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Are We Tough Enough?

June 25 2008

There's no doubt that North America is experiencing hard times and they will get much harder before things improve. Your grandparents could have told you that difficult periods are nothing new because they lived through the Great Depression and World War II. It's interesting to compare how their generation reacted to adversity compared to what is happening today.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the event had a huge impact on both the United States and on Canada. Americans lost a great portion of their navy in one fell swoop and they found themselves catapulted into war whether they liked it or not. Canadians had been at war already, since 1939, and they were relieved that their powerful neighbors to the south were finally going to pitch in and help to defeat the Axis. Despite fear and confusion in the aftermath of the Japanese attack, North Americans managed to keep most of their civil liberties (glossing over the shameful treatment of Americans and Canadians of Japanese ancestry during that war ) and to show courage.

Almost exactly sixty years later, a small group of fanatics flew some civilian airliners into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The loss of life from that attack was roughly equal to losses at Pearl Harbor, though the military significance of 9/11 was miniscule compared to the loss of the American Pacific Fleet in 1941. However, the public reaction this time was very different. Americans and Canadians panicked and most said nothing while the Bush Administration exploited the situation to attack Iraq, curtail civil liberties, build a concentration camp at Guantanamo and begin using torture as a routine tactic.

There are reasons for the different responses to these two events. When Pearl Harbor happened, both the United States and Canada had relatively progressive governments. After 9/11, the crypto-fascists in power in America gleefully unleashed their hidden agenda, while Canada had a craven government that slavishly obeyed any American order out of fear of losing trade with the US. Beyond that, North Americans had become much softer in the middle than their grandparents were.

Take rising fuel prices for example. If you judged from what is presented in the mainstream North American media about gas prices, you might think we're facing Armageddon. Certainly high fuel costs can be painful and they hurt the poor and rural people particularly badly. I don't want to trivialize that fact. Still, our granparents likely had to do without cars altogether during the Great Depression and they certainly had to cope with gas rationing during World War II. While we mutter about our four dollar a gallon gas, the Europeans have been paying the equivalent of eight dollars a gallon for years. Of course, they don't drive hummers, buzz around in speed boats or live in sprawling suburbs. They have adapted while we cling to our God given right to cheap oil.

Pick any topic that you like. Energy conservaion. Climate change. Recycling of garbage. Even cutting down on soft drinks and junk food to achieve better health. As soon as you mention anything that might involve inconvenience or discomfort, you will find that everyone else has left the room.

Whether we like it or not, the era of cheap energy and of endless luxury is over. If we want to survive, we will have to change. My concern is whether or not we have the toughness to do it. The dinosaurs couldn't adapt when their world changed. Have you seen many of them around lately?

What do you think? Do we collectively have the right stuff to meet the challenges ahead or have we become too soft to adapt? I'd be interested to know your opinion.

George

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