I recently read the
new book by Douglas Murray, “The Madness of Crowds”, and it got me thinking
about items that have puzzled me for some time. A case in point, something I
have mentioned before, is our innate hypocrisy. How do we fight discrimination?
Why, by discriminating! Take “affirmative action” as a great example. Or how
about how best to fight bullying? By bullying the bullies of course! The most
recent irony is how do we come together as a global community? By accentuating
our differences! You know, “diversity is our strength”. It made me realise that
the egalitarianism promoted by science fiction shows such as Star Trek, set in
the future, cannot and will not ever happen if we continue as we do. In effect
we are in the throws of tearing apart every societal gain we made during the
Twentieth Century all in the name of creating “a better world”. We very well
may be on the verge of a major upheaval that could set us back to a primitive
time we struggled so hard to escape. While I hope to live to a ripe old age it
may not happen due to the “kindness” of others. As Pogo the Opossum once said;
“I have seen the enemy and he is us”.
In the first 2 decades
of the 21st century a lot of these negative changes have been fomenting,
and I have wondered why they have gained the popularity that they have as they
can easily be refuted as making no sense. The very title of Murray’s book gives
the reason; while people, as individuals, act in a sane fashion, once they take
part in a crowd, they let their irrational aspects come to the surface and
madness ensues. We have all seen this with basic morals and ethics. A person
publicly abhors the killing of another person yet has no problem throwing
deadly projectiles at someone else if they are amongst a crowd. Their
inhibitions are lost, and the true personality is exposed. Just like Jeckle and
Hyde.
This madness has been
accentuated by “social media” whereby it is so easy to be anonymous in the
propagation of trolling and slandering of others. The worst, in my mind, is
Twitter, apply named as only a twit would have the gall to take part. But like
so many things there are positive aspects. South of the border President Trump
has used it with great skill to get simple messages out unfiltered by a very
biased media. You may consider him a twit but at the very least he is not
pretending to be someone else and if you take the time to properly parse his
messages you quickly see that they expose a truth that others, the media in particular,
actively try to hide.
Note that this
collective madness is being magnified by our mainstream media. How else can you
describe a group that do their very best to cut their own throats by alienating
a significant portion of their potential readership? Journalist ethics have
been cast aside and for what? The promotion of thoughts and ideas that we worked
so hard in the latter parts of the 20th century to rid ourselves of,
such as racism, sexism and all other divisive measures.
For me a highlight of
the evolution of our nation was the repatriation of our constitution in 1982.
No sooner was that affirmed by Parliament that the backward slide began. Maybe
it began back in 1968 when Pierre Elliot Trudeau first declared that “Canada
must be a just society” where “the rights of minorities will be safe
from the whims of intolerant majorities”. At face value, especially for a
person such as myself who grew up and still resides in an area that has wants
and needs that are a minority to the wants and needs of the far more populated
regions of Canada, it resonated well. In practice it has become perverted.
I suppose the greatest
perversion is that “rights” have lost their meaning. Under our Constitution we
all have “the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law
without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on
race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or
physical disability.” Now we are not “equal” because of our race, colour,
sex and age as just some examples. It has reached the point that even the basic
“freedom of speech” is being denied by the charge that something you say can be
considered “racist” just because of the colour of your skin if deemed
inappropriate to the situation.
Another perversion
taking place right now are our basic “freedoms” from the same Constitution. Two
of our supposedly “fundamental freedoms” are the freedom of peaceful assembly
and freedom of association. Both have been turned off, or at least limited,
thanks to the current, as I write this, Covid-19 “pandemic”.
You see, the “madness
of crowds” has been working hard to destroy those things that we had believed make
a “civilised society”. More and more we are seeing the return to rule by
tyrants and the loss of everything of value we had worked so hard to gain over
so many generations. At the forefront is “Socialism” – the sheep’s clothing
being used by the wolves of discord.
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I don't want to live in a bubble so if you have a different take or can suggest a different source of information go for it!