Author: Peter Scott Cameron

I Answer All Your Questions: Part II

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

Question: Welcome back. Shall we return first to the news and some more brilliant ideas circulating on the Internet?  But later I would like also to ask you some personal questions, such as “are you a misanthrope? Are you happy?” Is that okay?    Answer: It is okay. Thank you.

Question: So, let’s talk about social movements. Tell us, are the Proud Boys and other such groups patriots, or are they cases of arrested development?      Answer: I am inclined to say that too often those are the same thing, but instead I will just say yes to the latter. Research has shown that members of such groups have trouble with complex problem-solving and have a strong preference for simplistic explanations of complex phenomena. [i]

Question: Since you are a person who has studied psychology, what developmental age would you say they are?      Answer: Per Piaget, early “concrete operational” stage. Emotionally, per Erikson, I would say the stage of “industry vs. inferiority,” which places them at about the same developmental level both cognitively and emotionally: about eight years old. Their anthem that they sing for their mothers, Proud of Your Boy, from Aladdin, gives them away.

Question: Is it true that the Proud Boys were founded by a Canadian?      Answer: Unfortunately, yes. A stain on the country. They were founded in Brooklyn by the scoundrel, who was supposedly educated at Carleton University, and who high-tailed it from Ottawa. Scottish parents, I understand, which makes it even uglier.

Question: Speaking of Canada, what about Prime Minister Trudeau?      Answer: Decent guy. Has his mother’s heart, though he is not quite as smart as his father, who was, after all, a leading Quebec intellectual, which says a lot. Gets into hot water unnecessarily. Loved the famous hand-shake with Trump. Brilliant! I agreed with the 85-year-old woman in the seniors’ building I was living in at the time: I asked her how she liked him, and she replied, “Smokin’ hot!”

Question: If an election is called in the next months, given his minority government, will Trudeau win?      Answer: Yes. He will win a minority government, and thereby Parliament and the country will be in precisely the same position as before the election. This is not uncommon in Canada and Israel. Both countries seem to enjoy having a lot of elections in which nothing changes.

Question: I have heard the term “proroguing Parliament,” and both Trudeau and the Conservative Prime Minister before him, Stephen Harper, did that. Proroguing sounds like something you would eat, possibly Polish, and perhaps on a stick. Would you explain what it means to the Americans in the group?      Answer: Certainly. “Proroguing” is a mechanism with which you can send Members of Parliament home and start over when you don’t like how things are going, say, for example, when opposition members are closing in on a corrupt deal the government has made, etc. Then, when Parliament reconvenes, the game starts over with a clean slate. Of course, in our real lives, we are not allowed do this, but those clever politicians are smarter than us and so have availed themselves of the playground equivalent of a “do-over.”

Question: The Canadian Conservative Party rejected a resolution that would have recognized that climate change was real, and that we should do something about it. What will happen to them?      Answer: They will go the way of the Dodo bird and the 50% of Republican men and certain health care workers who are refusing a Covid vaccine. It is Darwinian natural selection. Unfortunately, they may take the rest of us with them.

Question: But is climate change real and caused by human activity?      Answer: Yes, along with accompanying weather extremes, species extinction and habitat collapse.

Question: Do we have the capability, with relatively straightforward and not unduly difficult fixes, to halt climate change and impending ecological disaster?      Answer: Yes.

Question: Will addressing climate change harm the economy?      Answer: No, it will help the economy. If we pursued it, it would be like the boom after WWII.

Question: Great! Given that, will we take necessary action on climate change soon enough to avoid devastating ecological collapse, with considerable human suffering and the decimation of other species?      Answer: No.

Question: ??? But what about all that is happening right now? Biden’s plans, the fantastic drop in solar power costs and so on?      Answer: It is great; what Uncle Joe is trying to do is terrific. But we are thirty-years-plus too late to avoid serious troubles. We are already experiencing some of them, in fact. The permafrost and glaciers are melting and already we have lost three billion birds in North America alone. We knew about this problem going into the eighties. The Kyoto protocol was, after all, was signed in 1992, and it has only gotten worse. Even now, I see a lot of unwillingness by people to change or to inconvenience themselves – things like horrendous cruise ships, gigantic suburban pickup trucks, all that flying around, bottled water, etc. So, no, we will not avoid suffering.

Question: Does that mean we should give up? Are you a pessimist?      Answer: No. Of course not, to both. Remember Gramsci’s and Rolland’s dictate: “pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.” We can mitigate, and everything we do helps the planet and all sentient beings on it.

Question: Okay. A different subject: can established main-stream news providers be trusted?      Answer: Yes: employing, of course, your faculty for critical thinking acquired in college.

Question: What about Fox News?      Answer: No. Fox is not a news provider.

Question: Speaking of Fox News: do supply-side economic policies with big tax cuts, aka “trickle-down” (aka Reaganism or Thatcherism), work as claimed?      Answer: No. Four decades of evidence show that its effect is the reverse: it is “trickle-up.” Or rather, wealth floods up to the already rich.

