A rchive Date
[ 26-08-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/richardson.html
Getting mad over the new normal
MARK RICHARDSON, For the London Free Press
2003-08-26
Getting mad and going mad are two very different things.
The English journalist, poet and novelist G. K. Chesterton very nearly went down the lonely, tedious road to insanity more than once in his boyhood and, in a 1911 essay entitled The Mad Official, claimed nearly all his friends had been fellow travellers. The cause, he says, is modernity.
Says Chesterton, "Routine and literalism and a certain dry-throated earnestness and mental thirst, these are the very atmosphere of morbidity."
If only the lunatic could become aware of his madness, claims the creator of the Father Brown mysteries, he would cease to be mad; but instead, he "studies secret codes in Daniel or cryptograms in Shakespeare" without ever breaking free.
I'll take his word for it. Losing a grip on reality hasn't been a problem to this point, but I've a hunch GKC is on to something when he says, "The slow and awful self-hypnotism of errors is a process that can occur not only with individuals but also with whole societies." Canada, for my money, is a good example.
Chesterton's test of communal psychological unrest is this: Whenever we see things done wildly but taken tamely, the state is growing insane.
For instance, I have a dog licence. For all I know, it may give me the right to turn 10,000 wild Pomeranians loose in Harris Park. I doubt this is the case, but I have no doubt it would be a sign of social mental fatigue if, after I did unleash the Poms, no one within shouting distance of the Thames objected.
Another example: a woman may have a gun licence. For all my knowledge of firearms regulations, it may entitle her to fire off 21-gun salutes day and night in honour of Queen Victoria. I would be surprised if she did such a thing - although it sounds like fun - but I would be dismayed if no one in the Forest City ever took offence.
Now, Chesterton could have been speaking of Canada when he said, "There are commonwealths, plainly to be distinguished here and there in history, which pass from prosperity to squalor, or from glory to insignificance, not only in silence but in serenity."
Hence, the "new normal". Has the SARS outbreak meant you cannot visit Auntie Jean in the hospital because only close family is permitted? (Oh well, I guess those are the new regulations.) Has the mad cow scare in Alberta turned you into a born-again vegetarian? (Oh sure, I like tofu burgers, really.) Has the Big Blackout of '03 sent you scurrying to Home Hardware to pick up a $250 generator? (Hey, I got one of the last ones.)
And how many Canadians actually approve of gay marriage? Some honestly do. There are obviously some genuinely good people who will march for the right of John to marry Bill, and Louise to wed Mary. But the majority, it seems to me, is simply imitating the Liberal caucus in North Bay: not trusting its instincts, terrified of criticism, and shrugging its shoulders while holding its nose. And doesn't that suggest a straitjacket?
There are peoples, says Chesterton, "that have lost the power of astonishment at their own actions. When they give birth to a fantastic fashion or a foolish law, they do not start or stare at the monster they have brought forth."
Canada is one of those peoples. If we weren't, we would be mad in the healthy sense: from sea to sea to politically correct sea, we would be rip-roaring, spit-kicking angry. From Bonavista to Vancouver Island, over whatever issues turned our crank, we would take the so-called new normality behind the barn.
But no, we'd rather be nice persons.
Maybe Chesterton, a famous convert to Catholicism, was right about modernity after all. Perhaps when an individual and a people lose touch with their roots and everything is put up for grabs, things fall apart; including their minds.
We would do well to get angry.
Mark Richardson is a London freelance writer. His column appears Wednesdays. Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
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