Looking for the Answers

It may be my imagination - or perhaps I am just feeling old, but it seems to me that there was a time when it was easier to know what was right or wrong - that life was more easily divided into good and bad.  It is not that these dividing lines were always morally correct - for example in Alabama in the 1950s it was “right” or normal that people of different racial backgrounds had to drink out of separate, labeled water fountains or in Canada it was assumed that people of certain ethnic origins should be incarcerated during the various wars of the 20th century. But given the available information and awareness of the times - it was easy to know what was right. It was easy in part because all that people had to do was to believe what their political and religious leaders told them.

Because of postmodernist thinking and globalization in general, life and therefore knowing right from wrong is far more complicated in 2016. There are no easy or obvious solutions to major environmental, economic or political crises - at least for those who think carefully and critically. They know that those who designate themselves as political or religious leaders whether they be on the right or the left are just as likely to be wrong as anyone else. Consequently we are obliged to find our own “right” answers. Most of us are sorely ill prepared to do so.

Example #1:

I have argued elsewhere that one of the ways to stop the apparently endless wars/revolutions/punitive dictatorships it to stop selling (and therefore stop manufacturing) weapons. Simple. Get rid of all the guns and tanks and bombs and at least part of the problem goes away. Canada could start by closing down the factories that make armoured vehicles, bombs and guns (see Ploughshares). However if the Canadian government did that - the thousands of people who worked in those factories or were supported in some fashion by those factories would (1) need other  jobs and (2) be so pissed off that they might vote for a more conservative government and we have already been down that path. Finding well paid jobs, especially for the older workforce is difficult. Do we really want all of those folks to be working at Wal-Mart or the corner store?

Example #2

Clearly the tar sands are terrible for the environment. There is nothing positive one can say about the destruction of the natural environment and the inherent risk to animals and to water sources. The problems only become  exacerbated when one takes that oil, ship it thousands of kilometres to be refined and then it use to heat our houses or transport ourselves and the goods that we we use. Close the damn thing down and tear up the pipelines. Oops - the same problem as the first example - people lose jobs, their houses and can’t feed their children. They get angry and vote for a political party that does not see the environment or climate change as being important. If we cut off the oil and thereby hurt people  and perhaps end up with worse policies four years down the road- who profits by such changes?

Example #3

I think that recycling our broken or out of date electronics is a good thing. I, for a number of years religiously deposited my old computers or printers in large bins labeled for those products. Then I found out that most of that stuff got sent to China where people melt down the plastics, reclaim the metals and in the process pollute the water and air around them. My conscience is clear- I have done the right thing - but in reality all that I have done is pass the problem and the pollution on to someone else. That was not my intention.

It is well past time for the rational people of all political spectrums to stop spouting whatever crap they are told to repeat and to start to think for themselves.  As long as we believe that there are absolute answers to the questions - we will never come close to resolving the issues.

I don’t know what the answers are. Perhaps 2017 will be the year when we collectively, as a country, decide that we need to find out.