Question: Speaking of Thatcher, has Britain harmed itself by pursuing Brexit?      Answer: Yes, substantially. Although I am sure it is not the case for those living through it, it has been a bit comical to watch from the outside. I suppose because it is self-inflicted. But I am sorry they have made such a colossal error and are making their citizens suffer. And it is most unfortunate that they are being “guided” through the process by a buffoon with weirdly tousled hair.

Question: Why, then, did they pursue it?      Answer: Domestic chauvinism, fear of outsiders. But a correction: I’m not sure one can say “they,” speaking collectively of Great Britain. Wales tilted “yes” for obscure reasons including a large influx of conservative English in recent years. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted “no,” and it appears that a significant number of English “no” voters stayed home, considering the idea absurd, and so the true believers won. As one wag said, watching the English pursue Brexit was like seeing them gleefully sawing off both their legs. Sorry, I may have added the adverb, “gleefully.”

Question: Okay, a big one, as this continues to be contested hotly on the Internet: what about the Holocaust? Did Hitler really exterminate six million Jews?      Answer: Most likely more than that if you include both the camps and the killings outside the camps – along with at least five million others outside of “regular” war casualties: Poles, Roma, gay people, the mentally ill, mentally retarded, and sundry other unfortunates. In addition to the millions killed in the concentration camps, there were untold numbers of Jews and others murdered in fields and towns of countries like The Ukraine. When there were children, the Nazis simply buried them alive, throwing them in with the bodies of their parents, to avoid “wasting” a bullet.

Question:  Does this history bother you?      Answer: Bother me? Bother me, you say? It stops me in my tracks. My mind freezes. It wakes me up at night. It makes me grind my teeth. It is horror, the stuff of nightmares, like the Japanese rape of Nanking,[ii] the genocide in Rwanda, the attempted genocide of the Indigenous People of the Americas, slavery, what neighbours did to each other in Somalia and the former Yugoslavia, ISIS beheaders and rapists, and dreadful Taliban women-stoners. It goes on and on.

Question: What can we do about it?      Answer: Personally: what Buddhists call “lovingkindness,” or the Christian Golden Rule. Publicly: atonement and active reconciliation. Politically: the determination to prevent and stop occurrences at every opportunity, with force, as necessary and possible.

Question: Some people say that “history,” as we call it, is just a constructed narrative. Or as the Postmodernists claim, and all the students in the 90’s were indoctrinated to believe, that there is no truth, just “truth.” What do you think?     Answer: Social and historical reality exist. Truth exists. Postmodernism is a catchy idea, but it goes too far. “Desconstruction” became a parlour trick. Derrida, the great showman that he was, overstated the case.[iii] To test this proposition, try standing in front of an oncoming locomotive.

Question: Does evil exist?     Answer: ? You just asked me about the Holocaust.

Question: Does the Devil exist?     Answer: Look in the mirror.

Question: Does Goodness exist?      Answer: Of course. It is both all around us and inside us. The remarkable thing about goodness is you do not even have to exert yourself to get it. All you must do is open yourself to it.

Question: What is virtue?      Answer: Consult Socrates.

Question: Can virtue be taught?      Answer: Yes, according to Socrates.

Question: So, there is hope! What about love?      Answer: It is the best thing we do, and the capability for love is the best quality we have.

Question: Now you sound like a Humanist. Are you?      Answer: Yes, Enlightenment rationalism and humanism is one of the West’s greatest gifts, including liberating us from organized religion. Despite that, I know that there are larger and deeper aspects of existence that we cannot understand.

Question: Now you sound like a Mystic.      Answer: I am all too aware that I am but a miniscule fragment of an incomprehensibly larger whole that is beyond my capacity to comprehend. And in the face of that, the best thing I can do is to experience great awe.

Question: Earlier, you sounded misanthropic. Are you?      Answer: Misanthropic? No, I deny that. But I admit that each additional year that I continue to exist, my esteem for humanity lowers a few percentage points. It is now at 31.4%. But perhaps I have been watching too much television news. The past five years of American politics have taken a toll.

     Of course, there are many one-hundred-percent people, although I sometimes have trouble recalling whom, other than dear friends and family. Well, no, I take that back: there are all sorts of ordinary, everyday hundred-percenters walking around – kind, generous, loving people, I see them in the grocery store.

     And there are Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai for sure. Uncle Joe Biden is certainly looking like a hundred-percenter. Historically, so many: Haydn no doubt. Dickens and Dostoevsky, of course. Voltaire, and Frida Kahlo. Nelson Mandala. Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. Martin Luther King, Jr. All those great Canadian women, like Emily Carr, “Canada’s Van Gogh,” and the aboriginal poet Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), or the Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak, who was born in an igloo on Baffin Island. Then there was Viola Desmond, whose refusal to move from her seat in a movie theatre, in 1946, began to the end segregation in Nova Scotia. It took forever. The last segregated school in Nova Scotia shut its miserable doors in 1983! Don’t be smug, Ontarians, you had segregated schools from the late nineteenth century until 1965, when the last one closed in Colchester! Don’t get me started!!

Question: Okay, not a misanthrope, but touchy, if I might say so. So, given Covid and all the concerns you have mentioned, are you happy? Have you suffered with the pandemic? Answer: Let me start with the second one. No, I have not suffered with the pandemic.

