To the Editor;
I wish to elaborate upon the thoughts found in the editorial by Robert Barron (March 31,2022, “We’re living in scary times (again)”), in his view, newly scary times precipitated by the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The threat presented by irrational human behaviour may be more widespread and pervasive than Mr. Barron presumes.
Many are driven by resentments from the past and fears for the future, and when these are combined with malinformation from state controlled propaganda machines (and those of you who think that this is happening here, are already lost) in places like Russia, China and Iran, or from ideological thought bubbles filled with myths, conspiracy theories and lies in the Western world, rational thought is impossible. The result is wide swathes of the population thinking and, therefore, acting irrationally.
Irrationality can be a wonderful attribute in our appreciation of music, in falling in love, in our support of community sports teams and in similar circumstances, but when it is used in policy decisions it can lead humanity into terrible problems.
The irrationality precipitated by the Protestant Reformation, which may have ultimately led to greater freedom, wider education, and eventually democracy, initially led to the Thirty Years War of the early 1600s that decimated the population of Central Europe. A central tenet of fascism was its irrationality (see Carl Cohen’s ‘Communism, Fascism and Democracy’) as in Mussolini’s call to followers “Believe, Obey, Fight”. In ideological positions as this dictum there is no room for thought, question or humanity, and certainly not the truth.
From the irrational positions taken by our resentments and fears, we see such dangerous moves in international and national politics as Britain (more particularly England) voting to leave the European Union in the Brexit campaign, China’s stated desire to reverse the “century of humiliation”, the Hindu nationalist party in power in India with its internally divisive views of others, the MAGA movement in the USA, Alberta’s resentment of Eastern Canada, Russian rejection of the legitimacy of the independence of Ukraine, the Scottish independence movement, the recent ISIS inspired restored “caliphate,” the Iranian oppression of non-Shai minorities internally and support for Shia minorities elsewhere in the region.
Not all of these movements are violent, and readers could probably add to this list, but their various levels of success are often driven by some big lie.
An example would be a post-World War I view in Germany that its army was not defeated in the war but was stabbed in the back by Internationalists, Communists and Jewish banks. Or the more recent lie that Donald Trump won the last US election only to be defrauded of his victory by some unsubstantiated conspiracy.
What unsubstantiable lie do you believe? What unsubstantiable lie do I believe?
The times are scarier than Mr. Barron even imagines.
Glenn Andrews
Barriere. B.C.
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