Because of what has happened to some people we know, the wife and I celebrate each anniversary that is a multiple of 5 in a special way. A few years ago, the wife and I celebrated our 35th anniversary in Hawaii. This year, we celebrated our 40th anniversary with a trip through the Canadian Rockies. And here we should note that the Canadian Rockies rival, if not surpass, the Mighty Poconos in height and majesty.
But as with Hawaii, what made me want to stay was the culture and the people. In Hawaii, I found that, though not perfectly, Hawaii does multiculturalism far better than the Mainland of the U.S. As we met many Canadians, I started to compare what I saw of Canada with the U.S. What became obvious to me was that Canada is civilized, while we Americans make up for that with arrogance.
An example of the comparison could be seen by observing that even most of the bicyclists there obeyed the traffic laws. Another example of the comparison came as I told some of the Canadians I met that I am jealous of their citizenship. They responded by saying that they have their own problems and seemed to have rejected the notion that Canada was a better place to live than the U.S. Had I been a Canadian who told Americans that I was jealous of their American citizenship, most Americans would say: 'Of course you are.'
It is our arrogance that will precede our fall as a nation. Our arrogance will prevent us from learning from others. Likewise, our ignorance of how others do things maintains our arrogance. This means that our arrogance and ignorance are in a toxic, codependent relationship. And the toxicity poses a threat to all of us.
And yet, Canada does share some bad traits that are so prevalent in America only to a lesser degree. One such shared trait is that both harbor a Consumer Society. As consumerism becomes more entrenched in society, people's personal significance becomes more dependent on what and how much people consume. And so any significant inflation causes not just financial distress, but personal angst and thus a greater eagerness to hear simplistic explanations and proposed solutions. And in western Canada, many seemed to have expressed their frustration by calling the inflation they are struggling with, 'Trudeau Inflation.'
Though I am not familiar with all of the reasons why these Canadians blame Trudeau for inflation, but one of the reasons is that Trudeau's treatment of oil in Alberta, which included restriction on pipelines, and for the government's spending during the pandemic. But like the U.S., the sharp rise in inflation had more to do with post lockdown domestic and foreign supply problems and spikes in demand as well as global factors such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which affected the price of grain and fuel on the global markets. It is possible that Canada's pandemic spending was excessive. I know that American pandemic spending seemed not to be intelligently done.
The Consumer Society has had a real effect on how both many Americans and Canadians have interpreted the post pandemic inflation. It is has made both groups easy prey for opportunistic political candidates who have oversimplified the economic situation by scapegoating government spending for inflation. Certainly government spending during the pandemic might have had some effect on the economy, but that spending supported humanitarian concerns whose many potential problems went unrealized because of the spending. Again, supply chain problems, spikes in demand which occurred when the lockdowns ended, global markets that were affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the profit motive, especially for the oil industry, played a much larger role in inflation than government spending did.
If Canadians don't want to go the way of its southern neighbor in terms of its lack of civilization, they will not allow the consumer mentality that's gripped America to be as entrenched in there as it is here. Martin Luther King Jr. explained why in his speech against the Vietnam War:
'I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.'
In short, the more we become attached to material things, the less attached we are to people, especially to those in need. After all, people in need often are perceived by some as a drain on society as government spending on them produces an imperceivable positive ROI. Actually, the real ROI on social spending is seen in an improved character of society as it both positively affects the moral character of society as well as increases chances for those in need to become self-sufficient. America is too entrenched in consumerism to care enough about those in need. And perhaps that our consumerism is one of the reasons why we lack Canada's civility.
But there is something else about consumerism that should be mentioned. As consumerism becomes more entrenched in society with each new generation, our desire for new things increases. And as that desire increases, it eventually gets so high that it can refuse to accept reality. And one possible result when desire refuses to accept reality is that people get delusions of entitlement. Examples of such entitlements include hoarding money, consuming without regard for those in need, and consuming without regard for the environment.
That is where America is at right now which is why we can't admit our more than obvious flaws. Many Americans can't admit that human caused climate change is a fact. Many Americans can't admit that America was built on white supremacy and that we still have significant vestiges of white supremacy in society and many of our systems. Many Americans couldn't admit the seriousness of the pandemic and so America had one of the highest, if not the highest, death rates from Covid. And some Americans currently believe that their ideology/political party/religion/Presidential candidate are entitled to rule over our nation as a dictator. Consumer isn't the only driving factor in our delusions of entitlement, but it is a significant one.
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