     I am a privileged person in all this. At most, I have merely been inconvenienced by having to stay home, not seeing family and friends, and not going to movies or out to hear live music. Mostly trivial disruptions. I have been helped by my essentially introverted nature.

     I do miss those friends and family members very much and at times I feel sad about it. And I have had bouts of anxiety about when I will see my daughter and grandchildren again. I have gotten fatter, which bugs me. But unlike so many who have really suffered, I have lost no job, no business, nor income. I have not been sick, and most important, I have lost no loved ones. Instead, I have had a greater opportunity to be with myself, and have been able to make improvements, such as lowering my carbon footprint by not driving anywhere. I want to find ways to build on that.

Question: Okay. Then, happiness: are you happy and do you have a philosophy of happiness?     Answer: Again, I will answer the second question first. I will have to start charging you double.

     I understand that, contrary to the U.S. Constitution, happiness cannot be attained through pursuit. Nor is it “choice,” as new-agers claim. Try telling that to a Syrian refugee or a person suffering from major depression. You will risk a sock on the chin, and rightly so.

      Rather, happiness is an understanding, a realization coupled with gratitude. For me, being unhappy would be a monumental act of selfishness. I am reminded of a saying, attributed to the Ojibwa, or properly, the Anishinaabe people: “Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind carries me across the sky.”

     So yes, I am happy. I am a most fortunate person. Aside from being carried across the sky by a great wind, my gratitude list has become encyclopedic. Let me expound in detail. Despite all the usual human defeats and disappointments, I have made it to my overly-ripe mid-seventies, with no cancer, no heart attack or diabetes, and no Parkinson’s. So far, I have all my marbles. I am a citizen of not just one, but two of the West’s candy-store democracies. I am not, say, a Rohingya refugee living in shit-soaked squalor in Pakistan, a Uighur suffering “re-education” in despotic China, or a single mother trying to protect her children in gang-infested Honduras.

     Instead, I live in freedom and tranquility in a little white house in Grandma Moses territory, the rolling countryside near Vermont’s Green Mountains, sharing life with a wonderful woman who loves me, all my alarming deficits included. I have a remarkable daughter and two stellar grandchildren, two terrific sisters and families, and good friends – and, as I said earlier, every one of these people so far has survived Covid.

     All my life, I have been given unlimited opportunities to do meaningful work. And now, every month the American government, in its beneficence, deposits a nice sum of money into my chequing account. I never have to remind them. Mundane stuff really, but I have Beethoven on the radio, Stan Getz and Tim Hardin on the old iPod. Through the real miracle of the Internet, I can listen to my favorite radio station in the world, Jazz-FM from Toronto, any time I want, while remembering fondly when I lived there. I will never run out of books to read. For breakfast, I can sip fair-trade coffee, spread jam on my toast and devour an egg from free-range chickens. I can enjoy a modest cigar in the late afternoon and an Irish whiskey in the evening, while watching television in tranquility with my sweet partner. We have a 100-year-old rescue dog who does not bite, though God knows she would be entitled to, given her early history of abuse.[iv] We also share life with two foundling cats, one of whom thinks the dog is his mother, and the other who thinks he is part dog. Dudley walks around the yard with me when I do my daily inspection, and then when I go sit on the large stump to smoke my cigar, he jumps up and sits beside me, taking stock of things, as I do. Just that. It is amazing. So much to be grateful for.

     I’ve got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.

     But I do not live just for these “tranquil pleasures,” as Manuel Vilas said of his father. [v]

     Instead, like most human beings, I know that there is a great light within me. And every day I grow one day closer to setting it free.  

________________________________________________

[i] Grover, Natalie. People with Extremist Views Less Able to do Complex Mental Tasks, Research Suggests. The Guardian, February 21, 2021.                                                                                                                                                                                               

[ii] Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking. Basic Books, 1997.                

[iii] Derrida, Jacques, Of Grammatology. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (transl.). Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

[iv] Dear Sandy died on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. I left this sentence written as is, in tribute. I continue to hear her patter in the house, and to look for her poking around in the yard, blind as she was, navigating by her sniffing, very fine doggish nose.

[v] Vilas, Manuel, op cit., page 179.

I Answer All Your Questions

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

Hello!

Theories, explanations, and revelations swirl in the maelstrom that is the Internet! They confuse us – it is difficult to separate falsehoods from truth and reality! And this bubbling cauldron of toxic thought-swill contains problems that exist in addition to everyday thorny conundrums that have perplexed even philosophers and theologians for millennia, let alone the rest of us everyday knuckleheads.

     But relief is at hand. Today I am going to answer all these questions. Some are quite simply answered with facts, but others are difficult, defeating some of the greatest thinkers on the Internet. Nevertheless, I answer them here.

Part I (Second Installment Coming!)

Question: Was the American election stolen?      Answer: No. However, Trump and the national Republicans did everything in their power to do exactly that.

Question: Will Trump run in the 2024 election?      Answer: Maybe, if he is not in jail.

Question: I read on Facebook that the Clintons belong to a secret cabal of mainly Democrats and “Deep State” pedophiles who not only have sex with children in a pizza parlour basement in Chicago, but also eat them. Is that true?      Answer: No.

