Something
exceptional occurred last week as so many of us watched flames, smoke and water
ravage the iconic Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.
As
the steeple fell and the roof collapsed there was a brief pause in the disharmony
consuming western society. People, no matter what their attachment to the
cathedral - cultural, religious, aesthetic or something else - melded into one
focussed community.
It
was exceptional because our society has become so unfocussed and so divided. We
are an angry society that is becoming increasingly violent.
The
evidence of anger and violence is easy to find. It is seen in daily news
reporting from different countries, not just the United States where gun
violence is an hourly occurrence. (Roughly 40,000 people died in shootings in
the U.S, in 2017; close to another 100,000 are wounded in shootings every
year).
Canadian
shooting deaths have been on the rise for the last few years. Gunshots are
pretty much a daily occurrence in Toronto.
In
the UK, where there are serious gun restrictions, knifing crimes totalled
40,147 in the year ended March 2018. A London police report says that knifings
in schools are up 25 per cent, and that the number of children carrying knives
at school has risen 50 per cent.
More
children are being troublesome in our society’s schools. Suspensions have risen
dramatically in Britain and more than 7,700 children were expelled in
2016-2017.
Growing
aggression among children also is seen here at home. A 2017 study by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers
Association found that 85 percent of teachers polled said classroom violence is
increasing. Nine out of 10 said they have experienced or witnessed violence or
harassment in schools.
Another
sign of the discontent in western society is rising suicide rates. The overall
U.S. suicide rate rose 26 per cent during the 10 years ended 2017.
It
is difficult to get clearly understandable Canadian statistics on anything, but
suicide rates here generally are up as well. Federal agencies list suicide as
the ninth leading cause of death among Canadians.
Politics
figure largely in our society’s discontent. Surveys show that more and more
people feel that our governments and
institutions are failing us.
You
see evidence of that in the yellow jacket riots in France, the Brexit chaos in
Britain, the Trump absurdities in the U.S. and the bickering and demonstrations
in Canada over pipelines and carbon taxes.
Our
discontent even shows up in entertainment delivered through our
telcom-television services.
The
Canadian Commission
for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) reports that it
accepted 9,831 complaints between August 2018 and January 2019, a 44-per-cent
increase over the same period the previous year. The biggest issues for
consumers: billing disputes, misleading contract terms or non-disclosure of
information and poor quality of service.
Simmering anger now is a dominant tension in western society. Opinions
on why are numerous and varied.
Some point to a general decline in moral standards. Others blame
entertainment that is more violent than instructive or soothing. Still others
blame politicians who promise to satisfy the demands of every single voter, while
knowing they do not have the means to do so.
To me, the anger and other ills of our society can be found in
the foundations of our western culture. Our culture is one of individualism, in
which a person is an independent part of society. Individuals look after
themselves first, measuring their success on material achievements. Looking
after themselves leaves little time to hear, to understand or to think about others.
The pause in discontent that came with the Notre Dame disaster
was a welcome respite. We need to pause more often, but not just because there
is a tragedy.
We know how to restore our damaged structures. What we need to
focus on is how to repair our damaged society, perhaps with less emphasis on individual
achievement and more on understanding that the individual is a critical part of
the overall society.
To do that we need to choose visionary leaders who possess the
desire, and the courage, to act in the interests of the collective society
instead of their individual selves and their individual political organizations.
There are not many of those around these days, and there needs to be.
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