Good article. I agree that "the great challenge of the future is how to provide people with a sense of meaning and purpose in something more useful and transcendent than nationalism, violence and conquest”.
Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory states that liberals and conservatives share four basic values i.e. caring for each other, fairness, personal liberty, and loyalty. But conservatives share two further values i.e. respect for authority and the need for transcendence in our lives. According to Haidt, liberals typically revile those two values, while conservatives recognize the legitimate role that they have to play.
Unfortunately, the hard right has always understood the appeal that authority and transcendence have for many of us, and they’ve been very effective at perverting and weaponizing them. If our Western societies are ever to regain any sense of a common purpose, one of the things we need to do is find a way to accommodate and respect those impulses.
Excellent take on the 'malaise of modernity.' There is a moral and spiritual vacuum in the West, and it's being filled in increasingly unhealthy ways. Both the right and the left keep spawning and promoting toxic ideologies as a way to fill this moral and spiritual vacuum. As a Christian, I do feel a spiritual purpose in life, and my faith gives me moral meaning. But I understand that many Canadians don't have that, and are therefore searching for something like it.
My first job as a teen was at McDonalds in the late 1980s. You touched on it here, but McDonalds Canada is a seperate entity from the US company, a master franchise that then controls the rest of franchising for Canada. I'm pretty sure it was McDonalds Canada the led the expansion into the USSR, bringing a lot of expertise to the table to set up a sophisticated supply chain where really nobody had before. It was a big deal at the time and the Canadian connection gets lost in the story as people love the symbolism of something so emblematic of the US opening in the USSR. But, it wouldn't have happened without Canadians!
excellent point regarding the search for meaning and tribe...we have made quite the effort to run organized religion out of Canadian public life but we have utterly failed to replace it with anything...i cant help but notice the absurdity of godless millennials like myself treating religion as anathema yet flock to the "chapels" of mindfulness gurus to practise being grateful, displaying gratitude, being part of a community all of which were essentially the benefits of organized religion in the first place...i dont mean to suggest that organized religion and religious doctrine didn't have negative effects as well, but its clear we have lost something given how hard we search for it
"But after a generation of peace and wealth, we can see in our own societies and in our individual lives the perils of over-abundance. Once our material needs are met, further acquisition fails to provide lasting contentment."
Well lucky for you that you have wealth and over-abundance. Not all Canadians (or insert name of any other country here) suffer from your painful level of wealth. Many Canadians have seen their piece of the pie shrink and see there will be even less for their offspring while a few at the top get more of the pie and much larger slices.
It is these same wealthy who have broken our sense of security. We are afraid to speak out for fear of the woke police, the religious are mocked as believing in fantasy, our schools no longer teach learning but doctrine, governments mock their own peoples as "deplorables" or "fringe minorities" holding "unacceptable views"
But it was these less wealthy Canadians that kept produce and medicine coming in and stocking shelves and serving as cashiers and delivering the uber orders to the lucky ones who could work from home or worked for government at any level. We got vaccinated and stayed home and closed our restaurants, gyms and hair salons and watched the rich somehow get even richer.
Many peoples' problem is not having too much but rather they are losing hope of ever being able to reach even the shrinking middle class that our government cannot even define. And now, with rampant inflation the future looks even less bright for many. Luckily for you though, your problems are more esoteric.
Two comments: I was living in Budapest during the last days of the Cold War and there, as in Moscow, the advent of a McDonalds was the subject of news reports and lineups; it was, in fact, where in 1989 the American Ambassador met with his Soviet counterpart to discuss managing the decline of the Soviet system in Hungary (they didn't have to wait in line).
My other comment is that anyone who bought into to "no more wars because we are too economically intertwined" theory forgets history. The very same argument was made in 1912, just in time for World War 1.
Jen, as always - I know, it is tiresome to hear it again - I enjoy your work and perspective.
I very much enjoy the various comments herein and from time to time. I find many of the comments today to be "useful" - as I use the word - but there are some that are (in my oh, so considered view) rather tendentious and not always relevant to the column. However, for the most part I find the various comments to be useful in making me think - whether or not I agree with them.
So, again, fan mail - how tiresome!
And, oh, yeah, I also enjoy Matt's work; please let him know.