Question: As an avid reader of the Weekly World News in the nineties, before the Internet, I have always wondered: did Hillary Clinton really have a love child with Bat Boy?      Answer: No. Bill’s shenanigans kept her too busy to think of having an affair of her own.

Question: How about the Alien–      Answer: No.

Question: Did Jews, assisted by Democrats, aim lasers from outer space to start the California fires?      Answer: No.

Question: About Covid-19. Is it spread by 5G towers, the same way radar, even though it had not quite been invented yet, caused the 1918 flu pandemic?      Answer: No.

Question: Was it invented by Bill Ga–      Answer: No.

Question: Did the Chinese create Covid-19 in a laboratory?      Answer: No, probably not. It looks like Covid-19 was accidentally passed from animals, probably bats, to humans somewhere near or in Wuhan.

Question: Did people believe as many strange explanations during the Great Plagues and the 1918-1919 flu epidemic as they do now?      Answer: Yes, though it appears not quite as many that are as bizarre as those propagated on the Internet at present.

Question: Did that flu, the “Spanish Flu,” start in Spain?      Answer: No, it started in Haskell County in Kansas.

Question: Why was it called the “Spanish Flu,” then?      Answer: Prejudice. It is like the French, who in the old days, called syphilis “The English Disease.” The English called it “The French Disease.” In Zaire, in more modern times, H.I.V. was called “The American Disease.” Americans thought it came from Haitians.

Question: Are the Covid-19 vaccinations safe and effective?      Answer: Yes. With AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, there is a one in a million chance of a blood clot. You are more than nine times more likely to get a blood clot from Covid-19. You should get vaccinated with whatever vaccine is available, if not for yourself, then for the rest of us.

Question: Do the various Covid vaccinations contain microchips that governments will use to control us?      Answer: No, although perhaps there are some people who would benefit from such a thing.

Question: Do vaccinations cause autism?      Answer: No. This idea came from a long-discredited study published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, who is not necessarily a quack, but is a fraudster. The finding has been determined to be an “elaborate fraud.” But unfortunately, the idea was picked up and propagated by famous people who should know better.

Question: What about all those other problems that vaccines cause such as auto-immune problems in children, along with all the money drug companies earn and a bunch of other bad stuff outlined on the Internet, etc.?      Answer: Vaccinations along with other public health actions are among the greatest contributors to human longevity and wellbeing that we have ever known. And they are remarkably safe.

Question: Given all the conspiracy theories and half-baked ideas floating around, are smart-phones and social media doing humanity any good?      Answer: Social media: some usefulness, but overall, no, not very good for the species. Seems to me it will be the final nail in the coffin of inner-directedness, making us entirely other-directed as David Reisman, the sociologist, predicted all the way back in 1950.[i] Although it is true that helps budding musicians build a reputation for themselves and make sales, as in Justin Bieber.

     The phones? Hard to say, although there is considerable comedic value in seeing all these people with their noses in their phones while walking, at concerts and sporting events, eating in restaurants, and riding around on tour buses. I feel sorry for the kids though, whose total reality is being mediated by social media and smart phones. I’m glad I grew up before these things happened. Seems like my young life was more interesting and more fun.

Question: But isn’t the immediate connection of human beings, that the phones offer, beneficial?      Answer: It is a bit of a stretch to call it an “immediate connection,” I think. As I consider this, I am reminded of the great Charles de Gaulle who, when he was asked why he did not answer the telephone, is reputed to have answered: “Because if I had wanted to talk to him, I would have called him up.” I like texting; however, I find I have a limit on how many I can tolerate in a single day.

Question: Okay. People question whether scientists and doctors can be trusted. Can we trust them?      Answer: Yes. Almost all of them, although not Andrew Wakefield, obviously.

Question: Can science itself be trusted?      Answer: Yes, with the recognition that it is a step-by-step process and always a work in progress. Science is saving our behinds in this pandemic.

Question: Are human beings intelligent?      Answer: I would say clever, but not exactly intelligent. The invention of non-fungible tokens and then the selling of same at astronomical prices makes my case splendidly. We are certainly not nearly as intelligent as we think we are. We are rather primitive and paranoid with our old reptilian and mammalian core brain areas, but with frontal lobes making up stories, telling us all the time that we are the smartest creatures in the room.

Question: Does this apply to you?      Answer: Of course.  

Question: Speaking of different areas of the brain, are you saying life evolved, or was it created?      Answer: Evolved.

Question: How could that happen, given evolution to the point of human consciousness?      Answer: It is a remarkable mystery.

Question: Do astrology and numerology have any validity?      Answer: Only for the bank accounts of Astrologists and Numerologists, as well as providing something enjoyable to read in newspapers.

Question: Are there spirit-beings on other planes of existence that we can communicate with who can help us with our personal problems?      Answer: No. Although it makes sense to invoke, within ourselves, the essences of great dead people as guides and for inspiration.

Question: What about pet psychics? Past-lives-regression therapy?      Answer: Codswallop. Hogwash perpetrated by flim-flam artists and balderdash perpetrated by frauds.

Question: Is psychotherapy helpful and effective?      Answer: Very helpful! In-depth self-reflection with an objective helper: what could be better?

Question: Is meditation good for you?      Answer: Oh very. I do this, in an effort to still the “puppy-dog” mind and to sit for a while with the great mystery.

