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REAPING WHAT YOU'VE TAUGHT -- OR HAVEN'T.

You know America is in trouble when a Republican candidate running for president made headlines last week for tweeting that he believed in climate change and evolution. I mean, he might as well have announced he was a French atheist pedophile vampire.

If you've ever wondered why there seems to be such a growing ignorance divide between the US and other countries like Canada, China or those in Western Europe, for instance -- on a range of duh issues like climate change, evolution and even the benefits of Keynesian economics -- look no further than the issue every American politician pretends to care about but never really does anything about: education.

And if you want to look even a little further, try the media.

Because right now we're seeing what 50 years of crappy education and 30 years of gutless journalism have done to the political discourse in the world's most powerful country. It's made it retarded -- and I'm not even using that word in its derogatory sense. I mean it literally. America is slowing down, being impeded by an education system that's not teaching children to think critically and that's engendered a whole generation of downright stupid politicians -- and proudly so (see: Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Tea Party) as well as a media that believes established facts need to be reported in a "fair and balanced" way along with superstition and disproven garbage so as to give "both sides of the story." You know, both sides, like the side that believes the earth is round and the side that believes it's flat.

Speaking of which, here's an example that should make you want to jump off the edge of that flat earth:

It's scary out there, and as the New York Times' Paul Krugman writes, it's probably going to get worse:

"Now, we don’t know who will win next year’s presidential election. But the odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect."

Darwin help us all.

 

SETH REBLOG: THE FACTS.

A statement of fact is insufficient and often not even necessary to persuade someone of your point of view.

Why? Find out at sethgodin.typepad.com

DREAM ON: THE FUNERAL OF JACK LAYTON.

There are few collectively Canadian moments as memorable as today's funeral service for NDP Leader Jack Layton. Olympic medal wins aside, the only other that comes close may be the massive rally on October 27, 1995, in the waning days of Quebec's second separatist referendum, when 100,000 Canadians from across the country travelled to Montreal to tell Quebecers to stay.

Tens of thousands of Torontonians, who on any other hot summer Saturday in late August would have gone to the beach or the Buskerfest across from St. Lawrence Market, stood together in front of Roy Thomson Hall, many wearing orange t-shirts, turbans, saris, flowers, to pay respect to perhaps the most nationally beloved and respected politician in our lifetimes.

Almost as a slap in the face to Christie Blanchford's bitter, cold-hearted, conservative whining over the last few days, today's memorial was unapologetically politically partisan. But that's only if you believe calls for social justice and respect toward each other are partisan issues.

For too long in this country, and more so in the US, people on the left have been intimidated by right-wing corporatists, always feeling the need to apologize for believing in a gentler, caring, inclusive society and a better world. But today showed that the left -- in Canada at least -- is through with apologizing, done with being pushed around. Survival of the privileged is a conservative value, not a liberal or social-democratic one, and speaker after speaker honoring Jack was unafraid to call on the better angels of our nature.

Jack gave Canadians confidence to believe in something bigger and better than ourselves and I hope we're able to channel that confidence for the next battle, whenever that is -- because it's surely coming -- whether it's with Stephen Harper or Tim Hudak or Rob Ford.

Today's event wasn't memorable though simply for its feistiness. It was memorable, above all, for its tenderness. Stephen Page's rendition of Hallelujah. Bicyclists poignantly ringing their bells in applause. And two quotes that still give me chills every time I read them. The first is from author Arundhati Roy as told by Stephen Lewis:

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

And this, my favorite from Jack Layton himself, as recounted by his son Mike:

"Always have a dream that's longer than a lifetime."

A more noble epitaph for Jack and call to action for the rest of us, I have not heard.

 

BELIEVING.

It's struck me these last few days, as I've watched the outpouring of grief for NDP Leader Jack Layton and the explosion on people's Facebook profiles of his quotes -- and even before this, from Barack Obama or my reading of mythologist Joseph Campbell -- that human beings have a powerful need to believe.

