This is the week that we wear poppies and take time to remember the sacrifices made by all those who have fought to institute and maintain freedoms that we value pretty highly. November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada.
Our neighbours to the south call it by another name, and the messaging is also somewhat different. But we set aside the time to remember. Lest we forget.
That need for remembrance was brought home to me in a very real way on Tuesday – and again the following morning, when I realized that I hadn’t been imagining what was happening before I called it a night and shut off the tv at midnight. I didn’t sleep well – I’m not sure if it was my thoughts about what was happening or actual nightmares that were keeping me awake. Those two things became inextricable in the harsh light of day, and that awareness isn’t getting any easier to handle.
Back in March I wrote this. Even though it was not my circus, so the behaviour of its clowns shouldn’t have concerned me all that much, after too many months of nativistic, misogynistic, xenophobic and racist rhetoric I HAD to say something.
See, we went through a similar thing – on a much smaller scale – in my hometown too recently for comfort.
8 months ago I said:
Supporters of the ideology that drives the inflammatory rhetoric of people like Trump (and most of the other GOP contenders, for that matter) are the both the products and symptoms of a system that discourages progressive development and critical thinking.
THIS is what happens when you cut funding to education programs (especially those in the Humanities), while advertising a faulty ‘dream’ predicated on the drive to acquire meaningless stuff, while squandering individual benefits, without thought to the larger community.
THIS is what happens when history is treated as little more than a footnote in a perspective that is, increasingly, deemed ‘academic’ and, therefore, unimportant.
Imagine my surprise when my warnings about that particular path went unheeded and the world ended up with the distressing reality that the demagogue in question will be the 45th President of the United States of America.
What little history that most of us are taught is quickly forgotten once the test is passed, or the class dropped. Its relevance is under-emphasized to an almost-pathological degree. The idea that ‘what’s done is done’ is insidious in its ubiquity.
That attitude pains the entirety of my being. I’m an historian. The irrational and irresponsible ignorance of history is a fundamental concern that I have tried to address many times over the years here in my little WordPress world.
That fundamental concern – driven by the colossal failure of education and critical thinking skills-training – when combined with the ‘get over it’ rhetoric that I’m hearing all over the place this week has turned into something of an existential crisis for me.
Again, I get that I’m not a US citizen. Despite what some might think, I had no real horse in this race. There was one horse’s ass about whom I spoke quite vociferously and at length, when given an opening to do so, sure. That said, I did not want to see HRC ascend to the Presidency because she is a woman. Someone I work with suggested that that is the case as he was baiting me yesterday. I did leap to defend her record of public service when that was called into question by those who get the totality of their political insights from places like Fox ‘News’, but that defence was, and remains, sourced in an examination of her public history – drawn from evidence from multiple and varied sources.
Would it have been historically of note had she become the first female POTUS? Of course. And it would have demonstrated a necessary evolution in a milieu that has already been shaken up with the impressive eight-year tenure of an outstanding statesman and leader, who happens to be a person of colour.
Fortunately, we live in times that have seen women achieve positions of power and responsibility the world over (check out Ms. Merkel’s wonderful first message to the new President-elect, if you need a recent example). That the US is ridiculously behind the curve in this, isn’t of foremost concern to me. Not when you look at all the other things that were at stake in this particular election cycle.
Although I did, I admit, come close to throwing something when my colleague offered that dismissive suggestion, the unfortunate reality is that I’m used to that sort of nonsense. I’ve learned to roll with the punches as they are dealt from a place of that sort of latent-yet-apparent sexism. I spent a pretty big chunk of my adult life as a female academic in a male-dominated discipline. Been there, bought that t-shirt.
I don’t like it, I rail against it, but it’s just one of my life’s intersections, and I can hold my own in that particular sphere. I can work toward pay equity. I can emphasize the importance of participation in a modern-day feminism that acknowledges and welcomes all sorts of intersectionality. I can shout into the wilderness where those who are privileged enough to be okay with the status quo choose to live.
I haven’t been doing enough of those things lately. I was complacent in my certainty that the population of the United States was reasonable and rational enough to see the GOP nominee for what he is.
I was wrong. I watched with horror and disbelief as the results rolled in.
Pretty much all I’ve done over the past couple of days is read stuff. The accusations and apologetics and ‘suck it ups’ are pretty indicative of how we got here.
There’s plenty of blame to go around and lots of people willing to stand up and shout J’accuse! Whether or not they’d bothered to stand up and shout at any time before Tuesday night.
