Citizenship - "Bull Run"

My wife Jane and I would have been in Spain last week, taking part in the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. We’d wanted to do it for 10 years and thought this was to be the year. But with the change in lifestyle that comes with losing an election, that dream is over.For some reason this all occurred to me yesterday as I perused a number of reports speaking about the growing inequality in Canada. A vision ran through my mind of our aboriginal population, the poor among us, community members lost in the maze of mental health challenges, the unemployed, single moms and dads, and a physical environment that are struggling madly to stay in front of a frantic consumerism that threatens to leave them behind and neglected.In all these studies this summer on citizenship and the effect of rampant materialism on all of us, we tend to forget those that have been damaged or left behind by our rush for individual goods and services. We are partly responsible and accountable for their lot in life. It’s an important consideration because a robust and viable citizenry looks out for its own. So before we take a look at how to perhaps reconstitute ourselves as citizens that can remake and strengthen our country, it’s important to remember that such a task will be rendered far more difficult because of the effect of our feverish lifestyle on the most vulnerable around us.There is hardly anyone left in this country that doesn’t now acknowledge that the gap between the rich and poor is widening with increasing speed. Between 1980 to 2005 (the period covered in the last two blog posts), the top fifth of income earners saw their share of national income escalate while the middle-class languished and the lower sectors declined. That trend is now continuing, only at a more rapid pace. The Conference Board of Canada recently released statistics showing that the top 1% of earners have shown the greatest gain. Meanwhile the middle-class is now in decline, while the poor – well they’re sliding even faster.In his recent article, “Do we care that Canada is an unequal society?” Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson reported that Canada now ranks 12^th among 17 countries in income equality. We are worse than Australia and Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. While recent Canadian governments have favoured both the American and the British models, both of these countries turn out to be the worst performers.We have heard repeatedly of the significant wealth accrued to the fabulously rich south of the border, but our own numbers are starting to become alarming. Simpson reminds us that the top fifth of income earners here take home almost 40% of total income – a number that continues to climb. The lowest segment in Canadian society take home only some 7%.I think we’ve all known this for some time but kept it on the QT. What does it say, however, of the progress of Canadian society? Welfare cases can’t keep up. People are out of work for longer periods of time and fewer qualify for unemployment benefits. More students can no longer afford university, and drugs for seniors are close to being out of reach for those requiring catastrophic intervention. Research dollars in some of the key areas are in decline, as are adequate dollars for subsidized and social housing. Some provinces like Ontario and BC have made impressive gains in poverty reduction, but until the feds come onside the downward spiral will continue. Child poverty numbers remain roughly the same as in 1989, and investments in environmental sustainability are falling farther behind the challenge before them.We can blame governments and corporations as we usually do, but this is the legacy of the “citizen morphing to consumer” process and we must take some responsibility. Even traditional institutions like churches have participated in the overall decline. Acts of charity are not the same as social justice for those in need and religious leaders have witnessed materialism thriving within their own congregations and refused to advocate among their own in case their members dwindled – just like politics and the voters. Take a look at this statement by Stephen Colbert and tell me it isn’t true. If religious institutions from all faiths, whose primary purpose is to sacrifice for God and others, have tolerated a dizzying materialism in their midst, then other segments of society, like politics, don’t stand much of a chance of reversing the course.It will take citizens – the very same people duped by the likes of Edward Bernays and his belief that consumerism will control the masses – to ascertain their own condition. It has always aggravated me to hear people say that the poor will always be with us, but a new truth has emerged to match it: the morally poor are emerging. This is us, like it or not. The disadvantaged among us aren’t about to be trodden under by the bulls of Pamplona, but rather by the materialistic pursuit of everyday citizens.Tomorrow: The Internet and democracy