Speaking truth to power

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/06/2020 (2255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The global rise of tyrannical dictatorships and right-wing extremism: check. Unbridled exploitation of natural resources: check. The dispossession of land and systemic oppression of Indigenous Peoples: check. The labeling of resistors as terrorists: check. The further racialization, marginalization and subjugation of vulnerable groups of people: check, check, check.

There are many systems which attempt to support and nurture a healthy society, many of which were designed and rolled out following the Second World War and the witnessing of what fascism, racism and greed can do. Public education, for example, is an incubator for our democracy, and there are forces which wish to destroy and privatize it.

It is this intentional dismantling of public entities that has inspired Ontario academics and activists Cynthia Levine-Rasky and Lisa Kowalchuk to compile their volume We Resist: Defending the Common Good in Hostile Times.

A collection of essays written from activists, community organizers and academics, We Resist argues that there are sinister forces emerging from the depths in plain sight which are threatening this notion of the common good.

The common good, according to the editors, is derived from the understanding of human flourishing — “a state in which human beings thrive and enjoy physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being” — where we all have the ability to “think, learn, laugh, play, love, and grieve.”

Critical to the common good is the commons itself; a healthy biosphere is paramount to our collective flourishing.

But, as we all witness, the common good is perpetually and increasingly under attack. Through the likes of Pam Palmater, Bernie Farber, Carolyn Egan, and a host of leftist and centrist writers and thinkers mainly from Ontario and Quebec, We Resist posits that “the equal-worth premise implicit in the common good is violated by the confiscated and privatization of common resources, and by the subjugation of the powerless by the powerful for the latter’s gain.”

And with the 2016 election of Donald Trump, according to Kowalchuk and Levine-Rasky, the winds have changed.

To the editors and the authors of the essays, there is a newfound bravado in the far right that is determined to intensify neoliberal forces and see fit to the unraveling of democracy, the oppression and eradication of marginalized people, the continued and perverse accumulation of wealth in the few and the degradation of our planet.

By highlighting the insurgence of fake news, the militarization of the police, the labelling of Indigenous and racialized groups as terrorists as well as the mainstream emergence and acceptance of right-wing ideologues such as Jordan Peterson and Ezra Levant as legitimate voices, we find ourselves in hostile times. To the editors, “norms and democratic ideals that matter vitally to the common good are being upended.”

And with despair must come hope. The editors have brought these authors together not only as avenues to think deeply about the common good, but also “to inspire thinking about ways that ordinary people can respond.” Winnipeg’s Black Lives Matter and climate strike marches are indicative of the will and need for collective resistance to the sinister forces which aim to divide us.

Through stories of powerful Indigenous resistance (Caitlyn Kasper), the attack on academia (Neil McLaughlin), the roots of Canadian right-wing extremism (Barbara Perry) and more, the authors provide a way out — and a pathway to resistance and establishing the common good. This work is a collective work, one in which white allies (this reviewer included) must overcome their “white anxieties.” Bernie Farber and Len Rudner capture this sentiment eloquently as they use history as a means to progress forward: “Citizens rather than systems” are responsible for substantive change. In a Habermasian manner, the state alone cannot solve a multitude of crises.

It is through the collective resistance via community groups, labour unions, Indigenous Peoples, allies, racialized groups and all who believe in the common good that we will surmount these hostile times. We are all historical actors. As Farber says, “The ghosts of a not-dead past still beckon us to join them in their dark projects. We ignore their dangerous whispers at our peril.”

We Resist is a powerful playbook for those who wish to call out the dog whistling, stamp out racism, xenophobia and mainstream bigotry, resist the privatization of our precious public institutions, and fundamentally ensure that all humans have the means for a decent life.

History will judge us if we succumb to malaise, apathy, fear and hate. Time to resist.

Matt Henderson is assistant superintendant of Seven Oaks School Division.