By DONALD DeMARCO
In a sociology text book (Sociology) that has been widely used in Canadian universities, the author makes the following statement: “Canadian society could not continue to exist unless the thousands of new members born each year eventually learned to think, believe, and behave as Canadians. . . . The continuity of our society requires that children come to embrace societal values as their own.”
The reality, however, is that Canadian society does continue to exist despite the fact that its citizens have radically different ways of thinking and believing. The statement, of course, is essentially political. People, if they are thinking at all, think as human beings endowed, as they are, with the faculty of reason. What does it mean to think “as Canadians”? Is it different from thinking as an American, or a Spaniard, or a German? Furthermore, can Canadians, Americans, and Germans communicate meaningfully with each other?
Nonetheless, indefensible as the statement is, it reflects a mood that has become part of the fabric of contemporary Canada. The mood is something of a dream in which all conflicts are avoided because everyone thinks the same way (or not at all). Anatole France was far more realistic when he stated: “Uniformity is the arteriosclerosis of society.” In simpler terms, he was referring to the death of society. How can there be clarification of thought, real education, improvement in thinking and reasoning, if everyone, being tied to a political ideology, is thinking in the same way?
Our sociologist, though unrealistic, is nonetheless sensitive to an appealing ideology that, unfortunately, will bring about results that are the opposite of what it promises. Ideology can be the inspiration for law. But such law suppresses freedom of thought. Premier Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, to focus on but one example, has decided to ban any employer from receiving summer job grants for students unless he signs an “attestation” agreeing with abortion, same-sex marriage, gender identity, and other forms of legislation.
Being “liberal” can hardly be reconciled with systematically excluding organizations and small businesses whose core values affirm a traditional view of sexual morality and the sanctity of human life.
Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, condemned the policy, stating that “the Trudeau government is engaging in ideological coercion by demanding that employers who believe killing children before they are born is wrong, attest that they support so-called ‘reproductive rights’.” Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims are thereby punished financially because of their traditional beliefs.
It is ironic that Catholics are often criticized for being dogmatic. Yet Catholics cherish both the freedom to think and the freedom not to have their thinking suppressed by the government. An ideology is a political fabrication that substitutes for a philosophy that is always open to reality. What any one of us knows is incomplete, tentative, and imperfect. “The essence of things is unknown to us,” writes St. Thomas Aquinas (Rerum essentiae sunt nobis ignotae).
By this, the Angelic Doctor is not professing agnosticism, but drawing attention to the fact that we can never know anything exhaustively. There is always more to know about anything than what we happen to know at any one particular time. We must be open to new knowledge that science provides, as well as the wisdom of others who know more than we know. The teacher may know more than the student, the surgeon more than the patient, the general more than the fresh recruit. It is through sharing that society prospers, not through uniformity.
We must guard against presumption while remaining open to new and deeper knowledge. At the same time, we can be confident about the truths that we can know. “This attitude,” according to the distinguished Thomist, Josef Pieper, “which neither permits us to cast away an insight already won nor allows us to rest on our laurels with a false sense of finality, is not easy to achieve. It is a highly demanding affair.” Yet, it is an achievement devoutly to be desired.
Truth is a paradox that involves both what we know and what we are yet to learn. American poet Carl Sandburg expressed the matter imaginatively when he stated: “Truth consists of paradoxes and a paradox is two facts that stand on opposite hilltops and across the intervening valley call each other liars.”
Nonetheless, like a tuning fork, harmonious paradoxes declare their truth when their two poles vibrate in unison. A good leader is also a public servant. A dutiful teacher is also an eager student. All life falls under the shadow of death. A strong individual is also a productive member of society. A law should be open to being amended. Tradition bears upon the future. As Carl Jung attests, “The paradox is one of our most valued spiritual possessions.”
If everyone is thinking in the same way, then no one is really thinking at all but surrendering his mind to a political ideology. We are the custodians of our mental faculties, not the government. Welcome to George Orwell’s dystopia? At this point, progress comes to a grinding halt and education is seen as subversive.
A teaching assistant at a Canadian university was sharply reprimanded by her professor and the acting manager of the “Gendered Violence Prevention and Support” program because she dared to bring into the discussion the legitimate use of traditional personal pronouns. In this case, the politically correct use of pronouns (“zie,” “zher,” etc.) reigned supreme and uncontested. In another instance, a university professor was suspended because he presented reasons why abortion might be unethical.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have forgotten that he was appointed, and not anointed. His inherited task is to lead citizens not to herd sheep. He may believe that the latter is more manageable, but he should realize that he is presiding over human beings, and at a certain point of their being systematic mistreated, they will revolt. A new prime minister may be on the horizon.
(Dr. Donald DeMarco’s latest book, Why I Am Pro-Life and Not Politically Correct, is available on Amazon.com.)
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