Question: What about yoga? I read in the New York Times that in support of a twenty-eight-year-old ban on yoga in public schools in Alabama, evangelical Christians argue that yoga causes injuries, psychosis, and Hinduism. Is this true, does it cause these problems?      Answer: I’ll ask my daughter, who is a thirty-year practitioner – she is currently in the broken- bones unit at the Toronto Hindu psychiatric hospital, ha, ha! But seriously folks, all jokes aside, I have always wondered what causes Hinduism, ha, ha! But seriously folks, all–

Question: Okay, we get it! But tell us then, is yoga beneficial in any way?      Answer: Yes, all that pretzel-like bending and mental focus is good for the body, the mind, and the spirit, especially so as one ages. I regularly consider practicing it.

Question: Is Buddhism useful?      Answer: You mean, does it cause you to speak on riddles and kōans and cause mindfulness, har, har? Okay, yes. Some really good ideas. Hilarious stories and good mind-puzzles, too. Big on compassion, and we sorely need that.

Question: I have heard you used to practice Zen Buddhism. What does Zen say about what happens after death?      Answer: It says nothing about life after death, only that you should anticipate dying.

Question: What does happen after death?      Answer: Although we make up all sorts of stories, spooky and otherwise, about it, nobody knows. I believe that it will be silent.

Question: How about reincarnation?      Answer: A dubious proposition. If this were true, given the law of karma, logically there would be a lot fewer human beings in the world than there are currently, and a lot more bugs, bats, and bullfrogs.

Question: Is there an individual soul that survives, then?      Answer: A gratifying idea, but I have my doubts. Decide for yourself.

Question: But, what about the testimonials of near-death experiences, you know, the white light and all?      Answer: Last-minute activity of our oxygen-starved, marvelous, story-telling frontal lobes.

Question: Does God exist?      Answer: That is not something I can say. You will have to decide for yourself. Please don’t consult the Internet on this matter. I’d say go for a walk in nature on a sunny day. Or a rainy day.

Question: What about Jesus?      Answer: Oh, I trust he existed alright: a stupendous person and philosopher, or the Son of God, depending on your belief. Too bad we seldom really understand him, due to Biblical nonsense and the endless prevarication and confabulation of believers.

Question: As an aside, would you say Jesus approves of gay people having sex?      Answer: It is impossible to imagine, given all the real and horrible problems in the world, that Jesus would spend his time worrying about how people play with each other’s private parts. If he did pay any attention at all, I’m sure he would enjoy any and all of the imaginative consensual coupling and frolicking that people indulge in.

Question: Okay, then, back on track: does life have meaning?      Answer: Certainly, and it is our job to create it, as Viktor Frankl says. I admire his take on this. He survived the concentration camp. His wife did not. See Man’s Search for Meaning. But in addition to that, it is as the great Spanish writer, Manuel Vilas, realized: that life “was worth living even if it was just to sit in silence.” [ii]     

Question:  So then, the Hokey-Pokey is not really what it’s all about?      Answer: No, but it is an excellent place to start.

Question: I gather from the previous question that you are an existentialist. So, what do you believe?      Answer: I believe that students should know, after 12 years of extensive schooling at considerable public expense, when and where to use the apostrophe. I think adverbs are useful, and the passive voice is perfectly serviceable in the English language. I also believe that we should go back to the correct use of the verb “to lie,” as in, “I am going to lie down,” as opposed to “I am going to lay down.” Bob Dylan’s song should be Lie, Lady, Lie, not Lay, Lady, Lay. The lady, in whatever state of undress she is in our imaginations, should lie across Bob’s big brass bed.

Question: Given your lack of faith in a religious system that gives you succour; how do you get up in the morning?      Answer: After I wake up, I have a cup of coffee, listen to classical music, read a poem, and then make breakfast.

Question: Okay, thank you. I, and surely the readers, have many more questions we would like to ask. We have inquiries about the Proud Boys, Brexit, whether we will avoid climate catastrophe, and whether or not you are happy. Will you come down from the mountain top again soon to answer these?      Answer: Indeed, yes. How about three days from now?

Question: Great! Thank you! Your cheque is in the mail.      Answer: Okay, good, my Internet service provider payment is due. And you are most welcome. See you Thursday.

[i] Riesman, David, et al. The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character. Doubleday, 1950.

[ii] Vilas, Manuel. Ordesa. Andrea Rosenberg (transl.). Riverhead Books, 2020. Page 57.

Postscript to: The Day Democracy Died

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

A follow-up, and by no means is this my original thought, and I wish it were unnecessary to say so, but…

      Regarding the anemic (and in some cases even accommodating, if not outright assisting [i]) response of law enforcement with the insurrectionists: had this not been white Trump followers, but instead it had been Black Lives Matter protesters, and especially if protesters attempted to enter the Capitol building, there would have been a very different response. I believe there would have been bloody heads, tears streaming from the eyes of maced protestors, hundreds of arrests on the spot, and bodies on the steps.[ii]

     That said, I know many Capitol police officers acted with great courage. My condolences to the family of Brian Sicknick, the officer killed by an insurrectionist. I am so sorry for him and for all those who loved him. He was a really good, well-loved person. This should not have happened.

