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< | On Canadian Romanticism |
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> | On Canadian Romanticism & Global Constitutionalism |
| | -- By JoshuaKoenig - 12 Mar 2017 |
| | “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.” |
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< | P.E Trudeau Speaks |
| | Living in the shadow of the greatest empire in human history is a disquieting experience. We feel every twitch and grunt of the elephant, our continental bedfellow. Trump’s rise to the Presidency has confirmed for many Canadians an unspoken truth regarding the contingency of our existence as a nation. There is a pervasive sense of conditional autonomy that operates on the psyche at a subconscious level. How much of our prosperity and sovereignty is dependent upon the good will of another? |
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< | Canadians live in one of the most materially prosperous societies in the world and we fill our homes almost exclusively with American consumer goods. Many of us reflexively mouth the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” but are lost when the words to “O Canada” transition from English to French. The auto-workers in Oshawa and Windsor are proud but they know who signs the checks. |
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> | Canadians live in one of the most materially prosperous societies in the world and we fill our homes almost exclusively with American consumer goods. Many of us reflexively mouth the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” but are lost when the words to “O Canada” transition from English to French. |
| | There is a feeling of dislocation and melancholy that comes with living in a region so vast and empty. Placelessness follows from belonging to a nation with no obvious cause. |
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< | Pierre Trudeau articulates a quintessential Canadian sentiment:
“I, for one, will be convinced that the Canada we know and love will be gone forever. I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper.” |
| | Why 'Canada'?
Then what is Canada’s raison d’être? |
| | Berlin Speaks |
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< | Isaiah Berlin’s writings on Romanticism are instructive in the Canadian context. We are perceived by Americans not so much with contempt or arrogance but with willful indifference, if we are perceived at all. Our cultural goods are casually dismissed as derivative, feeble imitations; Leonard Cohen is a poor-man’s Dylan, Neil Young is indebted more to Redwood than Red Deer, Drake doesn’t make real hip-hop.
The hollow threats of Americans that promised to move to Canada during the Trump campaign were covered favourably by the national press who failed entirely to interpret these gestures as playful expressions of desperation. The joke seems to have gone over our heads. Underlying the resentment of criticisms which portray our culture as shallow and unimaginative is a deep worry that they may provide an accurate depiction of Canadian life. |
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> | Isaiah Berlin’s writings on Romanticism are instructive in the Canadian context. We are perceived by Americans not so much with contempt or arrogance but with willful indifference, if we are perceived at all. Our cultural goods are casually dismissed as derivative, feeble imitations; Leonard Cohen is a poor-man’s Dylan, Neil Young is indebted more to Redwood than Red Deer, Drake doesn’t make real hip-hop. Underlying the resentment of criticisms which portray our culture as shallow and unimaginative is a deep worry that they may provide an accurate depiction of Canadian life. |
| | This resentment manifests itself in a Romantic view of Canadian character and identity which is juxtaposed with Americas. The archetype of the humble hockey player assumes an outsized influence in Canadian iconography. “Keep your head down.” “Act like you’ve been there before.” “Go to the dirty areas.” Hockey supremacy is associated with a purity of the Canadian spirit. This is contrasted with the decadent playing style of European skaters and the Americans who simply don’t know how to play the game the right way. |
| | On the Canadian Identity |
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< | The Canadian political personality is bipolar. We oscillate between haughty condescension and extreme sensitivity to perceived slight. We look down at the political chaos in the United States with a sense of smug satisfaction. At the same time, my first instinct when a salmon-coloured-pant-wearing New Englander tells me that my country is “a protectorate, just like Puerto Rico” is to drop the gloves. |
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> | The Canadian political personality is bipolar. We oscillate between haughty condescension and extreme sensitivity to perceived slight. We look down at the political chaos in the United States with a sense of smug satisfaction. The Wall has become the ultimate symbol of difference for Canadians between our own political culture and that of the United States. We would never do such a thing. |
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< | The Wall has become the ultimate symbol of difference for Canadians between our own political culture and that of the United States. We would never do such a thing'. Yet, I am not so sure. The concept of The Wall is not foreign to us. Our national life is the story of building a more tangible border. Even Canada, a nation led by a man committed to a “post-national” future, is subject to the urge to live within one’s own cultural horizons. |
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> | Yet, I am not so sure. The concept of The Wall is not foreign to us. Our national life is the story of building a more tangible border. Even Canada, a nation led by a man committed to a “post-national” future, is subject to the urge to live within one’s own cultural horizons. |
| | A Way Forward |
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< | The Romantic impulse in human nature is immutable and must be integrated into the project to develop a universal moral framework. Canadians are as dedicated to the construction of this moral framework as we are to the preservation of difference. Our national identity will be constructed in service of rational principles. Multiculturalism, openness, and pluralism will be the national creed. We react to Trump’s election with horror but not shock. The fear of becoming an anachronism as history marches forward is a familiar one to us. Canada may serve as an example that distinction is possible, even at the footsteps of the most powerful moral and political agent in the world. A global constitutional order must be based upon federal principles even as national borders blur and stretch beyond recognition. |
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> | The Romantic impulse in human nature is immutable and must be integrated into the project to develop a universal moral framework. Canadians are as dedicated to the construction of this moral framework as we are to the preservation of difference. We react to Trump’s election with horror, but not shock. The fear of becoming an anachronism as history marches forward is a familiar one to us. How do we develop solutions to transnational legal problems – dilemmas which are blind to the nationality of the individuals that they affect – without the exercise of coercive power appearing foreign, arbitrary, and biased?
A central challenge of today’s age involves the careful balancing of the urgent need to bind the community of nations together with the threads of the law against the imperative that legal institutions remain proximate to those that they are accountable to and reflect community values. Centralization, if it must increase, should be calibrated to guard against attendant rises in political alienation and disaffection. Citizens cannot come to feel that they have been stripped of their cultural and political agency by remote, unfathomable processes.
Canada may serve as an example that distinction is possible, even at the footsteps of the most powerful moral and political agent in the world. We may prove that membership in multiple communities does not detract from, but rather contributes to the sense of belonging and place that is an integral component of the human experience. Provincial, national, and global loyalties are not irreconcilable but, rather, complementary.
A global constitutional order must be based upon federal principles even as national borders blur and stretch beyond recognition.
Word (Draft #2): 974 |
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