Language reveals us

Through the years I have watched Peter Baker on PBS and read him in the New York Times - as well as his wife Susan, who writes for the New Yorker. When the couple recently produced a book on the Trump era it looked like an interesting read. Rather than buying it I put a hold on it on Libby to read on a tablet - and assumed that since it has just recently been published, there would be a long wait - I certainly wasn’t at the top of the line.

And then it arrived. It was some 1200 pages on the device with a limited time to go through it, but I have persevered. I’m not surprised that those waiting for it an anticipating learning something new have given it a rather quick read and are somewhat happy to be freed from it. It would never have been a keeper that I would want to return to for either facts or inspiration. This is what stands out.

The Trump era has mostly been in plain sight, so there is surprisingly little that an American politics obsessive like me didn’t know already from reading or watching the New York Times, PBS, Washington Post and even Canadian news and the Globe and Mail. The main takeaway from their comprehensive reporting is the perpetual use by all the key players is - the F word. It must occur in quoted conversations in the book at least as many times as Trump’s 30,000 plus lies. I suppose there was a time when such quotations were shocking but now it’s just banal.

The authors never comment on this. I have no idea how they feel about it, though they are quick to pass judgment on many other issues in the book. But I will. I grew up in an era when the use of profanity was a shocker when it occurred; it was rarely used even in private. Get on any bus now and the F word has actually replaced “like” as something to amuse one’s self counting.

But words do say something about our society. Occasional profanity in the past suggested that the sacred actually mattered. Using the F word in every sentence means we have moved way beyond obscene - and any kind of violence is okay now. Civil society used to demand something better. It suggested a world of citizens who were polite to one another because others were human beings. There was such a thing as civil rights. Civil law had to do with things that had different implications than criminal law. Those who worked at any level of government were described as civil servants.

As Americans head into mid term elections, our own little news cycle here notes that the provincial government has withdrawn its use of the Notwithstanding Clause of our constitution - due to a good deal of backlash to shut down a strike - and the union has called off its strike of school support workers and custodians - those who support the lives of our children. It’s a small consolation that both will at least return to the negotiating table. I have no desire to be a fly on the wall in that room. But let’s hope for even a small degree of civility. When tempers flair, no amounf of use of the F word is going to make things better. It’s always arrogant because the speaker is always responding to the other. I echo my fellow octogenarian Ursula LeGuin in her wonderful essay in the book, No Time to Spare. “Would you please just F-cking STOP.

Saving Civil Society

Writing on the recent decision to punish Alex Jones for his reckless treatent of bereaved parents by spreading lies and misinformation as well as profiting from it, writer Zeynef Tufekcy offers the following:

“The work of civilization is not just discovering and unleashing new and powerful technologies, it is also regulating and shaping them, and crafting norms and values through education and awareness, that make societies healthier and function better. We are late to grapple with all of this, but late is better than never.”

Making our societies healthier as they face climate emergency also requires grappling with.

R.I.P

The world has basically moved on - but it still seems appropriate to make an observation or two.

I have lived under four monarchs now - born before the abdication of Edward VIII and the events of the Queen’s life were milestones of my own - her wedding, her coronation, her jubilees. Real power in the world ia not only political and economic. Occasionally there is moving evidence of symbolic power.

We saw more “standing on guard” than military power - brass bands and pipes. We saw pageantry and ritual that bring people together in ways nothing else quite can. We saw a community in silence, broken only by polite applause. We saw strange private grief with a public face. We saw a family in mourning - including its pets. There was glorious music - and a sports star who declined privilege and stood in line for hours for a visit that took minutes.

I have ten more years to live to equal the long life of Elizabeth II - but like many. I shall never forget her. May she rest in peace and may her meory be a blessing.

Achievement

From Reinhold Niebuhr’s, The Irony of American History:

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

How might this relate to the climate emergency? Just because we can’t achieve success in our lifetime, it means we have to play a part. We need to have faith in both small actions and join others in taking larger ones. It does seem that in some respects we don’t act because we can’t forgive ourselves for what we as a species have done. It is a paradox that we are also the species who can do so.

Never Again

Pope Francis has come and gone with an apology that was healing for some and unsatisfactory for others in both church and First Nations communities. The government’s lack of action has not escaped notice either.

What some, but not all, missed was his indictment of Christianity itself. Our arrogance in assuming that one religion is superior to all others is something we learn well when we are young and much time has to elapse before we even know that there are other possibilities with histories and an integrity of their own.

One of the pundits got it right in noting something that Pope Francis said to his bishops and followers. Nigaan Sinclair probably knew a different story from him father, Senator Murray Sinclair from the beginning of his life. The pope said.

“The pain and the shame we feel must become an occasion for conversion: never again! And thinking about the process of healing and reconciliation with our indigenous brothers and sisters, never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others, or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.”

Nigaan Sinclair commented to the TV host what a difference it would have made had a pope said this five hundred years ago? How would our history be different in this land? It speaks to the depth of the damage and the need to learn more quickly how to undo it. It will not be easy. It must happen.