Supporters of Bernie Sanders are screaming about the ‘DNC machine’ – you know, the one that promised HRC the candidacy post-Obama – as they justify their protest votes for ridiculous and unviable third-party candidates. Or the fact that they didn’t vote at all.
While we’re desperately searching for scapegoats and denying our own varied roles in this outcome, it has to be said that the media is going to have to seriously check itself in the aftermath of having wrecked itself. Trump is, in large part, a creature of their willingness to abandon journalistic integrity in favour of ratings and advertising dollars. But that blame needs to be shared with a general population that is more interested in infotainment than in critical news reporting and legitimate, even-handed political analysis (I’m not talking about the proliferate paid pundits. Real political analysts).
Then there are the voters who insist that they aren’t racists/bigots/misogynists/xenophobes/unconscionably ignorant. They were just trying to take down the establishment that wasn’t working for them. Because jobs. Or ‘disenfranchisement’. Cry me a river of relativity, white folks. (Interestingly, they didn’t seem as concerned about changing the make-up of the House – that institution that consistency stalled progress during the last Administration. Not sure what that’s about…). As much as such people may assert that they don’t subscribe to the hatred that has been role-modeled as of Tuesday, they have clearly communicated the reality that their concerns about their achievement of their interpretation of the American Dream are more important than the basic human rights of their neighbours and fellow-citizens. Material concerns have trumped (how weird is it to use that word, now? We’re going to have a to create a new term that isn’t caught up in the negative baggage of its new associations) those of decency, equality, fairness… the list goes on and on.
In addition to all the assignments of culpability for the outcome, we are being told how we should feel. A lot of people are invalidating feelings of fear and alienation with insipid and insulting cliches like ‘the people have spoken’.
Know what? Don’t tell me how to feel. My opinions about this whole debacle are coming from a place of knowledge and understanding of history and its disasters. They are not hysterical and womanish (words we should probably get used to hearing again in this new reality) rantings that over-exaggerate the danger we, as collective humanity, have exacerbated with this insanity.
And, most definitely, don’t go telling those who feel directly threatened with imminent violence and further displacement in society that they are wrong to feel significantly concerned about the future – or the present, for that matter. In this situation, fear is the most reasonable and rational reaction to the hatred espoused and disseminated by the President-elect.
Think the danger isn’t real? Have a look at any news feed out there right now. The anecdotal indicators are coming in fast and strong, sure to be supported by statistical analyses once the pollsters regroup and opt to make that sort of reporting their new raison d’être.
Apologists might try to tell you that they don’t think he really means those things he says and does. And you know what? Maybe he doesn’t. Sure, the hatred and pandering to the lowest of the low of the commonest of denominators may just be all about expedient rhetoric, designed to shake up a system that, to be sure, needs overhauling (I will never understand the unnecessary complexities and inequities of the US system of election. Super Pacs? Popular vote vs. Electoral College??? W.T.F?). I don’t, personally, buy any of that, but then I’m one of the leftist elite, so that’s hardly surprising.
But his sincerity or lack thereof is not the totality of the problem. This election has validated hatred in a manner that is historical in its infamy. Anachronistic idea(l)s, hidden by a thin semblance of civility have been exposed in all their hideous shame. A putative war on ‘political correctness’ has permitted free reign for those who ‘tell it like it is’ – as they advocate for blatant, sanctioned returns to that fictional period in history when ‘America was great’.
What do we do with all those people who either bought into his pandering propaganda whole cloth (those who maintain that ‘he says the things I’m thinking’), or those who continue to deny that he is likely to really do all those things he said he was going to do? Or that he has actually done all the things he is accused of having done?
I don’t know. I truly don’t. I have a few people in my life (although the number is decreasing. I don’t have the time/energy/heart to debate irrationality these days) who refuse to read or attempt to understand opposing views. Intellectual laziness encourages things like cognitive dissonance and an extremity of complacency that permits soundbites and unsubstantiated statistics to drive opinions and decision-making processes.
This US election has demonstrated the disturbing prevalence of confirmation bias – and its sub-species: the halo- and horns-effect. Haters of HRC were supported in this opinion by everyone from the alt-right media to the FBI. They were likewise presented with myriad opportunities to see Trump as the saviour they require – the halo-effect permitting them to disregard any less-than-savoury aspects of the hero’s character.
As I said earlier, this is symptomatic of that which is driving my personal crisis in all of this noise. In addition to my fear for my fellow humans (that fear extends to a whole lot of people, but I’ll call out PoC, the LGBTQ+ community, and women), I despair at the failure of education that has made this debacle possible. Lack of understanding of the importance of context and the inability to think critically – when presented with more than one source/perspective of information – creates a culture in which the perfect storm of cognitive biases are permitted to flourish.
