Unaware Idiocy
Canadians represent a fairly intelligent, aware and engaged population. We're also kind of self engaged in the sense that we appear to think more highly of ourselves than we should, in fact. Certainly when it comes to the usual Canadian response to anything American, we're more than slightly lacking.
In that we have a tendency to feel ourselves superior in just about any way to Americans. Better balanced, more tolerant, infinitely more knowledgeable about the world at large.
And while some of that may be true some of the time, sometimes it's really not. Fact is, we're no different, little better, and insecure to boot. No one could accuse Americans of insecurity.
They know who they are and they're proud of it, even though they don't always agree with one another. Canadians tend to be more than a little smug about ourselves. Americans are just overbearing about their visioning of themselves in the greater world.
They have no need to become more informed about the rest of the world, since they are, after all, Americans. And, fact is, the world travels to the U.S., not the other way around, for help whenever they get themselves in deeper problems than they can manage. And everything American just happens to fascinate the world at large; they're bigger than life, and won't let you forget it.
Well, that's them. And there's us. Canadians are more interested in what happens on the international scene, we like to be informed. Accordingly, our news media does their best to cover foreign affairs and to keep us up to date; it's no less than we expect of them.
Environics Research was recently commissioned to do a poll and what they found was both revealing and depressing.
Let's see now: 63% of Canadians believe that their country has more influence in the world than 20 years earlier. Canadians appear to believe that peacekeeping represents Canada's most vital international contribution. And we also believe that we are inordinately generous with international contributions, including foreign aid. And important too in other ways, as demonstrated by our much-vaunted multiculturalism and immigration rates.
Trouble is, we're a tad slow on upgrading our knowledge base, because Canada hasn't been actively engaged anywhere in the world in peacekeeping missions for decades. We have, however, been engaged in NATO-sponsored activities where our armed services have been doing low-grade monitoring of an elusive peace which has had the unfortunate side-effect of bringing them directly into conflict situations - where, fortunately, our troops have acquitted themselves very well.
As they continue to do now, in Afghanistan, in yet another UN-NATO mission, this one to combat a Taliban resurgency, and to assist Afghanistan in developing itself as a functioning democracy. As for international contributions, we're a middling middle power and likely will always remain so. Nothing wrong with that; Canada has chosen not to seek power, per se. And foreign aid? Hide our collective heads: we're donating less now to foreign aid than ever we have; 50% less than 30 years ago.
Influential on the world stage? We did make some stabs at that in an earlier era, when, post prime ministership, Pierre Elliot Trudeau busied himself frantically travelling all over the world as a Canadian emissary for peace. He soon stopped his frenetic travelling; no one seemed very much interested. There was, of course, the later Canada-led move to ban the use of landmines. And even later, the Canada-sponsored "need to protect" vulnerable populations.
Just about the most appalling poll statistic was one that indicated fully 52% of Canadians feel convinced the United States is "the most negative force in the world today". Now how about that bit of judgement? We pride ourselves in being knowledgeable, in understanding world affairs, in keeping up to date on the news, yet we casually pass by the danger to the world order represented by rogue states like Iran and North Korea and point instead to the U.S.
Canadians: complacent and self-congratulatory.
Something is screwed on backwards.
In that we have a tendency to feel ourselves superior in just about any way to Americans. Better balanced, more tolerant, infinitely more knowledgeable about the world at large.
And while some of that may be true some of the time, sometimes it's really not. Fact is, we're no different, little better, and insecure to boot. No one could accuse Americans of insecurity.
They know who they are and they're proud of it, even though they don't always agree with one another. Canadians tend to be more than a little smug about ourselves. Americans are just overbearing about their visioning of themselves in the greater world.
They have no need to become more informed about the rest of the world, since they are, after all, Americans. And, fact is, the world travels to the U.S., not the other way around, for help whenever they get themselves in deeper problems than they can manage. And everything American just happens to fascinate the world at large; they're bigger than life, and won't let you forget it.
Well, that's them. And there's us. Canadians are more interested in what happens on the international scene, we like to be informed. Accordingly, our news media does their best to cover foreign affairs and to keep us up to date; it's no less than we expect of them.
Environics Research was recently commissioned to do a poll and what they found was both revealing and depressing.
Let's see now: 63% of Canadians believe that their country has more influence in the world than 20 years earlier. Canadians appear to believe that peacekeeping represents Canada's most vital international contribution. And we also believe that we are inordinately generous with international contributions, including foreign aid. And important too in other ways, as demonstrated by our much-vaunted multiculturalism and immigration rates.
Trouble is, we're a tad slow on upgrading our knowledge base, because Canada hasn't been actively engaged anywhere in the world in peacekeeping missions for decades. We have, however, been engaged in NATO-sponsored activities where our armed services have been doing low-grade monitoring of an elusive peace which has had the unfortunate side-effect of bringing them directly into conflict situations - where, fortunately, our troops have acquitted themselves very well.
As they continue to do now, in Afghanistan, in yet another UN-NATO mission, this one to combat a Taliban resurgency, and to assist Afghanistan in developing itself as a functioning democracy. As for international contributions, we're a middling middle power and likely will always remain so. Nothing wrong with that; Canada has chosen not to seek power, per se. And foreign aid? Hide our collective heads: we're donating less now to foreign aid than ever we have; 50% less than 30 years ago.
Influential on the world stage? We did make some stabs at that in an earlier era, when, post prime ministership, Pierre Elliot Trudeau busied himself frantically travelling all over the world as a Canadian emissary for peace. He soon stopped his frenetic travelling; no one seemed very much interested. There was, of course, the later Canada-led move to ban the use of landmines. And even later, the Canada-sponsored "need to protect" vulnerable populations.
Just about the most appalling poll statistic was one that indicated fully 52% of Canadians feel convinced the United States is "the most negative force in the world today". Now how about that bit of judgement? We pride ourselves in being knowledgeable, in understanding world affairs, in keeping up to date on the news, yet we casually pass by the danger to the world order represented by rogue states like Iran and North Korea and point instead to the U.S.
Canadians: complacent and self-congratulatory.
Something is screwed on backwards.
Labels: Canada, Inconvenient Politics, Society
posted by Pieface | 6:25 PM
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