     Please read Phyllis Cavanagh’s comment; I am trying to get there.

     I also want to mention that “Democracy” in the original post was intentionally capitalized in all cases, i.e., Democracy as a venerable institution.

[i] Sam Levin, US Capitol riot: police have long history of aiding neo-Nazis and extremists. The Guardian, January 16, 2021.

[ii] Substantiated by social science findings. Lois Beckett, US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds. The Guardian, January 14, 2021.

The Day Democracy Died

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

Yesterday, January 6, 2021, many of us watched in horror as a mob of white supremacist militia members, conspiracy theorist adherents, Christian evangelicals, bikers, “ordinary” Trump supporters, miscreants, and out-and-out thugs breached the defenses of the United States Capitol Building, a world-wide symbol of Democracy. They did so at the unequivocal urging of the rogue American President, and with the aid and abetting of a group of Congressional Representatives and Senators, seeking to overturn legitimate election results.

     Some watched in horror, but to be sure, there were many who watched not with horror at all, but rather with hope and joy in their hearts.

     The day was intended to be solemn and ceremonial: the ritual acknowledgement of the will of the people in choosing the next President. That is, Congress had gathered to ratify the votes of the Electoral College and to affirm the peaceful transfer of power. Instead, insurrectionists pushed aside police, terrified public servants, invaded the Senate Chambers, and one hoodlum even desecrated the office of the Speaker of the House, while elected members and senators were squirreled away to safety.

     The President, after earlier in the day exhorting people to do exactly this, later suggested that they “go home” but while doing so affirmed once more his lies to the effect that the election was stolen. And he concluded by saying to the white supremacists, the Neo-Nazis, the deluded, the thugs and the malefactors: “we love you” and “you are very special.”

     And so, Democracy died yesterday.

     But Democracy does not die all at once. It dies by a thousand – or a hundred – different cuts. It dies when people affirm the worst, not the best, in us. It dies when we, and our elected representatives, serve ourselves, and not the community. It dies when we turn away from decency and working to make the world a better place, and instead feed our hatreds, and stoke the suspicions of those who live in fear of “the other.” For Americans, it dies when we give up on the ideal of toiling for a “more perfect union.”

     And so, we can say that Democracy died yesterday. But we can also say that it died previously, on Election Day, November 3, 2015, when the country elected a cheater, a reality television star, a grifter, a person who represented the lowest in us, rather than the highest: a person without the temperament, the competence, the intelligence, and the moral character to assume and carry out his duties. A case in point: the complete dereliction of duty during this Covid crisis, which has only accelerated in the post-election period, and resulted thousands upon thousands of additional deaths, the responsibility for which can be laid directly at his feet, along with the dangerous crisis of governance that we are in right now.

     However, we can also say that Democracy died before that, when Mitch McConnell assumed Senate leadership, on January 3, 2015. He stated his main goal: the vindictive (and I believe, racist) determination to ensure failure of the Obama presidency. And Democracy died again and again during his tenure: for example, on March 16, 2016, when Merrick Garland was nominated by Barak Obama for the Supreme Court and McConnell refused to bring the nomination to the floor. Or again on October 26, 2020, when he presided over the confirmation of the theocratic cult member Amy Coney Barret, to replace the noble Ruth Bader Ginsburg on that same court. Or simply: Democracy died every time he refused to bring helpful legislation to the floor of the Senate. This is not about having a “loyal opposition,” helping to ensure that the government in power has some checks and stays in balance. This is about a regressive white man from a small State, illegitimately controlling the legislative agenda for the entire nation, without being elected to do so.

     Perhaps it was the Supreme Court itself that inflicted a death, in its Citizens United decision of January 21, 2010, when it struck down restrictions on “independent expenditures from corporate treasures,” thereby affirming that corporations would be unfettered in spending and bribing in their efforts to cultivate favour and direct legislative benefit toward themselves.

     We could say that Democracy died the day that Newt Gingrich became House Speaker on January 3, 1995. He ushered in a new, invigorated era of demagoguery and has never stopped carrying that flag.

     Reflecting on my lifetime, though, I go back further: yes, to the criminality of Richard Nixon; but at least he was found out and summarily (relative to today, that is), resigned rather than facing certain expulsion. (This, of course, is exactly what should happen to the current President, even though Joe Biden is taking over in thirteen days. Donald Trump is unhinged and unfit for office and should be relieved of his duties immediately.)

     But all that aside for now, I would also say that the death of Democracy occurred on August 12, 1986, when then President Reagan said: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ ” People chuckled and nodded their heads upon hearing this nefarious witticism, but Reagan had planted a most destructive seed. Since that time, many Americans have turned away from an ideal: turned away from the idea of good, helpful, fair, and honourable government as a venerable and worthy institution.

     The culmination of this was yesterday, when an ignorant, vicious mob disrupted the ceremonial duties of government – aided and abetted by the President himself as well by at least six Republican Senators and one hundred and forty Republican Representatives, including mine, Elise Stefanik, who voted to overturn the election results.

     And so, what now?

