If so, Canadians should be the most virtuous people on earth. But does virtue count for anything these days? I mean, aside from offering a retiree your seat on the subway, which is its own reward. Like chopping wood once, virtue warms you twice.
Let me raise my aging hand to say I believe being nice is better than being loud and even better than being right. Saying “please” and “thank you” is the lubricant for lots of life.
So I was relieved last week that a group of Worthy Canadians™ penned an open letter to our political leaders that they “address urgently the rise of incivility, public aggression and overt hatred that are undermining the peace and security of Canadian life.”
This prompted The Globe and Mail to write a full-throated editorial claiming that civility is not some pearl-clutcher’s idea of a gated life. Said The Globe: “Civility in public discourse is not a matter of dainty manners, of making nice or of speaking in hushed tones. Vigorous debate, impassioned debate, is not out of bounds. But intimidation is. If the goal is to change minds, civility is no barrier.”
“Civility is not a covert way of silencing strong views, or of hemming in the boundaries of free speech. To the contrary, civility is the foundation of free speech and of democratic discourse.”
As an old white guy, I bump into rudeness everywhere: The sharpish checkout clerk. The indifferent salesperson. The eye-rolling bubble-gummer. The condescending cop. But being old also makes you immune to many nano-aggressions, because you can’t hear them or see them and frankly you don’t much care about them.
Maybe active indifference is the key to civility. The Globe’s editorial calls on politicians to make it clear “that intimidation is unacceptable, full stop.” I’ll wager that among Canada’s 40 million residents, 40 million of us have been bullied at some time in our lives. We all know what intimidation is, because we’ve all lived it.
Ironically, the best advice I’ve heard about making Canada a more civil country comes from Arthur Brooks writing about restoring civility in America, which a friend described as “the land of bad manners with guns.”
But Brooks’ essay connecting the fall of civility with the rise of unbridled capitalism is well worth your time this weekend. As he writes: “It is difficult for ordinary citizens to fight the receding tide of civic virtue, but they can still participate in renewal through their individual choices: Avoid polarizing media, refuse to support politicians who vilify fellow Americans, get involved in local community efforts that serve the common good, and seek to form friendships across political and ideological lines.”
Yes, as with so many things, to save all of us is up to each one of us.
Meanwhile…
1. Still a bad idea. An Aussie billionaire, Clive Palmer, wants to build a ship, the Titanic II, “far far superior to the original.” A signal for just how quickly this idea will sink is that he announced it for the third time last month. The first was a decade ago. Clive Palmer will spend between $500 million and $1 billion on it. Talk about sunk costs.
Meanwhile, here’s a truly great idea: getting people to send you their deepest secrets.
2. The race war is not to the swift. A nostalgic article about black caddies and white golfers, both at the highest levels of their work. Plus another view of being an old white guy. Still another, this time on racist typos. The ‘I Am Not A Typo campaign’ aims to prompt tech companies to make autocorrect more inclusive.
3. What’s the world’s fastest language? A quantitative linguist reveals which language packs the most information in the shortest time and space.
4. Can you be old and bold? Ask this old rocker, who’s 80. Another view is, don’t do it! (especially if it’s do-it-yourself). But old people are on the rise everywhere.
Still, many languages aren’t speeding; they’re dying, including speakers of Wymysiöeryś.
5. With this ring, I thee unwed. Not only are divorce rings a thing, so are divorce notifications, including the reason for the breakup. But “absolutely no negativity.” Sure.
6.The class politics of fine dining. But isn’t fine dining all about class politics? The same with philanthropy,which has grown to be a $700 billion industry.
7. Woody Allen’s 50th film is out. Allen is 88 and his backstory is complex. But the man who brought us Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanours and Midnight in Paris and won four Oscars, is still churning them out. Last week Coup de Chance opened in the US.
Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood, at 93, is directing what he says is his last film, Juror No. 2. Over his career, Eastwood has contributed to more than 50 films, as an actor, director, producer and composer.
8. News from a healthier world. Dogs now have their own spas. Shaving soap is weirdly soothing. Rachmaninoff raises your heart rate. Nine writers (and 12,000 words) on Adderall, prescription-grade speed that’s our favourite productivity drug. Plus predicting breast cancer five years out.…And at the end of life, execution is everything.
9. J.K. Rowling is not in jail. The mega-best-selling writer (her seven Harry Potter novels have sold 600 million copies) is old-fashioned about gender identity. This put her up against Scotland’s new law against hate crimes. So she dared the Courts there to arrest her. She’s still at large.
10. The food of love. This guy really is a one-man band. Also, for centuries, violin-making has been a man’s game, especially in Italy. Not any more. So how about 3-part harmony? And thumping great dance?
11. What I’m liking. Sefton Delmer. If he rings no bells, the same here. Until I read Peter Pomerantsev’s biography of Delmer, How to Win an Information War, about this largely forgotten genius of propaganda whose life and tactics can teach us how to deal with the world of disinformation. From a private house in Milton Keynes in England, Delmer ran a fake Nazi radio station that had the third-highest listenership in Germany. An incredible tale of true derring-do.
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TAKE A TRIP THIS SUMMER THAT CHANGED OUR LIVES LAST SUMMER.
Like all great vacations, this one took us by surprise, and we want to tell you about it in person.
So please join Jean and me at a private reception at the home of Andrea Mandel-Campbell, the best-selling author, former foreign correspondent and founder of a travel company we are very keen on — karibu adventures.
Andrea organized a 7-day tour off North Vancouver Island last summer for us and our friends that really left an impression.
It combined three days of sea kayaking in one of the most breathtaking parts of the world, with an insider’s invitation to meet with renowned Indigenous artists, elders and cultural leaders that gave us an entirely new view.
We had Orca whales literally swim under our kayaks. And we were the first and only group to be invited to Nawalakw, an inspiring cultural healing lodge in the Great Bear Rainforest.
We loved it and we want to support this kind of unique travel, which is not only sustainable, but reconciliation in the best sense, and very real.
This year’s trip runs from Aug. 23 to 29 and the cost is $5,650 + HST per person double occupancy, with a maximum of 10 people.
The reception at Andrea’s home in the Yonge-Eglinton area is Monday, April 29th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. She’ll go through the trip day-by-day and you’ll also hear from karibu’s Indigenous guide, Thomas Wamiss and their kayaking lead, Andrew Jones, via Zoom. (You can read about the trip here.)
**Please RSVP for April 29 to Andrea Mandel-Campbell at info@karibuadventures.com and she will send you her address.