I'm not talking about religion. I think the need to believe is often used as a justification by religious fundamentalists for rigid, radical, submissive dogma but that's a little like saying our need for food is a justification for McDonalds. While the call of religion for us to believe in ourselves and in something greater than ourselves is a positive force in religions, those same religions -- or those who interpret them -- have shown that, in the wrong hands, they can be a powerful force for pain and suffering too.

Martin Luther King I have a dream (sous-titres... by Texwolf

No. What I'm talking about here is the societal metaphor and storytelling, what Campbell called the power of myth. When John Kennedy called on mankind to go to the moon, when Martin Luther King Jr. shared with us his dream, when Obama told us that yes we can or when Layton inspired Canadians with his creed that love is greater than anger, hope greater than fear, they were all powerfully appealing to our deepseated need to believe.

As science and reason too slowly continue on their path to replace the crumbling, antiquated, superstitious beliefs of religion, it's these humanist stories, these compassionate calls to arms, that we need more than ever.

GUNS AND RELIGION.

Do you ever see something that's so plainly obvious -- like that kid in the Sixth Sense -- you wonder how no one else sees what you see?

During the 2008 US Presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama said this:

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And it’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them..."

It's one of those brutally honest things that politicians get caught saying that creates an uproar -- even if it happens to be true.

I've thought a lot about that controversial statement this week and for the last few months as Arab youth in Egypt and Tunisia and now Libya have taken to the streets celebrating their freedom from tyranny with semi-automatic weapons fire in the air and chants of Allahu Akhbar -- God is Great!

There's a certain irony that the religious right in the US tends to be the most likely to be anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-developing world, yet it clings to guns and religion just as comfortably.

Things that make you go hmmm.

SETH REBLOG: MARK ZUCKERBERG ISN'T MARK ZUCKERBERG.

"Mark Zuckerberg" has become a codeword for the truly gifted exception, the wunderkind freak of nature for whom traditional rules don't apply. This notion that there's a one in a billion alignment of DNA and experience that magically creates an exception is just total nonsense. Mark is successful because of a million small choices, not because he, and he alone, has some magical properties.

Continues at sethgodin.typepad.com

FULL CIRCLE: 140 WORDS ON RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

I watched the original Planet of the Apes again after Rise and was amusingly reminded of the Hestonian overacting (see above), clunky fight choreography, fembots and stiff ape masks. But POTA's greatness was never in its delivery. Like other era classics -- Star Trek, Soilent Green, even Logan's Run -- it was all about the clever premise, in POTA's case: What if man, conqueror of the world, became man, conquered?

Rise ain't the pinnacle of cinematic achievement either -- though the effects are damn good. Its strength rests in how well it fills in the POTA story and the clever ways it pays homage to the original -- from "Bright Eyes" and "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" to glimpses of the fated space mission that's sent to Simian-controlled Earth 2,000 years later.

If you never saw the original, Rise of the Planet of the Apes will bore you. If you're a fan of the classic, though, it's like a peanut treat at the zoo -- if you're a monkey, that is.

JACK LAYTON, 1950-2011.

Most who watched NDP Leader and Leader of the Official Opposition Jack Layton announce last month he was battling a new bout of cancer, in their hearts, knew he wouldn't make it. He looked and sounded so shockingly frail, particularly for a man who, until recently, exuded such energy and vigor, that it was impossible to come to any other conclusion.

So few were suprised when Jack lost his battle this morning.

Unlike celebrities in music and movies -- Madonna, Oprah, Cher, Beyonce -- who often go by one name in the public consciousness, few politicians manage that singular feat. In fact, the only other Canadian pol I can think of who ever pulled it off was Lester 'Mike' Pearson. There's probably good reason for this. Canadian politicians are mostly a drab bunch who rarely achieve celebrity status.

Jack was 'Jack' to all of us, however, not so much for his celebrity -- though there was certainly a glint of that Pierre Trudeau appeal, particularly in Quebec -- but for his connection with the common man. You may not have always agreed with his politics or economics but no one could ever accuse Jack to being in anyone's pocket -- other than the bus driver's, teacher's or short-order cook's. Jack worked for the working class.

Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, for their part, always looked pained or awkward sipping a beer with regular joes or spinning cotton candy and wearing traditional headgear at a Sikh event. Jack was always in his element, and it's what made him connect so powerfully with people.

Make no mistake. Jack was a politician. And that meant invariably there were words out of his mouth that he probably didn't believe and promises he would likely never keep. That goes with the territory in politics. But Jack's gift, like Bill Clinton's, was that you couldn't help believe that he believed what he said or that he cared.

 

 

 

BARCELONA THE GREAT VS TORONTO THE GOOD.

Toronto is an economic powerhouse, a top global financial center and one of a select few alpha world cities. That all sounds impressive on paper and makes for the so-called quality of life we love to defensively tell visitors about. But when it comes to quality of living -- as opposed to life -- there's something missing in our collective soul.

Take Barcelona, where I just spent the last 10 days. It's nearly the same size as Toronto by population. It's the second city in a basket-case of a country experiencing over twice Canada's unemployment. Yet Barcelona is alive. Walk down the city's famed La Rambla pedestrian mall, or even smaller surrounding streets and squares and parks, day or night, and there's an energy that Toronto cannot match. Sure we have manufactured festivals that fill up a street or two for a few hours a few weekends in the summer, but it's not the same. 

What's wrong with us? Are we really so damn dull? Maybe it's our cold WASPy detached northerness or our obsession with efficiency. But aren't we the most multicultural city in the world? Shouldn't that give us a little sum'pin sum'pin? Is it something else then? For starters, look around -- our city is not built for people -- or, heaven forbid, bicycles. It's built for cars and businesses. La Rambla is a beating pedestrian artery. Plaça de Catalunya bustles, as does Parc Guell and the beach. What's the equivalent in Toronto? Nada.

There's likely no one clear answer to why we're so lame but here's a clue. Look at Barcelona's subway system:

And ours:

We are wealthier than the Spanish, our city is comparable but bigger than Barcelona, but look at what they've built to help people move. And what do we have? Mayor after mayor grovelling to provincial and national counterparts, asking for money to build measly extensions to our rump of a transit system. Frankly it's embarrassing.

Right-wing tea party-type movements in the US and Canada have done a good job convincing us that government is bad, that it's wasteful and needs to be reined in. But government has a vital role to play, particularly in infrastructure that promotes free movement -- not just of capital but of people. From a purely cost-benefit business analysis, an intricate subway system like Barcelona's makes no sense. But life in a city isn't simply about profit, balanced budgets and garbage pickup schedules. It's about living.

Sadly, until we figure that out, we will always be Toronto the Good but never Toronto the Great. 

FALSE ADVERTISING OR BUYER BEWARE?

"I WANT THE TRUTH!"

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

So goes the famous exchange between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. The truth is, however, most of us cannot handle the truth. Watch any given infomercial on any given Sunday and it's brimming with airbrushed, Botoxed, implanted actors promising that with just a few days on their workout routine or eye cream you can look as beautiful as they do.

You can't. You won't. Sorry.

So, I was amused to watch this exchange on CNN last week by two journalists covered to the yingyang in HD-proof makeup, mascara and concealer, discussing the news that a Julia Roberts Lancome ad was banned in Britain for being too digitally manipulated.

False advertising, UK regulators said. Pshaw! I mean, yes, false in the grand scheme of things. But, really, they just noticed?

The truth, if you can handle it, is that most advertising, if not out and out false, enhances reality in some way. That's it's job. Advertising, after all, doesn't sell product. Like religion and dating, it sells our ideal of that product and it's ultimately up to the consumer to use common sense to decide whether what we're being told and sold is true, somewhat true or complete BS. Because, in spite of what critics say, no one wants to see the way a Big Mac really looks before or when it's served to you. No wants to see the way that couture dress looks on an average American. And no one wants to see what Julia Roberts -- or Cameron Diaz -- looks like without a little makeup or airbrushing.

And that's the truth. Can you handle it?