     Well, some would say that Democracy also lived yesterday. Despite all, the will of the people was affirmed, the voting result of the archaic[i] Electoral College was ratified. The Representatives and the Senators reconvened as soon as they were able, and over the objection of their less-than-honourable colleagues, did their duty in the wee hours of the night. It was a remarkable affirmation.

     And one way or another, the current occupant of the White House and his corrupt family will be gone in less than two weeks. There is reason to hope and reason to believe in the resilience of the country, and that the United States will continue with its aspiration [ii] to become a real Democracy. The country has elected a President this time who is the very embodiment of decency, who more than anything works to bring out the best in us. And we have elected a Vice-President who champions justice and affirms the ambitions and capabilities of women – and men – everywhere, of all creeds and colours and ethnicities. And so, there is much to celebrate.

     But I cannot say that I am entirely optimistic. The Trump supporters who believe the lie that the election was stolen, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, are still here. Their signs remain in their yards nearby my home, even today. I find myself struggling to find a way to understand and accept this. Also, the White Supremacists, the Misogynists, the Haters, the Militias, the Theocratic Evangelicals, the Conspiracy Believers are all still here. They are not going anywhere. I, and we, must find a way to limit their toxicity.  

    So, what, in the end, can we think and do? Rather than embrace blind optimism, I would rather abide by the words of Antonio Gramsci, who was imprisoned by the Fascists in Italy and died eventually because of the deterioration of his health and the neglect of same by his jailers. Of course, I do not embrace his Marxist philosophy, but I find a famous aphorism that he was fond of quoting to be helpful in a time like this. [iii]

     Gramsci advocated “pessimism of the intellect,” along with “optimism of the will.”   Pessimism of the intellect:  things will not get better by themselves. They will not even get better once and for all.  Optimism of the will:  we must never give up in the face of these setbacks. We must be unyielding in our striving for what is good, what is decent, what is fair and just.  We must help the Nation take its steps from an aspiring Democracy, to an actual one. In the face of darkness, it is sometimes all we can do is keep the lights on and try again in the light of morning.

     My heart is bitter today. In my weakness, I can only reach for inspiration from the great ones: Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, and the young Nobel prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai. I do not have their capacity, I do not have their courage, and I certainly do not have their love. But I can, at least, aspire to these.

     And we, as a people, can continue to aspire to Democracy, to go forward, and not only for our citizens, but all of humanity, to achieve a more perfect union.       

PSC

January 7, 2021

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[i] More on this another time.

[ii] More on this, too, another time. It is true that formally, the U.S. is the oldest intentional aspiring Democracy, but it is not yet fully one.

[iii] He attributed this to the novelist, Romain Rolland.

Let’s Celebrate: It’s a New Year!

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

We have finalized plans for this New Year’s Eve, 2020. Given that it was a tough year, we thought we should splurge and go in style this year.

     First, we have reserved a black 1949 Cadillac limousine to sail us down to New York and glide us home again. Our first preference was the 1948, of course, because of its better looking grill-work (not quite so square) and a more dynamic treatment of chrome side-accents. But none were available, so we happily settled for the ’49, as these differences are immaterial for the traveller. The interiors offer identical ample comfort for both models, notably the sofa-like luxury and the fine material of the two-tone (black and brown) sumptuous upholstery.

     Black-tie is the requirement for the gentlemen, naturally, and beautiful gowns for the ladies. Décolletage is always admired and appreciated!

     On our drive down, with Count Basie playing on the Wonder Bar Radio, we will have appetizers and light drinks – select French beers and Italian wines, the latter from the Vento region only, please! For the abstainers we will have nectar of the grapes, hand-pressed – or should we say feet? – from the Bordeaux region, “right bank,” to be certain. It goes without saying that we will offer canapés, and there will be Sesame-Garlic Edamame especially for vegetarians. We will have Belgian Toast Cannibal for the carnivores, along with shrimp cocktail and caviar for revelers with a predilection for such, and escargot for those of a French persuasion. Don’t eat too much – dinner awaits!

     We are, naturally, travelling to the Waldorf-Astoria on Park Avenue. No other venue would quite do. We should find ourselves in the wonderful ballroom by 7:30 or thereabouts. Do not forget to tip the hat-check and cigarette girls generously, by the way – they are essential and work very hard, and we are, after all, ushering in not only a new year, but, we hope, a new era. Speaking of: cigarette smoking is nearly obligatory, but you are not required to continue the habit after the evening. No need to worry about this – after all, this is before cigarettes were considered harmful. For the ladies, ebony and gold cigarette holders are always in style.

     The Waldorf has the usual splendid menu, but we are recommending a few items that seem appropriate to the evening. First, you cannot go wrong with the Ahi Tuna Tartare as an appetizer, although a more neutral but delicious option is Sweet Pea Guacamole with warmed Tortilla Chips. For a main course, consider, if in the mood for seafood, the Roasted Faroe Island Salmon or the Dover Sole Meuniere with Lemon Butter and Persil. Of course, some may want more traditional ocean fare, such as the Roasted Maine Lobster with Glazed Cabbage and Sriracha Butter. Personally, though, we have our heart set on Peppercorn Crusted Wagyu Beef Tenderloin with Glazed and Roasted Carrots and Miso-Mustard Sauce. Again, there is a provision for the vegetarians: we cannot recommend enough Chef Joel’s Gnocchi in rich Pomodoro Sauce with Capers and Basil.