In the scientific world (a world that the President-elect doesn’t seem to acknowledge. ‘No such thing as climate change’, my ass), bias represents a systemic error.
We have just seen the end result of a systemic error that has been developing for far too long. We have to change the paradigm of this dialogue. After months of debates (and can we even call those things ‘debates’? None of them looked like any of the debates – with their rules of conduct and fair play – that I attended or in which I participated in High School) we need to approach this new reality with a different type of dialectic.
We know what is wrong. Partisan divisiveness is not going to mend any fences (and, since I live too close for comfort to the US, I reallyreally hold to be true what some American poet had to say about fences and neighbours). We seem to be coming at our communication problems from frames of reference that are incompatible in every conceivable way.
Those of us who still believe that education and openness and critical examination of situations and circumstances, alongside a knowledge of the history that has brought us – for better or for worse (right now it’s leaning heavily to the ‘worse’ side of things) – to this place in time, need to lead the change. And we need to do it loudly.
A lot more people are more afraid than ever (certainly more afraid than they were on Monday) to raise voices of dissent against ignorance and newly-validated systems of racism and sexism. Trump is okay with that. He has no problem with the thought of ruling by fear. Bullies love the rush that accompanies intimidation and misuse of power imbalance.
I’m not about to lose my access to health care, or the ability to control my own body and its reproductive functions. I’m very fortunate in that. My country may struggle with some pendulum-shifts from time-to-time, but I’m pretty confident (although never again will I be complacent – keeping my eye on that Kellie Leitch idiot, the one who thinks we need some more Trump-like stuff hereabouts. She will NOT be leader of the Conservative Party, let alone anything more. Not on my watch), that our current trajectory is one of progressive development and momentum.
The disaster across the border does threaten my way – and view – of life in significant ways, even if the repercussions might be less-direct than those that will begin to feel the effects down south as soon as the President-elect becomes POTUS. My Twitter feed indicates that the repercussions are ramping up in real time already.
The perceived right to assault – physically, emotionally, verbally, or otherwise – other humans has been validated through the choices that an all-too-significant portion of the electorate made (don’t even get me started on the fact that so freakin’ many white women voted for him. I can’t start to address that salient point now- this post is unwieldy as it is).
Children – all over the world – are afraid. They have been told that they, or their friends, or their family, are ‘other’ – and that they will be dealt with in ways that run counter to the ideas that most people had about what the United States, historically, claims to stand for.
Entire communities of people have been told that they are less than – because of the colour of their skin, the place they left in search of a promised better life, their gender, their sexual identity or orientation, or the fairy tale deity in which they choose to believe (in a country that, supposedly, trumpets the separation of Church and State).
A significant part of the failure of education that has led us, as humans sharing a planet, to this place is the mis-remembrance of history. The whole ‘again’ word, as part of Trump’s sloganeering, permits the continuation of an illegitimate portrait of world events as they really happened. And the false narrative that he has presented throughout the election period diminishes the progress that we have made.
At times of crisis, it may seem as though we haven’t done so well with the whole progress-thing. As an historian – one who studies history going back significantly farther than the institution of a New World that includes both my home and native land and that of our southern neighbours – I know that we have come a long way. And I also know that there have been periods in which we have backslid. When it seemed as though civilization’s crash would be irrecoverable (they didn’t call them the ‘Dark Ages’ for nothing).
We humans are pretty adaptable – recent events and decisions notwithstanding. And we also tend to be hopeful. We are, none of us, perfect. Our friends in the UK demonstrated a comparable struggle with some of the same issues as they made their own colossally bad decision. And us Canadians are not immune, either. We have a likely-proportional number of citizens who stand behind the ugliness that won the day in the US this week (the posters, encouraging support of the alt-right, that went up in my neighbourhood the other day are a distressing example).
We can do better. Those of us who know, who remember the lessons of history, need to ensure that the messages of the sacrifices and hard-won enlightenment aren’t lost to intellectual indolence. I hope, among other things, that we’re about to see the return, in force, of protest songs (how timely that Mr. Zimmerman is the newly-minted Nobel Laureate in Literature).
As we take time to reflect on those we have lost, in the name of freedom and equality and shared values, those remembrances can help bring us together in our common experience of mourning and deep appreciation for those who did the work and paid heavy costs for the betterment of future generations. We need to recall the lessons of generations past – and hold our leaders to the promise of positive progression that our collective history demonstrates.
