Roundup: On the debate on societal decline narratives

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I’ve been thinking a lot about Colin Horgan’s essay about Pierre Poilievre tapping into the meta-language of a society in decline, and how playing into those narratives has the potential to make things worse, particularly as the bad actors who respond to this kind of thing start becoming increasingly drastic in their actions. In response, Matt Gurney wonders that if people do believe we’re in a state of decline, and whether it’s worse that Poilievre is speaking to them on those terms, or that the governing Liberals can’t admit to the problems under their watch. I’m have a lot reservations about the notion that Poilievre is trying to somehow channel these anxieties—there is absolutely no indication that Poilievre can try and do anything positive with them when the discourse is about burning things to the ground (metaphorically at least). But what exactly are we considering to be the decline?

https://twitter.com/Lazin_Ryder/status/1570536744080252928

This tweet from Matthew Lazin-Ryder makes a very good point—that the “rise and fall” narratives are not how societies work, and that the level of pessimism in 1974 was staggering when we read about it in hindsight. I also have to wonder about what is being considered in the decline. Much of what Gurney lists in his piece are areas that are complex—most of it are things that the federal government has little control over, so a figure like Poilievre addressing it has no substance to it, and in the areas that they do, such as the armed forces, it’s hard to consider things in decline when the institution was so horribly broken beforehand, and we are at a place were we are trying to do something about it rather than pretend those problems didn’t exist. Does that make it a symptom of decline, or that we’re actually dealing with the problems? As for the problems at the provincial level, yes they are problems, but they are not new—just reaching a boiling point—and they require political action to deal with, which is caught in a cycle of federal-provincial blame-shifting, enabled by media outlets who simply both-sides the issue rather than call out the responsible parties (meaning the premiers).

My other particular sense of caution around declinist narratives is the fact that a lot of them come from a place of people who have problems with women, queer and trans people, people of colour, all being more prominent, and who are being given a voice and agency for the first time in modern history. They see this as some kind of decline because as white men, they view equality as a diminution of their own privilege, which feeds this false narrative of decline. When you see people declaring themselves “anti-woke,” you have to ask yourself whether it’s the fact that they have a problem with women and minorities being visible or having agency. Hell, in the Quebec leadership debate, there was a segment where the host was demanding that leaders say the n-word to “prove” they weren’t woke, which is appalling, but an indication that those who try to resist so-called wokeism are really trying to make racism okay again. The fact that declinists espouse these kinds of narratives makes me question their entire world view, and brings me back to the problem of those who pander to that viewpoint for the sake of scoring political points, when it can feed it and takes us to a darker place.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 204:

President Volodymr Zelenskyy says that a mass grave with more than 440 bodies has been found in the recently liberated city of Izium in the Kharkiv region, which probably shouldn’t be surprising at this point. In fact, I fear that there will be all kinds of mass graves being uncovered for years to come thanks to Russia’s genocidal campaign. Evidence has also been found of Russian “torture chambers” in cities that have been liberated, so war crimes prosecutors have a big job ahead of them.

Good reads:

  • PMO announced the delegation heading to the Queen’s funeral in London, and it includes four honours recipients who will take part in a procession.
  • Former prime minister Brian Mulroney and former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson will eulogise the Queen at the memorial service in Ottawa on Monay.
  • The prime minister, party leaders, and MPs all made statements in tribute to the Queen’s reign in the House of Commons yesterday, and great orators they are not.
  • Steven Guilbeault announced $250 million over four years to help low-income households deal with home heating costs, with half targeted for Atlantic provinces.
  • A recent report shows that Canada has been the target of at least 75 foreign cyberattacks since 2010.
  • Cindy Blackstock wants the Canadian Human Rights Commission to turn down the settlement agreement around Indigenous child welfare apprehensions.
  • The CEO of Sobey’s complains that grocery oligopolies are being tarred unfairly as price gouging, and his self-pitying aside, there are complex issues in the system.
  • Pierre Poilievre has named Tony Clement to lead the party’s fundraising arm.
  • Elizabeth May now says she never threatened to quit the Green Party if the leadership race was postponed over recent resignations.
  • Alain Rayes says he will let Canadians be the judge of the (non)-apology the Conservatives gave for their text message campaign against him.
  • Heather Scoffield both-sides the government’s recent affordability measures.
  • Althia Raj posits that Alain Rayes showed himself to be an honourable member by quitting and living within his values.

Odds and ends:

Here is an excellent exploration of the late Queen as a political actor.

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: On the debate on societal decline narratives”

  1. I do not believe we are in decline as a society, we certainly are in a difficult period of history. However there were many difficult periods in the 20th century, economic depression, wars, etc. We came through and we will again. I am sceptical when I read Horgan, he has too much baggage.

  2. Thank you for pushing back, Dale. My family in N.S. are progressive, and feel that the country portrayed by the MSM and even CBC, is not at all reflective of our Canada.I do think that 60 to 70% of Canadians are very happy with the direction that the Federal Gov’t. has and is moving towards.The Provincial Premiers are not pulling their weight during Covid or on protecting Universal Health Care, and we must hold them accountable. We have a “B” team on CBC most of the time, just repeating the Opposition talking points, with very little in depth coverage of the real dangers being proposed by the CPC.

  3. I’m not going to present her as any sort of prophet or pivotal societal observer, but in a recent video from Icelandic performer (I’m sure there are some who would question use of the descriptor of “singer”), she repeats a phrase that has stuck with me. The phrase is “Hope is a muscle”. She continues “To only name the flaws are just excuses to not connect”. I take it she means that, like any physical muscle, one has to regularly exercise hope or else it atrophies, and that adopting the sort of “societal decline” narrative, allows people (and especially those in power) to excuse themselves from cooperating with anyone. The malaise described in Colin Horgan’s piece, and seized upon by MacKenzie and Poilievre, seems to come from folks who have decided that exercising their “hope muscle” is simply not for them, and that they would prefer to close the blinds to protect against “sunny ways”, rather than look for common ground and workable compromises. I gather that is why MP Rayes left the party. I have to ask Pierre, what IS so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

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