Coming of Age

“Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another's point of view, but instead were more and more enclosed in our own bubbles. Democracy requires a reliance on shared facts; instead were being offered parallel but separate universes.” 

This observation by Eli Pariser has driven many of my thoughts since he first uttered it in 2012. But, in reality, the concept of citizenship has been the primary lens through which I have looked at myself and the world for a long time.  I can’t remember exactly when it first came in the explosive nature that it is to me now – school maybe, or during my various overseas assignments in international development.  But it’s there and it’s immutable, mouldable and enduringly inspiring.

I recall it being central to my thoughts back in 1992, when I opted to start a book on Canadian citizenship and its potential to frame this country that we all love.  It took me seven months to write and copies of it found their way into various political circles.

But that wasn’t my sphere of interest.  While politics is vital to the Canadian experiment, my concern was that if it wasn’t balanced by an effective citizenry, then politics would become removed and dysfunctional.

The book, titled Coming of Age, was extensive in its scope, covering chapters dealing with:

• The Tyranny of the Minority
• Deep Lobbying
• Recapturing Capitalism
• Image versus Substance
• All in the Family
• Taking Citizenship Transnational
• The Integrity of Nature
• Beyond Gender
• Strong Democracy

When I found a tattered and dog-eared paperback copy of the book in my bookshelf a couple of months ago, I decided to reread it.  It was composed just prior to broad use of the Internet, the emergence of the Third Way of politics (Chretien, Clinton, Blair), and just as globalism was spreading its dysfunctional wings across the planet.  And yet so much of the content of Coming of Ageremains remarkably relevant – especially now the politics has taken such a dysfunction turn.

I decided to republish it in a new format for hardcover and paperback version, along with a free digital download of the entire book because I’m growing increasingly worried concerning the state of our democracy.  Keep in mind that the writing is from 25 years ago, when I wasn’t really writing for any periodicals or even a blog.  As such, it is more rustic in language and sometimes dated.

But not the issues – they remain more alive than ever, and more urgent.  They were written by a young man in his early-40s attempting to understand the world around him and I’m sometimes embarrassed at the naïvetéof some of the writing.  But the entire book is a love letter to that aspect of collective living which I love most – citizenship.

You can get hardback copy of Coming of Age here and a paperback version here.  To get the free digital download here but you require the free Kobo app. I have shifted my books over from Amazon to copy because of my growing discomfort with the culture of the former and my desire to support the Canadian ownership of the latter.Citizenship. It’s real.  It’s losing its effectiveness.  And it’s an absolute necessity if we are to face the future together.