Disregarding, dismissing and downplaying the realities of history have led us into another dark place. On today, of all days, set aside some time to remember – or learn, if you’ve never taken the time to do so before – just what this day is all about. That is where we will find the light – and the strength to move into a period of recovery or rebuilding or even revolution – if that was is required to continue our progressive, human evolution.
Daylight again
Following me to bed
I think about a hundred years ago
How my fathers bled
I think I see a valley
Covered with bones in blue
All the brave soldiers that cannot get older
Been asking after you
Hear the past a’ calling
From Armageddon’s side
When everyone’s talking and no one is listening
How can we decide?
Do we find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down
(Stephen Stills)
Some of us haven’t forgotten the past and its messages, its glories, and its misfortunes.
I remember. Je me souviens.
To all those who have served the good and won those freedoms we value, thank you.
colemining 
Cole, you and I both know we think exactly alike on this.
To me, this is the fossil-fuel industry-backed cabal that has dogged the progressives and Hillary Clinton first and foremost for the past 30 years. It is the Reaganomonsters diabolically tricking and duping our gullible voters.
It is a monumental failure of education, largely due to the paltry funding it has had for the past 100 years.
It is a function of male insecurity. The same men who have to “own” women and children as they do “stuff” and prove their virility at the end of a gun.
It is the outcome of a corporate-owned media that treated this election as a spectacle/extravaganza, a reality show, a theatrics event to drive ratings and make the Suits rich. They fairly licked their chops and drooled with lascivious greed each time Trump paraded his Neo-Nazi ideas before the public arena. They are dripping with the blood of millions of people, plants and animals that they have destroyed by giving their uncritical support to this maniac.
I feel virtually no patriotism today to this country. It has been letting me down for thirty years and I am not loathe to admit it. My despair is complete, no matter my own financial and intellectual security.
Least of all was my support for Secretary Clinton simply because she is a woman. I am a human being. All other labels are irrelevant.
So many relevant points here, Beth. As stunned as I am by this madness, I can’t even wrap my brain around how you must be feeling.
I’m meeting a close friend for dinner tonight – an educated, intelligent woman who also happens to executive produce one of the most thoughtful programs on CBC radio. I anticipate an insightful conversation regarding the culpability of the media in this mess. Although we are all pretty exhausted, so we may end up doing little more than raising a number of glasses of Scotch while singing Leonard Cohen songs.
Love and strength sent your way, my dear friend. And hope that this will be the catalyst that snaps us into sense. xo
Thank you Cole. I take heart from both your love and strength. I will look forward to hearing what your friend had to say, if you share it. I am determined to avoid anyone who doesn’t have their head screwed on straight, for the foreseeable future. xo
Oh, Cole, I’m still trying to process the fact. I went to bed at half one, thinking one thing, and was rudely awakened, at seven, by my fifteen year old telling me that that man had almost won. Before I left for work, it was a reality.
And what a reality. If I were not so persistently hopeful I would be in despair at what is occurring all over. We have largely taken our freedom for granted, forgotten the cost of it, its true value. And others have gambled with it for small short term victories.
A world that should and could, by now have conquered hunger and eliminated the reasons for war – had there been the will – seems only intent on fuelling divisions. Why do we never learn?
I feel like I’m in a future year, looking back at these times. And asking, as it has ever been asked, how did this happen? Why did we let it happen?
The answers are many and complicated. Equally, they are simple and few. We forgot to remember enough and abrogated responsibility in the pursuit of less valuable things.
But there remains hope, Cole, when so many voices do still speak for love instead of hate, for justice and for peace.
There is the will, we will find the way.x
A-M – I am DONE with this week. I am done with the fight for now.
I will get back to the hope – but right now I need a couple of days to process and to mourn some closely-held truths that have now been proven to be false.
‘We forgot to remember.’ I love that. And I love you. Thanks for checking in. xo
Cole, I have heard from many who, like yourself, are concerned with the results of the US election. I certainly agree that we in The States could have done better when selecting a candidate. As usual, I voted for neither of the top two, largely because I had major issues with both.
That said, I take solace in the fact that our system is set up so that one person cannot wield dictatorial powers from the Oval Office. Trump didn’t have a lot of friends among sitting republicans in Congress while he ran for office, so there’s no guarantee that whatever his agenda is, it will get much traction. Yes, some of his campaign statements were extremely distressing. Perhaps, though, that will make legislators, the media and the public more vigilant to protect the rights of all. In other words, Trump will be watched extremely closely, at least if our media does its job.
