I don't know what algorithm dropped your message in my in box but I am extremely grateful it did. It is shocking that my country finds itself here, antagonizing friends and cuddling dictators. While I see an unfortunate and long timeline of this madness, there is comfort knowing our shared humanity continues.
I met a man from Beirut who told me about the wonderful life he had growing up in Lebanon — a prosperous multicultural society where everyone got along — until it was destroyed by civil war, and it has not recovered since. My takeaways from that story and this one: enjoy what is good in life and be aware of how fragile goodness is and guard against its destruction.
That said, he was a bit sanguine about the Nineteenth Century. The century of Napoleon in many places in Europe, electrifying, shunting, and destroying order.
Ask Tolstoy. Ask others.
The American Civil War, with hundreds of thousands dead. An eerie precursor of World War I.
Prussians fighting Austrians and Danes, or whomever they could find to fight— including more French during the Franco-Prussian War.
Russians fighting Turks.
Turks doing what they could do to minorities.
The so-called Indian Wars in the United States.
So whether you thought the 19th century was peaceful, to some extent depended upon where you lived, and upon your perspective. And whether you were on the side of the winners, or the losers, when the lead flew with its death song.
The United States fighting Mexico.
The Spanish American War.
Humans, murdering humans — without motive, because they could, because they were told, and because they would not walk away — in vicious, lethal wars.
I am sure I have missed some few, somewhere, in the 19th century.
Then came the slaughterhouse of World War I, with chemical warfare, and the ascendancy of the machine gun.
Wittgenstein the soldier watched, and thought, and thought more, as did Zweig.
We watch and think. As have our primate forebears, who watched their primate cousins slaughter each other over and over again, with many emotions coloring the watching.
We still watch. Some of us, like Pastor Bonhöffer, pray.
We stay the course, and watch, and bear witness.
This is our grit. This is our task.
We continue. We are Primo Levi, Stefan Zweig, Elie Wiesel, Leo Tolstoy, and many, many others.
I really enjoyed this post. My only qualm relates to the favourability chart - I would have thought the CDN stats would be much lower by the spring of 2025. Who & where are these Canucks that still favour the US? And how do they justify the law-breaking, the cruelty, and the growing powers of the oligarchs?
The problem with those surveys is they don’t account for a complexity of feeling that isn’t present in ordinary times. For example, what does someone who generally thinks well of the US and Americans but despises Trump say in answer to that question? Hence the results become ambiguous. What clearly is meaningful, however, is the trend line.
While I do not plan to end life on a deadline, it is also difficult to accept at 66 years old I might not know the outcome for my children and grandchildren either.
It is aboot time someone wrote something like this. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
I loved this post both for its discussion of comparing the present and past, and for its discussion of Canada and Maine. It is important to remember that judgments are relative. If we forget that, it is easy to get caught on the hedonic treadmill, forever chasing an illusively better future because we habituate to what is initially wonderful, making our current life situation merely normal. But, as Dan illustrates so well, we can make the current situation even worse by comparing it to an imaginary Eden. In the tragic case of Zweig, though, he was not comparing his objectively miserable life in his 60s to some imaginary Eden; he really was on top of the world earlier in life. Perhaps had he been born a pauper and managed to escape to the US during the war, he would not have been suicidal.
Re Canada and Maine, every summer my wife and I like to take a coolcation in some place that is likely to be cooler than Pennsylvania in July. We had some bad luck last year when we booked a rail trip from Vancouver to Jasper followed by a bus to Banff during a record Canadian heat wave and terrible forest fires. We escaped Jasper the day before the fire destroyed half of the town. This year we thought seriously about a trip to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, but could not find flights with rental car options that did not take the better part of a full day of travel. So we "settled" for a trip to Portland, Maine. Maine is indeed wonderful, but I do look forward to a more northern trip to Canada one of these summers. This desire has been reinforced recently by watching the TV series Sullivan's Crossing, filmed in Nova Scotia.