I would just note that Russia is acting at cross-purposes. It is reasserting its imperial boundaries, but at the same time asserting its nationalism. Empires are multiethnic and thus non-nationalist. Committed as Putin is to subjugation of Ukraine while asserting Russian nationalism, Putin has chosen to deny Ukrainian nationality. An imperialist accepts the subjects nationality, and find ways to rule without arousing national resentments (that make rule difficult). In this case, I think it is safe to say that Putin's denial of the reality of Ukrainian nationality will engender permanent resistance to Russian rule.
Jen - I think this is an award winning article. I admire your well honed writing/investigative skills. You touched on so many necessary points. I was in the former USSR 45 years ago, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, Caucasus countries and Uzbekistan - a life changing experience. I remember when in Moscow, entering a spectacular, very large, classic, belle epoque meat/deli store with a maze of display coolers. 95% were empty. We also walked by a dingy hole in the wall 'store' sellinga a few boxes of apples; I do think it was called "Apple Store # 6". There were line ups for everything, with most people reading books and newspapers, while patiently waiting; I have always remembered Russian's love for reading/learning. I could go on and on re my life changing memories.
Years later, I also remember watching on TV here in Canada, the opening of the MacDonald's in Moscow.
Very good summary of western malaise. It is sad the west moves to tribes and Russia to imperialism. I hope this is a wake-up call for our country and the need for common values in the public sphere.
Not sure I follow the argument, or buy it if I do.
I appreciate the critique of the assumption that a global economic liberalism and interdependence would lay the conditions for endless peace. Instead its assumption of universal acceptance, its own form of cultural imperialism, has run up against revivalist autocratic nationalisms seeking to achieve territorial ambitions through military conquest. The claim here seems to be that this nationalist tribalism is filling a void left by the spiritual emptiness of consumer society. Or at least the latter has left liberal democratic societies weakened and unprepared for such nationalistic threats to the global order established since WWII.
My take is the vast majority of humanity want to live comfortable, predictable lives. Big dramatic violent conquests are fine on the big or little screens, but not when they blow up your living room and everyone in it. The average person wants nothing to do with war. Thus the exodus from Ukraine (and to a lesser extent from Russia). This war is not being driven by bored consumers.
If we are going to talk about spiritual emptiness as a motivator, then we might as well talk about religions run by gangs of pedophile priests, corrupt elites, or hyper-partisan pols, as talk about the unfulfilled desires of consumers. We also need to recognize the spiritual emptiness of the acts of violence rationalized through propaganda meant to trigger people's tribal fears and not assume such tribal violence is filling a void created by an unfulfilling consumer experience of peace and prosperity.
So my point, war is not animated by the spiritual emptiness of people living relatively comfortable, predictable lives pursuing the customary community rituals of family and friends. If we are to understand this dangerous moment of ethnic autocratic nationalism, we are going to have to look beyond critiques of consumerism to understand the underlying conflicted nature of societies themselves.
The old conflicts of tribal identity have never left us. My guess, without having researched the question specifically, is that every major violent conflict around the world has a divisive ethnic aspect. Consumerism per se doesn't favour or disadvantage any particular ethnic tradition. It also does not dissolve those conflicts.
Certainly capitalism is inherently disruptive of traditional forms of life. But the current dangerous moment is not a case of the traditional versus the modern, despite the fact the propaganda plays on long standing stereotypes. Rather the current moment is more similar to the imperialist ambitions that collided in WWI and WWII. The current contest for super-power status is in flux. Russia, clearly a superpower in decline, seeks to revive its imperial ambitions through a play that will realign its options with a rising China at the expense of the West. China hopes to benefit from its ally's play to weaken the West. Neither Russia nor China are satisfied with the global order establish by the West after WWII. They both seek to benefit from its violent disruption.
Well written, with the only addition that many are being left behind as the wealthiest take more and more and live ridiculous life styles with no meaning. Giving nothing back to community other than guilt cheques that make them look good instead of paying people decent wages and benefits and keeping our environments clean and safe. Where healthy young people pay for someone else to have their child so she does not ruin her body or go through the pain of child birth. Life needs pain to have meaning. No wonder people are looking for something, anything to believe in, that has meaning and substance to them. Democracy is looking shallow, lame and weak and strong man like Putin will take advantage. The good news is, there is still hope. People can come together and fight for freedom and all its imperfections at the cost of comfort. The people of Ukraine have shown us what courage really is and I thank them for the reality check.
Entitlement is at the center of both Russian expansionism and Western indulgence. It is also at the centre of both the societal issues in Canada and our financial ones.
Good article. I agree that "the great challenge of the future is how to provide people with a sense of meaning and purpose in something more useful and transcendent than nationalism, violence and conquest”.
Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory states that liberals and conservatives share four basic values i.e. caring for each other, fairness, personal liberty, and loyalty. But conservatives share two further values i.e. respect for authority and the need for transcendence in our lives. According to Haidt, liberals typically revile those two values, while conservatives recognize the legitimate role that they have to play.
Unfortunately, the hard right has always understood the appeal that authority and transcendence have for many of us, and they’ve been very effective at perverting and weaponizing them. If our Western societies are ever to regain any sense of a common purpose, one of the things we need to do is find a way to accommodate and respect those impulses.
Excellent take on the 'malaise of modernity.' There is a moral and spiritual vacuum in the West, and it's being filled in increasingly unhealthy ways. Both the right and the left keep spawning and promoting toxic ideologies as a way to fill this moral and spiritual vacuum. As a Christian, I do feel a spiritual purpose in life, and my faith gives me moral meaning. But I understand that many Canadians don't have that, and are therefore searching for something like it.
My first job as a teen was at McDonalds in the late 1980s. You touched on it here, but McDonalds Canada is a seperate entity from the US company, a master franchise that then controls the rest of franchising for Canada. I'm pretty sure it was McDonalds Canada the led the expansion into the USSR, bringing a lot of expertise to the table to set up a sophisticated supply chain where really nobody had before. It was a big deal at the time and the Canadian connection gets lost in the story as people love the symbolism of something so emblematic of the US opening in the USSR. But, it wouldn't have happened without Canadians!
excellent point regarding the search for meaning and tribe...we have made quite the effort to run organized religion out of Canadian public life but we have utterly failed to replace it with anything...i cant help but notice the absurdity of godless millennials like myself treating religion as anathema yet flock to the "chapels" of mindfulness gurus to practise being grateful, displaying gratitude, being part of a community all of which were essentially the benefits of organized religion in the first place...i dont mean to suggest that organized religion and religious doctrine didn't have negative effects as well, but its clear we have lost something given how hard we search for it
"But after a generation of peace and wealth, we can see in our own societies and in our individual lives the perils of over-abundance. Once our material needs are met, further acquisition fails to provide lasting contentment."
Well lucky for you that you have wealth and over-abundance. Not all Canadians (or insert name of any other country here) suffer from your painful level of wealth. Many Canadians have seen their piece of the pie shrink and see there will be even less for their offspring while a few at the top get more of the pie and much larger slices.
It is these same wealthy who have broken our sense of security. We are afraid to speak out for fear of the woke police, the religious are mocked as believing in fantasy, our schools no longer teach learning but doctrine, governments mock their own peoples as "deplorables" or "fringe minorities" holding "unacceptable views"
But it was these less wealthy Canadians that kept produce and medicine coming in and stocking shelves and serving as cashiers and delivering the uber orders to the lucky ones who could work from home or worked for government at any level. We got vaccinated and stayed home and closed our restaurants, gyms and hair salons and watched the rich somehow get even richer.
Many peoples' problem is not having too much but rather they are losing hope of ever being able to reach even the shrinking middle class that our government cannot even define. And now, with rampant inflation the future looks even less bright for many. Luckily for you though, your problems are more esoteric.
Two comments: I was living in Budapest during the last days of the Cold War and there, as in Moscow, the advent of a McDonalds was the subject of news reports and lineups; it was, in fact, where in 1989 the American Ambassador met with his Soviet counterpart to discuss managing the decline of the Soviet system in Hungary (they didn't have to wait in line).
My other comment is that anyone who bought into to "no more wars because we are too economically intertwined" theory forgets history. The very same argument was made in 1912, just in time for World War 1.
Jen, as always - I know, it is tiresome to hear it again - I enjoy your work and perspective.
I very much enjoy the various comments herein and from time to time. I find many of the comments today to be "useful" - as I use the word - but there are some that are (in my oh, so considered view) rather tendentious and not always relevant to the column. However, for the most part I find the various comments to be useful in making me think - whether or not I agree with them.
So, again, fan mail - how tiresome!
And, oh, yeah, I also enjoy Matt's work; please let him know.
I would just note that Russia is acting at cross-purposes. It is reasserting its imperial boundaries, but at the same time asserting its nationalism. Empires are multiethnic and thus non-nationalist. Committed as Putin is to subjugation of Ukraine while asserting Russian nationalism, Putin has chosen to deny Ukrainian nationality. An imperialist accepts the subjects nationality, and find ways to rule without arousing national resentments (that make rule difficult). In this case, I think it is safe to say that Putin's denial of the reality of Ukrainian nationality will engender permanent resistance to Russian rule.
