After the recent disturbing verbal assault on Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, I flashed back to 1965. Remember that hit song Eve of Destruction song by Barry McGuire?
Songwriter P.F. Sloan bemoaned the disintegration of human respect; found “the whole crazy world ...just too frustratin'” Grim as it was in 1965, I doubt Sloan or McGuire could have imagined the extent of disintegration we are facing in 2022.
Based on what I and others observe that is offered up on social media these days this attack on Freeland is not unique. Women. racialized individuals and groups, LGBQT people, non- Christians are all targets. The list could go on.
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| Deputy PM Freeland |
In fact, it is pretty much open season for attacks against anyone whose opinion differs from that often anonymous person tethered to the keyboard whose only qualification to shout and fume is their ability to remember a password
Politicians at all levels are under siege and things are heading downhill fast.
In my time as a municipal councillor (1991-97) it wasn’t like this. In 1998, after serving for six years I presented a paper at a health promotion conference on local government and how it could work most effectively with community.
The mainly European audience at a Scottish university challenged my thesis that local government was up to the task.
My theme was based on a fairly positive perception of local government and my optimistic, clearly biased view of elected officials
I put it all down to the fact that we just did a better job of local governance in North America. The old world didn’t get it.
Then I moved on to other things.
After a nine year break I was back in local politics when my former wardmate moved on down the road to the House of Commons. Nine years away and boy how things had changed.
That change was brought about as people gained access to electronic mail, the internet and social media.
Back in the old days if a constituent had an issue to discuss it could often get resolved through something called dialogue. You remember that concept perhaps.
The councillor would make a phone call or meet in person with the constituent. There were often nuances or complexities that one or the other had failed to take into account Issues got resolved. There was no shouting.
By the 21st century constituents simply had to go to their computer and punch in the requisite putdown, question your integrity and/or intelligence and copy the whole diatribe to everyone on their contact list.
I should have seen this coming. Back around 1998 I met futurist Robert Theobald. Theobald argued that a “failure to listen” by decision makers had meant “that groups with certain attitudes and beliefs may come to feel they have been left out of the democratic process.” In Reworking Success (1997) Theobald proposed that we move beyond “polar positions” and learn to define problems in wholly different terms.
Something to think about.
In the meantime let’s:
**Stop the name calling in our public spheres.
**Teach civics in our schools. (Ontario is introducing a compulsory half credit program in September 2022 – a positive development)
**Find ways to ensure that news coverage focusses on facts. I’m pretty sure the earth is round although I haven’t actually seen it in its roundness. We don’t give equal time to the flat earth society. Why do we give it to crazy conspiracy theorists?
**Establish new rules for social media. It won’t be simple but a balance needs to be found between the right for us to speak our minds and what is appropriate, constructive and healthy.