We are of the same vintage. I remember Boston and NYC during the 1970s. Now Times Square is a tourist trap and the Combat Zone is more pricey real estate. What being in cities taught me in the 1970s was that not everyone has it easy and that I had to be careful and understand my vulnerabilities. But amid the danger was urban mobility and opportunity. What Republicans want to do is close the doors behind them as if this will protect their privilege instead of gradually erode it.
Combat zone, wow that brings me back. What on earth are they all talking about? It’s just the blanket all things associated with dems are bad. How can they still be falling for it? This just can’t be sustainable.
Well written. Growing up, my family enjoyed vacations on the Maine coast and visited cousins in New York City. My wife and I have driven that route through Skowhegan and Calais Maine to visit family and friends in New Brunswick. For years I attended an annual gathering of wooden canoe lovers in upstate New York. And we have bought American spirits, wine and produce for decades. Not now. Here in Eastern Ontario lakeland, the small town groceries have an impressive array of fresh produce from Europe, Latin America and South Africa to add to what is grown locally. But the boycott is not aimed at the American people, aside from the MAGA types. The Americans we have met abroad have been uniformly gracious and apologetic for what the lunatics among them are doing to the world.
Thank you for that. I am a lifelong resident of the US, but I wholly understand and support the decision of so many Canadians to avoid spending money here while the orange asshole remains in power. As for me, I look forward to traveling north so I can spend some money in Canada.
On a slightly unrelated note: As I write this, both Trump and Vance are out of the country. Can’t we somehow “complete the wall“ so they can’t get back in?
Rough estimates suggest that in 1950, 75 years ago, 75% of the world's population suffered from hunger. Today progress has shifted that to 75% do not suffer from hunger.
The "good old days" are, in many ways, a function of selective memories and wishful thinking. We need to be cautious of what we wish for.
Much as we might lkk in ever think/believe otherwise a 2025 vehicle will run better, ride smoother and last longer than one from 50 years ago.
I was born in '61. For some reason, it felt to me like the world I had known shattered in Feb 2022. My grandpa was born in 1896, fought in WW1 and lived thru the ensuing decades that I only know from history books and movies. He lived a long life and I knew him as a gentle, loving human man. I've found myself wondering what and how he must have felt as a young man.
This post didn't make me feel better per se, but it does remind me that people and the world have seen dark times before.
I read a similar article discussing the history of the USA , making the same point about the US itself.
It may get darker before it gets better, but it's not hopeless and the future is not yet written.
We have a nephew getting married in Chicago in September. We RSVP’d that we won’t attend but what to send as a gift? After some thought we sent a gift card from Air Canada in Canadian dollars.
Canada: A nation with Medically Assisted Suicide on demand - for ANY reason. With TV ads to promote it! Not exactly something to be proud of, eh? Especially if you are a disabled person, have a chronic illness, depressed or just old. But I suppose it does help to get Canada's health care system under control fiscally. Get humble, Dan.
"a country that has never been anything but a loyal friend to the United States. "
Well, there was the war of 1812. And if you delve into to the history, the USA compiled a number of plans to invade Canada. As late as post WW II.o
The USA has always been an expansionist country. Making much of its wealth from the often violent take over other people's territory. (Yes, Canada has its own sordid history of colonialism, but we more or less became satisfied with the lands north of the 49th parallel).
The last US plan for invading Canada was post-WWI. And to be fair, we had a plan for invading the US (as part of a defence in the event of a US-UK war.)
I don't know what algorithm dropped your message in my in box but I am extremely grateful it did. It is shocking that my country finds itself here, antagonizing friends and cuddling dictators. While I see an unfortunate and long timeline of this madness, there is comfort knowing our shared humanity continues.
I met a man from Beirut who told me about the wonderful life he had growing up in Lebanon — a prosperous multicultural society where everyone got along — until it was destroyed by civil war, and it has not recovered since. My takeaways from that story and this one: enjoy what is good in life and be aware of how fragile goodness is and guard against its destruction.