Jen - I think this is an award winning article. I admire your well honed writing/investigative skills. You touched on so many necessary points. I was in the former USSR 45 years ago, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, Caucasus countries and Uzbekistan - a life changing experience. I remember when in Moscow, entering a spectacular, very large, classic, belle epoque meat/deli store with a maze of display coolers. 95% were empty. We also walked by a dingy hole in the wall 'store' sellinga a few boxes of apples; I do think it was called "Apple Store # 6". There were line ups for everything, with most people reading books and newspapers, while patiently waiting; I have always remembered Russian's love for reading/learning. I could go on and on re my life changing memories.
Years later, I also remember watching on TV here in Canada, the opening of the MacDonald's in Moscow.
Very good summary of western malaise. It is sad the west moves to tribes and Russia to imperialism. I hope this is a wake-up call for our country and the need for common values in the public sphere.
Not sure I follow the argument, or buy it if I do.
I appreciate the critique of the assumption that a global economic liberalism and interdependence would lay the conditions for endless peace. Instead its assumption of universal acceptance, its own form of cultural imperialism, has run up against revivalist autocratic nationalisms seeking to achieve territorial ambitions through military conquest. The claim here seems to be that this nationalist tribalism is filling a void left by the spiritual emptiness of consumer society. Or at least the latter has left liberal democratic societies weakened and unprepared for such nationalistic threats to the global order established since WWII.
My take is the vast majority of humanity want to live comfortable, predictable lives. Big dramatic violent conquests are fine on the big or little screens, but not when they blow up your living room and everyone in it. The average person wants nothing to do with war. Thus the exodus from Ukraine (and to a lesser extent from Russia). This war is not being driven by bored consumers.
If we are going to talk about spiritual emptiness as a motivator, then we might as well talk about religions run by gangs of pedophile priests, corrupt elites, or hyper-partisan pols, as talk about the unfulfilled desires of consumers. We also need to recognize the spiritual emptiness of the acts of violence rationalized through propaganda meant to trigger people's tribal fears and not assume such tribal violence is filling a void created by an unfulfilling consumer experience of peace and prosperity.
So my point, war is not animated by the spiritual emptiness of people living relatively comfortable, predictable lives pursuing the customary community rituals of family and friends. If we are to understand this dangerous moment of ethnic autocratic nationalism, we are going to have to look beyond critiques of consumerism to understand the underlying conflicted nature of societies themselves.
The old conflicts of tribal identity have never left us. My guess, without having researched the question specifically, is that every major violent conflict around the world has a divisive ethnic aspect. Consumerism per se doesn't favour or disadvantage any particular ethnic tradition. It also does not dissolve those conflicts.
Certainly capitalism is inherently disruptive of traditional forms of life. But the current dangerous moment is not a case of the traditional versus the modern, despite the fact the propaganda plays on long standing stereotypes. Rather the current moment is more similar to the imperialist ambitions that collided in WWI and WWII. The current contest for super-power status is in flux. Russia, clearly a superpower in decline, seeks to revive its imperial ambitions through a play that will realign its options with a rising China at the expense of the West. China hopes to benefit from its ally's play to weaken the West. Neither Russia nor China are satisfied with the global order establish by the West after WWII. They both seek to benefit from its violent disruption.
Bored consumers are not the problem.
Well written, with the only addition that many are being left behind as the wealthiest take more and more and live ridiculous life styles with no meaning. Giving nothing back to community other than guilt cheques that make them look good instead of paying people decent wages and benefits and keeping our environments clean and safe. Where healthy young people pay for someone else to have their child so she does not ruin her body or go through the pain of child birth. Life needs pain to have meaning. No wonder people are looking for something, anything to believe in, that has meaning and substance to them. Democracy is looking shallow, lame and weak and strong man like Putin will take advantage. The good news is, there is still hope. People can come together and fight for freedom and all its imperfections at the cost of comfort. The people of Ukraine have shown us what courage really is and I thank them for the reality check.
Brilliant insight.
I'd love to see someone interview guy who wrote that end of History article, and see what he has to say about it now.
Entitlement is at the center of both Russian expansionism and Western indulgence. It is also at the centre of both the societal issues in Canada and our financial ones.
Entitlement is the eighth deadly sin.
Another excellent article Jen.
When I read the comments I know we are doomed.