Liberalism - The Disconnected

As far back as 1956, Edward Shils, in his The Torment of Secrecy, reasoned that, “both the love of public liberty and the preference for the common good dominate the action of only a minority.”  He believed he detected even in those early years that the growing middle class was moving away from citizenship and towards a kind of symbolic suburbia – removed, materialistic and less willing to engage in the practice of democracy.Though prophetic at the time, it would seem that his conclusion has become even more pedestrian currently in Canadian life.  The social tectonic plates have been shifting for some time, as the middle class climb to “elite” status and those that are without are just without. And the political underpinnings in this country are moving as well.  Through most of my lifetime, the liberal spirit of advancement and self-organization shared its home in the various parties.  You could vote Liberal or Progressive Conservative, and although there were differences in emphases, you roughly got something similar.  For those looking for more social change, there was the NDP, which, while never popular enough to win government, nevertheless housed the spirit of liberalism in ways that were dynamic.Our present order has altered significantly.  To all of these movements must now be added the new entity: ideological conservatism.  This is to be distinguished from the progressive form of conservatism that enfolded much of liberal thought into its policy, opting to see society as ever-changing and that government must accommodate the new realities entering the Canadian mainstream in each generation.The ideological conservatism, somewhat exemplified in the Harper regime but wrapped up holus-bolus in Republicanism south of the border, has entered the Canadian bloodstream and altered the balance.  Equality in the charter of the Status of Women – who needs it? Get rid of it.  Advanced information on the makeup of modern Canadian society, best gathered by the long census?  Dump it.  Highly researched and verified climate change science?  Out with it.  New revelation that crime rates have fallen consistently for 15 years, showing progress in public policy?  Ignore it.This is the new Conservative way, and even Brian Mulroney or Joe Clark won’t wear that t-shirt.  Instead of being an enabler of modern progressive society, this new presence has become a wedge – effectively splitting society in numerous competing parts.  The comfortable are a little unnerved by this.  Affluent women, while wishing to protect their lifestyle, nevertheless feel empathy for those women’s groups fighting for pay equity or just plain equality.  Wealthy farmers still nurture a respectful sentiment for the little grower and his family, struggling to make ends meet but eventually suffering the loss of the family farm in the process.  The corporate executive admires the sheer tenacity of the small businessperson struggling to gain a foothold in an elite marketplace.  Yet few of these “comfortable” would change the system if it meant losing some of what they believe to be their hard-earned inheritance.  And so they retreat.Yesterday we referred to those dedicated citizens in modern society who are struggling to bring the comfortable back to a progressive life.  They are the unionists, environmentalists, innovators, anti-poverty activists, small business entrepreneurs, political volunteers, local community organizers, local green market advocates, and the like.  They are doing what we should all be doing but are having a rough go of it.I have spent years working with these groups, at different levels and in different circumstances, and remain deeply impressed by their involvement.  The only real trouble I see is that they are becoming a cottage industry of isolated groups, as opposed to a larger body of concerned citizens.  In the absence of citizen involvement by the comfortable, these groups have filled the vacuum, not with overall citizen engagement, but in ways that create silos of interest.This isn’t universally true, especially at the civic or local level, where groups are now coming together to create a better quality of life in their respective locales.  Still, nationally they remain largely isolated from one another.And this is where politics is proving frustrating for them.  Few of them would ever vote for the new Conservative brand, yet they have opted to either check out of federal politics altogether, or they have split their allegiances within the NDP. Liberal or the Green Party.  And so by default the Conservatives win.  Frustrated with federal politics, liberal and progressive in nature, they nevertheless can’t bring themselves to vote at least one time for a game change.  It is not just politics that is their frustration, but their own inability to unite for a common cause.Modern liberalism prides itself in its ability to self-organize, to put the very self-advancement of the individual in service of the greater good.  But its greatest challenge at present isn’t Stephen Harper or ideological conservatism; it’s their own inability to permit their inherent liberal temperament and outlook to pull them together.  The Conservative government knows this and rides on the crest of numerous broken waves.These dedicated and liberally-minded citizens have become the disconnected – unable or unwilling to draw together to break the present ideological conservative influence that survives not so much by power as by default.  The comfortable won’t enter the fray, and that leaves only these active citizens to unite their voice politically and become the change they seek.