Dark Times

Societies unravel if we stop trusting each other

So, I have been in Canada now for almost twenty-three years and in the process of learning about the country there is one thing that stands out. The ‘north’ as it is often referred to at times often lags its southern neighbour, but you can bet your last dollar that every trend, every phenomenon that is spawned in the US eventually crosses the border and becomes part of Canadian life, whatever it is. And so it is with the ‘Truckers Convoy’ which many interpreted as a Trump style populist revolt that was bringing out a range of fringe characters with grievances and ‘unacceptable views’. That was precisely what Trudeau thought in unleashing an unprecedented and barely legal crackdown using emergency powers to remove a bunch of mostly peaceful if annoying protesters. In doing so the Canadian prime minister drew deep criticism from all sides, because if you manage to lose the Economist, the NYT and are the subject of a lawsuit from the Canadian Civil Liberties Union there is a very good chance that you’ve put your marker on the wrong side of history.

What makes this affair so galling is that Trudeau’s reaction is accomplishing everything the truckers set out to prove, namely that the prime minister is an out of touch elite authoritarian whose time to go has come. In the process Canadians now are becoming deeply divided, from neighbours outing other neighbours because they made a ‘trucker donation’, to randomly attacking each other on social media. Even I got a dose of nasty comments after I casually observed on Twitter that the police in Ottawa was well disciplined and calm when they cleared the protest out of its streets. I have seen some of these engagements in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and things there tend to get pretty violent, but certainly not in Ottawa last weekend.

What is also manifesting itself now is fear. The unnecessary power to freeze bank accounts in order to track and stop money is creating a dangerous precedent that can be used to lock political opponents out of society in a pretty drastic way. How on earth did we get here?

The roots of the protests came from the anti-vaxx movement, the train of thought that believes that no one can be compelled to be vaccinated and that government measures to quell the Covid virus are a form of totalitarian overreach. Or a Bill Gates conspiracy, whatever. That may be the case for some, but I like many others gladly vaccinated because I genuinely believe it to be a solution that will get us out of the pandemic. In fact, that is what is happening right now, the new iterations of the virus are milder and the masks and QR codes appear to be on their way out. Sure, all governments failed at the outset of the pandemic, but they all got on track somehow and stumbled to the finish line. No one got it right, many made mistakes, but nowhere did a majority of people sense that governments were not to be trusted. That said, somehow somewhere our age of liberty and endless individualism has created a feeling in many (still a minority) that governments could no longer be trusted. The truckers stopped trusting and in return authorities stopped trusting them. Any attempts to bridge, to mediate, to get to common ground never materialized.

Implied trust is a core fundament of our society. It does not mean I have to like you or agree with you, but I will generally believe that you are not misleading or deceiving me. The vaccine may or may not work, but hey, I trust Pfizer enough that I can take the risk and think that I will probably not drop dead five minutes after vaccinating. The bank may overcharge me from time to time, but they will probably not steal from me. And I can go on and on. A basic measure of trust sustains a diverse and dynamic society, it creates a measure of cohesion. Canada found out last week what it means if the concept of trust evaporates. People on both sides lose their composure and resort to extreme positions.

While all of this came to a head over the weekend an even less trustworthy character gleefully took the next steps in his master plan to solidify his regime and restore old glories. There is a direct correlation between the West’s increasing internal divisions and the march of the authoritarians. Putin, Xi and Khamenei have taken full advantage of Biden, Trudeau, Macron and Johnson’s being distracted by a pandemic and endless domestic political drama. In the void thus created we now see tanks and in the not too distant future missiles and highly motivated and well-armed proxy terrorists. Russia never trusted the West and vice-versa, but a joint enemy and a brutal war forced both to live together, sign treaties and make progress all the time while building a small, tiny measure of trust. That is now gone completely and we can expect more turmoil in Europe and Asia as a result.

Politicians are increasingly catering to their own interest groups, embellishing divisions seems to work. With what message can I get enough support, how do I manipulate the vote such that I can eke out a win ? Karl Rove messaged and spreadsheeted George Bush to two wins and a nation divided, Gerald Butts does exactly that for Trudeau. With the threat now coming from authentic authoritarians overseas we will need real leaders who can re-establish trust and unite people. Not exploiting divisions, but healing them. That is what most people want in the end: a return to decency, normality, and respect. This is what we will need going forward. As of this weekend, it feels like we have just started on the road of unravelling and absent any real leadership here and abroad there are dark times ahead.