Commentary
Diversity is often touted as a unifying factor in Canada, which is true to a certain extent. However, a society that is not united around certain principles, such as the notion that foreign tyrants subverting our elections is unacceptable, will neither survive nor deserve to. Do we share this consensus?
Unfortunately, there is a divide. On one side are those who believe that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s efforts to downplay warnings from intelligence agencies have been unsuccessful. On the other side are those, including many Liberal partisans, who brush off these warnings as racist. Debate is essential in an open society, but it must be based on shared premises or else it is impossible. Aristotle’s golden mean between suffocating uniformity and ruinous disorder is the way to go.
Trudeau’s claim to an American newspaper days after taking office that “there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada” is concerning. If taken literally, it implies that there is no Canada. There may be a place with that name, but there cannot be identifiable “Canadians” if the test of being Canadian is to have nothing in common with other Canadians.
Postmodernism, which states that there is no truth about anything, plays a role in this shallow worldview. The theoretical difficulties with this view are well known, and those who advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion often impose conformity, injustice, and cancel culture if they are contradicted. C.S. Lewis had a great point about all philosophical doctrines that deny first principles: “It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”
The debate in the United States in the 1950s about Stalinist infiltration of key institutions is worth noting. The Communist Party and a few nogoodniks said it wasn’t happening, but everyone else disagreed. In the 1960s, the “revolt of the elites” brought up the idea that Amerika was a fascist Potemkin democracy, but when things went too far, the “silent majority” recoiled in horror.
What about in Canada? When a Canadian artist sings of “Our home on native land” at a major American sports event, do we agree that it implies Canada is fundamentally illegitimate? Similarly, when Trudeau said nearly two years ago that a genocide was happening now, with him in charge, where was the outcry that he must be deposed?
It is right to question the extent or effectiveness of Chinese Communist election meddling, but if people laugh off subversion as of no importance, or laugh off importance itself, then the centre cannot hold. C.S. Lewis said it best: “If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.” Are we there yet?
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.