I think Zweig was remarkable. I do.
That said, he was a bit sanguine about the Nineteenth Century. The century of Napoleon in many places in Europe, electrifying, shunting, and destroying order.
Ask Tolstoy. Ask others.
The American Civil War, with hundreds of thousands dead. An eerie precursor of World War I.
Prussians fighting Austrians and Danes, or whomever they could find to fight— including more French during the Franco-Prussian War.
Russians fighting Turks.
Turks doing what they could do to minorities.
The so-called Indian Wars in the United States.
So whether you thought the 19th century was peaceful, to some extent depended upon where you lived, and upon your perspective. And whether you were on the side of the winners, or the losers, when the lead flew with its death song.
The United States fighting Mexico.
The Spanish American War.
Humans, murdering humans — without motive, because they could, because they were told, and because they would not walk away — in vicious, lethal wars.
I am sure I have missed some few, somewhere, in the 19th century.
Then came the slaughterhouse of World War I, with chemical warfare, and the ascendancy of the machine gun.
Wittgenstein the soldier watched, and thought, and thought more, as did Zweig.
We watch and think. As have our primate forebears, who watched their primate cousins slaughter each other over and over again, with many emotions coloring the watching.
We still watch. Some of us, like Pastor Bonhöffer, pray.
We stay the course, and watch, and bear witness.
This is our grit. This is our task.
We continue. We are Primo Levi, Stefan Zweig, Elie Wiesel, Leo Tolstoy, and many, many others.
We are still here.
We bear witness.
Very much. In fact, a few historians have blamed him for creating an image of a golden age that was considerably more tarnished. Like all golden ages.
As I am sure you will agree, the whole notion of a golden age is a sham. Pining for a past that never was.
Very much. Name a golden age and I’ll show you the people who are afraid and upset during it.
"Most of the people who live in a Golden Age go about complaining how yellow everything looks." -- Randall Jarrell
I really enjoyed this post. My only qualm relates to the favourability chart - I would have thought the CDN stats would be much lower by the spring of 2025. Who & where are these Canucks that still favour the US? And how do they justify the law-breaking, the cruelty, and the growing powers of the oligarchs?
The problem with those surveys is they don’t account for a complexity of feeling that isn’t present in ordinary times. For example, what does someone who generally thinks well of the US and Americans but despises Trump say in answer to that question? Hence the results become ambiguous. What clearly is meaningful, however, is the trend line.
While I do not plan to end life on a deadline, it is also difficult to accept at 66 years old I might not know the outcome for my children and grandchildren either.
It is aboot time someone wrote something like this. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
I loved this post both for its discussion of comparing the present and past, and for its discussion of Canada and Maine. It is important to remember that judgments are relative. If we forget that, it is easy to get caught on the hedonic treadmill, forever chasing an illusively better future because we habituate to what is initially wonderful, making our current life situation merely normal. But, as Dan illustrates so well, we can make the current situation even worse by comparing it to an imaginary Eden. In the tragic case of Zweig, though, he was not comparing his objectively miserable life in his 60s to some imaginary Eden; he really was on top of the world earlier in life. Perhaps had he been born a pauper and managed to escape to the US during the war, he would not have been suicidal.
Re Canada and Maine, every summer my wife and I like to take a coolcation in some place that is likely to be cooler than Pennsylvania in July. We had some bad luck last year when we booked a rail trip from Vancouver to Jasper followed by a bus to Banff during a record Canadian heat wave and terrible forest fires. We escaped Jasper the day before the fire destroyed half of the town. This year we thought seriously about a trip to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, but could not find flights with rental car options that did not take the better part of a full day of travel. So we "settled" for a trip to Portland, Maine. Maine is indeed wonderful, but I do look forward to a more northern trip to Canada one of these summers. This desire has been reinforced recently by watching the TV series Sullivan's Crossing, filmed in Nova Scotia.
