I’m back.
For the past few weeks, I have been exploring a new path in column writing called The Bug and Me. From the beginning, I worried whether the experiment would be sustainable. What I found was, after a couple of editions, it just became kind of forced and trite. I really don’t want to be forced and trite.
It did give me an opportunity to explore some personal issues and, maybe more importantly, gave me a break to put the old (now new again) column in perspective.
I may have underestimated, for example, just how cathartic it was to have an outlet to bitch about stuff that makes me crazy. I am still working on not letting them make me crazy.
It also gave me the opportunity to address emotional issues in rational and methodical way. Sometimes the process would change my feelings completely (those ones often did not get written because they turned into non-issues for me).
By the end of writing a Thinking Critically piece, I almost invariably had a more balanced, informed and rational view on the topic and hope in that way imparted the same to the reader.
And, speaking of my readers, you are the most important reason for this comeback. I heard loud and clear that people were disappointed I abandoned Thinking Critically (the column, not the process).
In the (probably not so) immortal words of Ray Davies “you gotta give the people what they want.” Or, if The Kinks’ cynical view on that familiar idiom is too negative for you, there’s also the more optimistic The O’Jay’s “Give the people, give the people what, give the people what, give ‘em what they want.”
I do intend to maintain my attempts to be more compassionate toward my fellow credulous human beings. I am far from perfect myself and I realize most of us are trying to do our best in a complex and often hostile world.
I cannot simply block out injustice, however. I cannot simply ignore the issues of the day, such as the insanity of American-style gun laws and efforts to erode Canada’s more sensible approach even in the shadow of the incomprehensible Orlando nightclub killings.
Last week, the most important issue was Brexit. It would be easy enough to think the U.K. (or some parts of it) voting to leave the E.U. simply isn’t our problem. Europe also was not our problem in the 1930s until it became our problem on September 10, 1939.
There are scary parallels with the Europe of the 1930s and the Europe of today. We have the resurgence of a hegemonic Russia knocking on Ukraine’s eastern door. We have the rise of fascist parties in most of the E.U. countries, the scape-goating of ethnic minorities, and, with the last Thursday, increased economic instability. Economic instability is never good for political stability.
Many experts believe Brexit could unravel the E.U. completely. France is already talking about holding its own referendum. For Scotland, whose citizens voted heavily to remain in the E.U., separation from the rest of the U.K. is back on the table.
And let us not forget, the Leave side in the U.K. was led by the xenophobic far right, part of a neo-fascist movement that is gaining footholds throughout democratic Europe.
It is a lot closer to home than that, though.
It was unthinkable even a few years ago that the United States could succumb to authoritarianism, but here is Donald Trump, the presumptive presidential candidate for the Republicans.
Our own right wing, authoritarian demagogue, Kevin O’Leary, is waiting in the wings.
Clearly, these are troubling times. We are moving backward and I must raise my voice against it, even if it is just a small voice in a small community paper in a small city far far away from the turmoil.
We may not immediately feel the repercussions, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t coming.