I don’t know if my French is correct, but I’d like to think that going forward, “Nous nous souviendrons.”
Thanks for weighing in, CBC, and for your reasoned perspective. I agree that the checks and balances will keep the extremity of his worst excesses under control, I remain concerned about the racism, sexism and homophobia that has been normalized and validated by his ascension to POTUS.
We all MUST remember – and, as you say, do our part in remaining vigilant, while understanding and doing our best to alleviate the real fear and anxiety that is being felt by too many people, as a result of this debacle.
Rather than challenging an admittedly-problematic status quo (that common line being chanted all over the place right now), I fear that the power to re-institutionalize systems of hatred and bigotry will be the end-result of this ‘renewal’.
I hope I’m wrong. But we will have to do our part to ensure that those who chose to elect a demagogue who promised to alleviate their disenfranchisement realize that the betterment of their situation may well come at the loss of the basic human rights of others. That some seem to be okay with that reality? Yeah. That’s a big problem for me.
I hope you’re right about his agenda not being granted much traction, but leaving that in the hands of a Congress that has been committed to regression these last number of years, isn’t terribly reassuring to the rest of the world. Things like climate change denial affect all of us – and legislators who are stubbornly sticking to anachronisms… I’m afraid that I cannot find a lot of solace in that sort of idiotic stagnation.
Again, thank you for popping by. I do hope that we discover reasons for positivity in the days to come. At the very least, we have learned, this week, of the real danger of complacency.
Well said, Cole! So happy to see your post! 😉 No, it’s not our country, but our world is less just and less safe today because of what is going on next door. When you have ISIS, the KKK and ultra-right leaders around the world celebrating a Trump win…how can anyone ignore that this has a profound impact around the world?
I think the only good outcome is that many of us are going to re-engage with creating positive change in the world, and here in Canada maybe that means doubling down on our efforts to support refugees, anti-racism, equality rights, disability rights, public education, public radio….
In fact, I have friends who never spoke out before, who are speaking out now. Our friends in the US need us to bare witness to this loudly and clearly!!
(p.s. I am going to be on that CBC show you mention, I will let you know when! 😉
that should say “bear witness”…
What?!?! So excited for you, Booksy! Please do let me know when you’ll be on. I’ll be listening for sure!
And you are so right, as usual. We have to take some solace in the fact that many of us who were at a loss as to what we might do to make change happen have the biggest kick in the pants imaginable to step up our efforts.
Did you see John Oliver last night? He offered up some pretty solid places to start – not least of which is engaging in support of real media (as opposed to the ‘news’ as found on facebook).
Thanks for checking in – and def let me know when I’ll get to hear you on the CBC! xo
So good to see your post, Cole, and how I wish it was under different circumstances. I truly am at a loss for words. Never did I think such a thing possible.
Oh John. I can only imagine how you are feeling as you deal with this new reality. I think that we are all going to have hold together – and work together – to mitigate the damage that will be done in the next few years. As concerned as I am, I remain at least a little bit hopeful, since I know that there are voices like yours yet out there.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope all is well with you.
Well that is comprehensive to say the very least. I wonder how much education will decline under Trump…and watching the French elections will be interesting as well.
Interesting is is the word, Steve. I only hope that France doesn’t follow the example of the UK and the US and validate hateful rhetoric over human rights and logical discourse.
I’m terrified thinking about how much education will continue its decline. The President-elect – and his potential cabinet/advisers – are not exactly the poster children for intellectualism.
As always, I appreciate your input!
I’m late reading this, but agree, of course. My high school years were the WW11 years. When I first heard DT’s rhetoric, I instantly thought “I’ve heard this voice before….Hitler.” Never did I think it could happen in the USA,but, obviously, I was horrendously, heart-breakingly wrong. As he names one cabinet choice after another, men who are against what their departments stand for, I can only think of Yeats’ “beast slouching towards Bethlehem.” We are going to need to find ways to exist, to work together to find peaceful paths to circumvent the terrifying prospect of a hateful bigot who can’t read memos more than a sentence long and can’t write one longer than that himself. God help us.
Indeed, Lady Professor. I keeping hearing Yeats, myself (the centre and its inability to hold and that sort of thing). I’m not sure where we go from here, but we definitely need to stand together to keep hold of those things we know are right. Thank you for the visit. All the very best of the season to you- and the hope that we all do better in the New Year. xo
And to you, too. We’ll need our stamina for the New Year.
Reblogged this on colemining and commented:
Four years, and too little has changed. My gratitude and sincere remembrance has not.