Guest Column: Neighbours, with differences

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on March 24, 2018.

Our two nations have shared over 150 years of more or less friendly relations. We’ve developed similar economic traditions and practices. We are each other’s main trading partners, share in the defence of both countries, and share a border which is considered one of the most porous borders between nations in the world.

But we are different nations in many ways, and the differences are more than historical and cultural. Deep down serious differences stand in the way of our two nations ever truly understanding each other. A leader of one of these countries once likened the “friendship” of these two, to a mouse sharing a bed with an elephant. If the elephant twitches, the mouse is in peril. But size is not the biggest difference.

Size matters, of course, and the smaller nation has often felt threatened and neglected while the larger nation has expressed annoyance at the presumptions voiced by the smaller nation. “How dare you presume to lecture us about Cuba or Vietnam,” for example. The president at one point, enraged, picked up the prime minister and slammed him into a wall. The two later made up and their relationship was described as cordial. But history proved the PM to be correct. Vietnam was the wrong war at the wrong time.

What truly divides our nations though, is our understandings of the concept of freedom. Canada, having gained nation status peacefully, declares boldly on the first page of its Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that there are no such things as “absolute freedoms.” Each citizen willingly accepts that personal freedoms need to be limited in order to respect the freedoms of others. We believe the freedoms of every individual must always be balanced against “the common good” and limited in the interests of “the common good.” In fact, for most thoughtful Canadians, the words “freedom” and “the common good” are inseparable. The words have no meaning without reference to each other.

The U.S., having been born in blood, and having left a continuous trail of blood all through its history, defines freedom differently. Freedom is defined by the many courageous acts of strong individual warriors who serve as examples to all other citizens. Freedom comes at a price so the individual must fight for it. The individual must grab as much freedom as possible and vigorously defend it against any who would threaten it, including governments. So freedom has a far more individualistic, competitive, even nihilistic flavour here. Freedom is uncritically accepted as an absolute value. The concept of “the common good,” sadly, is little more than an afterthought.

So what happens when a society ignores the concept of “the common good’? The freedom of each threatens the safety of all. Individuals are free to buy assault weapons, for example. And, since everyone assumes that everyone else must be armed, the sale of handguns continues unabated. There are well over 300 million guns in the hands of citizens. The potential for bullets to fly is obvious. More than 13,000 died of gunshots in 2017.

So the school shootings continue and parents lose their children and teachers are expected to die for their students. And everyone, armed or not, lives in fear. No need to cite numbers to show that American gun culture makes the U.S. the bloodiest peacetime country in the world. By far. What, in the name of sanity, does this gun freedom have to do with “the pursuit of happiness”?

The irony here is that the Second Amendment, arguably, does not guarantee individuals the right to bear arms. “A well regulated militia” is called for in this amendment. Fred and Martha, armed to the teeth, paranoid of strangers and hair-triggered, does not sound like “a well regulated militia.” Nor does the young outcast who loves guns and hates everyone and everything else.

One more comment about freedom.We can talk about “freedom to” — to own property, to travel, to marry anyone we choose. And we can also talk about “freedom from” — from want, from discrimination, or from fear, for example. The U.S., land of the free, the citadel of freedom, is lacking in the most essential freedom — freedom from fear of your fellow citizens. So. Sad.

What is most troubling for me is how many Canadians swallow the sour mental pablum of news manufacturers like Fox News and nibble at the poisoned apple of social media. They soon begin to mimic the darkest anti-social hate speech of American culture. The erosion of “the common good’ in Canada has begun.

Peter Mueller is a long-time resident of Medicine Hat who, in spite of all the evidence, continues to believe we can build a better world.