Come on up, we'll be delighted to see you! I've been writing a few blogs about great vacation destinations in Canada:
https://carleton.ca/aah/category/hta-blog/vacation-in-canada/
I'm an architecture nerd, so my focus is always on built things. But as you'll see, there's plenty of natural beauty in these places too.
We are of the same vintage. I remember Boston and NYC during the 1970s. Now Times Square is a tourist trap and the Combat Zone is more pricey real estate. What being in cities taught me in the 1970s was that not everyone has it easy and that I had to be careful and understand my vulnerabilities. But amid the danger was urban mobility and opportunity. What Republicans want to do is close the doors behind them as if this will protect their privilege instead of gradually erode it.
Combat zone, wow that brings me back. What on earth are they all talking about? It’s just the blanket all things associated with dems are bad. How can they still be falling for it? This just can’t be sustainable.
Well written. Growing up, my family enjoyed vacations on the Maine coast and visited cousins in New York City. My wife and I have driven that route through Skowhegan and Calais Maine to visit family and friends in New Brunswick. For years I attended an annual gathering of wooden canoe lovers in upstate New York. And we have bought American spirits, wine and produce for decades. Not now. Here in Eastern Ontario lakeland, the small town groceries have an impressive array of fresh produce from Europe, Latin America and South Africa to add to what is grown locally. But the boycott is not aimed at the American people, aside from the MAGA types. The Americans we have met abroad have been uniformly gracious and apologetic for what the lunatics among them are doing to the world.
Thank you for that. I am a lifelong resident of the US, but I wholly understand and support the decision of so many Canadians to avoid spending money here while the orange asshole remains in power. As for me, I look forward to traveling north so I can spend some money in Canada.
On a slightly unrelated note: As I write this, both Trump and Vance are out of the country. Can’t we somehow “complete the wall“ so they can’t get back in?
Rough estimates suggest that in 1950, 75 years ago, 75% of the world's population suffered from hunger. Today progress has shifted that to 75% do not suffer from hunger.
The "good old days" are, in many ways, a function of selective memories and wishful thinking. We need to be cautious of what we wish for.
Much as we might lkk in ever think/believe otherwise a 2025 vehicle will run better, ride smoother and last longer than one from 50 years ago.
Thank you for this post!!
I was born in '61. For some reason, it felt to me like the world I had known shattered in Feb 2022. My grandpa was born in 1896, fought in WW1 and lived thru the ensuing decades that I only know from history books and movies. He lived a long life and I knew him as a gentle, loving human man. I've found myself wondering what and how he must have felt as a young man.
This post didn't make me feel better per se, but it does remind me that people and the world have seen dark times before.
I read a similar article discussing the history of the USA , making the same point about the US itself.
It may get darker before it gets better, but it's not hopeless and the future is not yet written.
We have a nephew getting married in Chicago in September. We RSVP’d that we won’t attend but what to send as a gift? After some thought we sent a gift card from Air Canada in Canadian dollars.
Thank you, Dan! I appreciate you pulling all these various pieces together! A nice nudge to my thinking!
Nice analysis and nice writing. Thank you.
Canada: A nation with Medically Assisted Suicide on demand - for ANY reason. With TV ads to promote it! Not exactly something to be proud of, eh? Especially if you are a disabled person, have a chronic illness, depressed or just old. But I suppose it does help to get Canada's health care system under control fiscally. Get humble, Dan.
Canada: imperfect. Yes, I agree. Who said otherwise?
"a country that has never been anything but a loyal friend to the United States. "
Well, there was the war of 1812. And if you delve into to the history, the USA compiled a number of plans to invade Canada. As late as post WW II.o
The USA has always been an expansionist country. Making much of its wealth from the often violent take over other people's territory. (Yes, Canada has its own sordid history of colonialism, but we more or less became satisfied with the lands north of the 49th parallel).
The last US plan for invading Canada was post-WWI. And to be fair, we had a plan for invading the US (as part of a defence in the event of a US-UK war.)
Ok.
But I have to add, “that we know of”.