The forces that will shape 2016
It’s become banal for journalists to suggest that the coming year is one of vital importance, largely because, with a handful of exceptions, most years are staggeringly similar to their predecessors. But that’s not the case with 2016. This could genuinely be the year that defines our future structure, stability and well-being, due to three specific subjects: migration, climate change and the nature of the individual.
In terms of migration, we have to be honest and clear in our definitions. What we are speaking about is the mass movement of people from the poor and developing world, from Islamic countries and war-ravaged nations to the relatively wealthy and safe west. In Canada we’ve seen just a shadow of the body that is dominating European politics and — so often the case — panicking the United States.
The reality is that we are part of a North American and European coalition that created many of the problems in the first place. While Canadians may not have personally colonized Africa or actually carved up the Middle East with selfish treaties, we have benefitted from who and what we are and certainly who our friends are.
The ethnic state is dark nostalgia and has never genuinely existed in Canada at all. We’re defined by our humanity rather than our race and to a very large extent people should be allowed to live wherever they want. The host country has a right to self-protection and economic common sense but, beyond that, the conditions of movement should be minimal.
So we can either embrace and shape this idea in a quintessentially Canadian way and prosper accordingly, or play junior Donald Trump and believe newcomers are a danger and borders enforceable in the modern world.
When it comes to climate change, the Paris conference was one of the most hopeful international gatherings in recent history; which is probably why so many right-wingers were so angry about it. This is one of those rare issues where party politics should be immaterial, and with the removal of Stephen Harper that’s looking more likely. The British Tories, while far from perfect, are actually far greener than our Conservatives and the Australians have recently jettisoned their climate change-denying leader.
Refuting environmental truth or accusing activists of dishonesty is worse than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic; it’s like booking a return journey on the bloody thing as it’s sinking. Taxation rates, electoral reform and arts subsidies all become rather meaningless if our children inherit a moribund planet.
Last is the resurrection of the precious, exquisite idea of people as individuals rather than as cogs in a machine or members of some vague, product-producing society. We need to be valued not for what we achieve or contribute but merely for being. We are not disposable and are, in fact, the very opposite.
This plays directly into what has become a dominant feature in contemporary society. The Golden Rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules. When a grimy pharmaceutical entrepreneur purchased the rights and raised the price of a vital drug used in the treatment of HIV by 5,000 per cent, we were apoplectic. But that was just a particularly egregious and public example of what has been going on for some time. Essential drugs have been rebranded so they can be treated as new and their prices increased. But even in the greater economy, staggeringly wealthy people have found ways around monopoly laws so as to control products and markets and thus increase profits.
Whenever this happens there are those who argue that the free market is the most efficient way to operate, for everybody concerned. Problem is, the alleged free market, even if desirable, is impos- sible today, an economic oxymoron when financial and power differentials are so enormous.
Will 2016 be the year of change? Possibly. Recognize that immigration is part of an ancient process that has never stopped and never will. Accept the selfevident truth that the planet, which belongs to all of us, is under direct siege. Resist the political and economic reduc- tion of the citizen and the increased influence and power of the company and the collective. Nobody says it will be easy, but then, the most important achievements seldom are.