become coronavirus patients. This strikes one that there is a particularly abhorrent, contumelious mood among certain, let’s be clear, right wing, elements in the country. As Chantel Hebert (2021: 8) observes, “... the racist, misogynist abuse hurled at the Liberal leader ... suggests many in the mob are using the pandemic to air other grievances”. This element exalts a kind of toxic individual “freedom” over the needs and rights of the common good. These are people who have come to believe, like the ultimate anti-socialist, Ayn Rand, that there is some sort of sacred quality of an individual’s will to power. The idea that we are social beings is, practically speaking foreign to them. In effect, we are confronted with a group, though most might never have heard of Thomas Hobbes, that believes that the normal, even the preferred, state of being is, "the war of all against all". They reject the common good and efforts to arrive at the collective solutions that will allow, even impel a better world for all of us.
What Can and Should Be Our Response? It seems to me that there are two principles that should guide a response to these anti-democratic and anti-social threats. First, we are fundamentally social beings. By this I mean that it is in our human nature to live successfully as a species only when we seek to work together and show an ability to strive for the common good. Second, we are citizens. We have the responsibility to engage with important societal issues, not simply at election time. Very few progressive changes have occurred or regressive change countered only through the work of the political class. It has taken individuals and community and social movements to stand up against the selfish and greedy and for the rights of the many.
Given these two principles, it is up to us, as citizens, to mobilize our power and use our voices as engaged social beings to acknowledge and strengthen the common good. We have to make our voices heard, not only in condemnation of these scrofulous, antediluvian, blackguards, but in full throated support of those who, like the front liners who have rendered so much wonderful service to the public good. I’m sure that we have the strength of forming the majority. But it is only a strength if we use it. If we stand collectively for decency and common sense in the face of this kind of anti-intellectual, anti-social bully boy behaviour, we can strengthen our social bonds. If we sit back and let the minority of obnoxious, akratic thugs dominate the public square, we put at risk the common good of the present and the possibilities of a future, caring, humane polity.
______________________________________________
Resource
Hebert, Chantel (2021). Opinion. Toronto Star. Sept. 8 (p.1&8) 1 Which, clearly, should not include projectiles, (like the gravel, as experienced by Justin Trudeau)
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