Are pretense and lies the new normal?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/02/2022 (1365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PERHAPS the most misused word in today’s political lexicon is “normal.” All everyone wants is a return to a pre-pandemic normal. But “normal” as a metaphor to capture what is needed to renew our politics, indeed our humanity and human dignity, is too simplistic and ultimately misleading.

What is not needed is restoration of some ostensible glorious past, nor a revolution to erase our political memories. What is needed is a holistic reimagination of what it means to thrive as humans in a compromised natural environment, a technological/bureaucratic consumer society and a dysfunctional polity.

In his 1985 book The Power of the Powerless, Czech statesman and author Vaclav Havel says “the issue is the rehabilitation of values like trust, openness, responsibility, solidarity, love … which no political order can replace.” He laments the reliance on political lies and pretense by both post-totalitarian and modern western democracies, among arbitrariness, suspicion, subliminal enforcement and inevitable citizen powerlessness and apathy.

This is a wake-up call to all of who care about humanity and human co-existence.

On a grand scale, we could say we live in a “pretend world,” or one built on pretense, willfully fooling ourselves. One likely consequence of that is Vladimir Putin — the archetypal pretender and liar.

Some pretend protesters, and some pretend Christians, claim God will overthrow the federal government and overcome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on the pretense that freedom will result. They pretend they’re acting in our interest, without considering that most of us do not agree with or are not interested in their agenda.

They pretend health is wholly a matter of personal faith, and that the greatest human good is personal choice, overriding even human responsibility.

Some pretend politicians imply, by their actions, that democracy is achieved by hiding truth, denying or distorting reality, and ignoring reason — their cynicism is only matched by their dishonesty. They pretend legislation can declare an epidemic over.

The protest mob leaders enable the haters and racists in their midst by allowing them to join. Politicians, currently mostly pretend Conservatives, align themselves with mob at the same time as asking them to go home, while denying responsibility on the grounds of jurisdictional divisions.

Our premier said the border blockade was a federal problem, asked her federal counterparts to intervene and then immediately condemned them when they acted, accusing them of overstepping where they weren’t needed. Likewise, she claimed her government doesn’t bow to protesters, but did an about-face on restrictions and mandates two days after they insisted they wouldn’t leave until restrictions are lifted.

She also claims the occupation at the legislature was primarily a police matter, essentially passing the buck for ongoing disruption and lawbreaking.

Relatedly, politicians and protesters alike pretend there’s a normality in the flying of huge American flags in Canada, touting Trump for president in 2024, accepting huge financial support from outside the country, hoisting Nazi and revolutionary symbols, and inferring insurrection and civic violence. Pretend leadership and pretend rights, on full display.

Pretense, of course, is itself unreality and untruth – even children know this. But the lies that uphold and sustain our current political situation are not just harmless elements that disappear when the game is over. Each lie requires an endless regime of bigger lies.

What reasonable person would believe the denial of the efficacy of vaccines is really about seeking truth and freedom, other than a superficial truth that one doesn’t want anybody to tell them what to do? Where is the reality in the view that Christianity can somehow encompass, accept and align itself with deceit, multiple hatreds, lawlessness, insults, harassment, threats of violence and divisiveness, and still claim Christian righteousness?

While it was justifiably unreasonable that the Emergencies Act would solve our human problems, it is even more unreasonable to suggest that pretense and lies – denial of responsibility, shifting blame and promoting misinformation — will somehow make things better.

Here again, Havel is helpful and instructive — while recognizing that pretense and misinformation will always be parts of the human condition and interaction, he calls on every citizen, every one of us, to be thoughtfully critical — to call out harmful pretense for what it is and to confront lies and liars for what they are.

Human co-existence and solidarity depend on our being honest with each other – quite frankly, Havel saw the truth about reality as the only normal hope for re-establishing trust, openness and the willingness to participate in and accept shared responsibility for the way things are and could be.

John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba. A lifelong educator, he has served as a teacher, counsellor, work education co-ordinator, principal, school superintendent and university professor.