Our country seems content to settle into a position of weak & vulnerable mediocrity.
If there’s something that seems to be ‘unifying’ among our political leaders of all parties, it is the overwhelming lack of ambition they exhibit.
Their arguments are about how to control the population best, how to tax us the most, and how to simply keep the failing system on life support.
There is no sense of greatness, no ambition, nothing to aspire to.
It hasn’t always been like this.
Our society was once captivated by the thought of overcoming challenges, advancing our understanding of space (people once showed lots of pride in the Canadarm), and aspiring to be influential.
But now, we are offered nothing but fear.
The only ‘big idea’ being proposed by our ‘leaders’ is to cripple our own economy to ‘save the climate,’ a policy that makes us poorer, holds us back, restrains our potential, all while letting China race further ahead.
Our military has been stripped of meaning and pride, with recruitment suffering, procurement a disaster, political correctness everywhere, and endless scandals among those at the top. The one actual job of the military – ensuring Canada has a strong national defence – has been completely abandoned, with our country unable to assert ourselves over much of our territory, and fully reliant on allies (basically the USA), to protect us.
The era of fear has replaced the ambition
Where we once offered young people dreams of the future, we now offer them nightmares.
We tell them the climate will collapse, rather than showing confidence in their ability to learn, grow, innovate, and confront new challenges and overcome those challenges.
It’s no wonder that mental health among young people has gotten far worse.
The physical health of young people has declined as well.
Rather than expect the most out of young people, rather than challenge them to become healthier and more athletic (habits that will keep people healthy for the rest of their lives), gym class has been softened and often avoided entirely in many places, replaced by ‘training’ for a long-term sedentary lifestyle.
When I was in school, I would read the Popular Science magazines leftover in the library, many of them from the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The sense of ambition – particularly humanity’s expansion into space and technological advancement – was palpable, and brought a sense of excitement and hope for the future.
But now, so much of what people see is all about viewing the future with fear, as if we have nothing to look forward to but an endless attempt to mitigate crisis.
It should be no surprise that our society is becoming more and more empty and meaningless, leading to more drug use, more deaths of despair, and a sense of lethargy and sadness that permeates much of our country today.
Just look at the numbers on suicides, depression, and mental health problems.
It all points to the fact that something has gone seriously wrong with our society and our country.
Further to that, we try to ‘buy’ our way out of the problem, with endless debt and deficits being used by the government to cover-up for the loss of hope and ambition, which is of course doomed to fail and will cause even further problems.
When it comes to being rich – isn’t that what we are supposed to aspire to? At least being financially comfortable? We used to think it was good to try and get rich, but now, our ‘leaders’ act is if wanting to be successful (on our own terms not through government payouts), is something we should feel guilty about.
If we expect nothing from people, we will get nothing
This sense of guilt and negative pervades everything lately.
Just consider the COVID-19 pandemic, and how governments responded.
Fear and lockdowns were all they offered.
Rather than talk about proactive steps people could take – like losing weight, eating healthy, and exercising more, those in power (including the ‘experts’), ignored the danger of obesity, and instead used fear-based appeals to try and shut down society.
And the more that failed, the more they kept doubling-down and tripling-down on the fear, pushing even stricter lockdowns and ’empowering’ the police to create a ‘show-me-your-papers’ kind of fear-based environment.
Instead of believing people could take their health and security into our own hands, instead of trusting our judgement and trusting that people could improve themselves, they used a one-size-fits all bludgeon to try and lock us all down.
Even today, some people think it’s ‘mean’ or ‘offensive’ to point out the danger of obesity related to COVID-19 (and other health problems), as if their feeling of being offended somehow changes reality.
Refusing to be honest with people because of their feelings, rather than insisting upon a recognition of reality, is another sign of a society that is in serious decline.
If we don’t expect anything from ourselves, and if we don’t expect anything of others, we will end up with nothing.
Politicians are too afraid to look at deeper problems
In many ways, our politicians reflect the problems in our society.
They are afraid to look at the root causes of problems, and thinking throwing money at everything is the solution.
They also clearly have contempt for Canadians, as they don’t at all trust us to make our own decisions and would instead like to use centralized power to ‘direct’ us onto the ‘right path.’
They treat us as children, yet they lack the wisdom or credibility of parents.
As a result, we end up watching as politicians compete for who can best make a few minor tweaks to the system, rather than acknowledging that the system itself is a part of the problem.
We are a country that is increasingly in ill-health, both physically and mentally.
We offer people unhealthy food, unhealthy lifestyles, unhealthy jobs, and then we’re shocked that everyone is unhealthy.
We offer our young people fear and despair and hopelessness, with an added bit of hating on our history thrown in, and then are ‘shocked’ that they feel hopeless and despairing.
People need hope, ambition, and an ideal to strive for
Throughout history, people have sought to achieve more, to idealize and chase after aesthetic beauty and a higher philosophy. Knowing we can never achieve a ‘perfect’ personal ideal, we nonetheless strove for it, because even the attempt made us better.
We must not lose that spirit.
Our own future, and the future of Canada, depends on us regaining it as soon as we possibly can.
Spencer Fernando
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