     The meals and evening would not be complete without a smooth flow of Manhattans, Dry Martinis (shaken, premium gin only, not vodka!), London Bucks, a Dark and Stormy or two, and naturally, for the more classically-minded, highballs such as Scotch and Soda or Gin and Tonic – and again, for the teetotalers, we have provided tall, rosy, and tasty Shirley Temples.

     The earlier part of the evening features none other than Sammy Kaye and his Swing and Sway Orchestra. Just try to keep your toes from tapping and feet from dancing to the sounds of Daddy, or Chickery Chick! If you are not smooching your Darling when Harbor Lights is played, then you are already dead. I expect to see some fabulous dancing out on the floor – Swing and Fox Trot, and we would not be surprised to see a few old-timers still doing the Lindy Hop.  

     At 11 p.m., Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians will take over the bandstand, for “the sweetest music this side of Heaven.” See if you can resist crushing that sweet honey in your arms, while waltzing to the strains of When I Grow Too Old To Dream. And of course, New Year’s would not be New Year’s at all, without Auld Lang Syne at the stroke of midnight.

     We can expect to stay at the Waldorf until 1 a.m., when our car will whisk us away to the newly opened club, Birdland. Expect an exciting night! Who knows who will show – Bird himself? Stan Getz? Youngsters like Sonny Rollins or Chet Baker? Imagine if Satchmo brought his horn in from Queens and waltzed through the door! One never knows who will turn up for a New York New Year’s Eve jam session, but whomever it is, you can be guaranteed a potpourri of inventive and swinging jazz that will set your hair ablaze.

     At 5:30 a.m. the Cadillac will pick us up at the door and swish us down to Houston Street on the Lower East Side for breakfast at – where else! – Katz’s delicatessen. The only allowable option there is, of course, the Oversized Omelet with the filling of your choice. Expect to be stuffed to the brim for the trip back – oversized is the key word here.

    Then it is tumbling back into the Cadillac and out the tunnel for the smooth ride home. We can expect to be sleepy on this part of the adventure, but rest assured that our smart and attentive driver, Willie (“The Dirk”) MacDonald, will be wide awake, and will guide us deftly between the lines while we float along. With Sinatra and Ella crooning on the Wonder Bar, we can expect to slumber nicely…six sleepy people, by dawn’s early light…     

     It is a new dawn. A new day. It is a new year; 2020 is gone.

     2021 is here.

     Anything is possible.

MacSorely Arrives Back in Vancouver

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

From: MacSorely’s Great Adventure

After the troopers let him go, MacSorely found a bus terminal and got a ticket to Seattle. In Seattle, nursing a headache and pain from his nose-break, he bought another ticket to Vancouver with the last of his cash. He played for change with the battered guitar which once again had survived and made enough to buy a dried-out turkey sandwich, a cup of coffee that tasted like aluminum, and two packs of unfiltered Camels. He had some change left over. He gave one pack of Camels and half his remaining take to a bum with the shakes and piss-drenched pants. He settled down to try sleep in a hard, plastic, puke-green seat. Sometime in the night somebody got stabbed and the police came, but MacSorely was too out of it to get the details. The police didn’t seem all that interested, and he wasn’t questioned. He slept some after that, trying to keep an eye open, and rode out on the Greyhound in the morning. It took little time to get to Canada and Vancouver, other than a wasted hour at the border.

     The Canada customs people were interested in his cuts, his crooked nose and black eyes, but when a thorough search of his belongings and person turned up no drugs, the car-crash story seemed to satisfy them. The other people on the bus frowned at him when he got back on, annoyed at him for holding them up. He was too beat-up to care. One older guy turned around to display a disapproving scowl and MacSorely stifled his more violent impulse and just stared him down. Soon enough the sour face swiveled back toward the front of the bus.

     He arrived in Vancouver, Shangri-la, ringed as it always is by water and snow-capped mountains, glad to be back in Canada with his battered face and broken heart. His big trip had come to nothing. Here he was: divorced, out of work, out of graduate school, no more fellowship, and nowhere to live. He had no money, no place to go and no way to get there. A woman he had fallen for was 2,800 miles west on an island, no doubt lying in the arms of that bare-assed piano player. The daughter he loved was 2,800 miles east, in the care of a woman hurt and angry enough to kill him.

     He sat on a park bench by the ocean, smoking the last of his cigarettes, full of loathing for a life that had become aimless and worthless. In the fading late-day sun he waited for something to happen, smelling the salty air from the harbour. When it grew dark, he rolled out his sleeping bag and fell asleep trying to think of what he might do next. Nothing came to mind.

     MacSorely woke just before dawn to find he had been robbed. His guitar was gone. His pack, with his clothes, his books, his journal and hand-written manuscript, and the last traveller’s cheque were gone. He was left with his sleeping bag, the clothes he had slept in, his boots, his wallet with no money, thirty-seven cents in his pocket, and the impending dawn.

     The sun cleared the mountains and the eastern horizon of the city and shone into his unblinking eyes, warming his face. He breathed in. The air smelled of the sea: fish, salt, seaweed, water-logged wood, rotting something, birds, and the water itself. Life.