I received a offer from the new editor-in-cheif of the National Post [see below]. While poverty prevents me from subscribing to any daily newspaper, considering the fact the letter made it to me I wrote the new editor-in-cheif of the National Post to draw to her attention the Reality that media fails to write about.
Attn: Ann Marie Owens, Editor-in-Chief
Dear Ms. Owens,
Unperceived? Wilfully Denied? Ignored? Media’s Missing Reality
I take pen in hand to draft this letter because it would appear the Universe desires it to be written. I do apologize for the length but editing has reduced the original length by 43%.
My conclusion about the universe’s desire is based on the fact your promotional letter was sent to the address I resided at before mental illness consumed my 25 year career as a Chartered Accountant, my ‘normal’ life and rendered me homeless on the streets of Abbotsford, BC.
Becoming homeless occurred a decade ago; yet the promotional offer from the National Post ended up in my hand, rather than the garbage.
Given the letter ended up in my hands and not the dump and the subject – editorial content of a national media delivery system – I take the opportunity to comment upon the lack of diversity of thought in the media; the significant portion of the reality that constitutes the continuum that IS Canada that is ignored and/or unperceived by the media; the significant, growing subset of Canadians to whom the media is irrelevant because they are not considered or recognized by the media; and the growing disconnect between what is perceived versus the reality that Canada and Canadians inhabit. A Reality that politicians, pundits, media and Canadians have increasingly wilfully denied and/or ignored.
The effects and consequences of that wilful denial, the divide between what Canadians WANT to be and what is, will be paid because those consequences of our actions and behaviours is a product of what IS, not what we want to be.
I enjoy reading, viewing and listening to Mr. Coyne’s comments and opinions for their ability to stimulate me to think about his words and the issue he is addressing. But I find that I am often left thinking ‘he missed X entirely’.
For example: Mr. Coyne [as does the media as a whole] uses the word ‘jobs’ indiscriminately as though there were not growing chasms between the subsets of the set of employed Canadians. I believe that Mr. Coyne would find his life circumstances significantly impacted if his job paid him the wages an employee at Jim Patterson’s Overwaitea Foods earns at his job [$10.50 x 20 = $210 per week].
Mr. Coyne has also been heard [or read] referring to the monthly employment statistics as though they had usefulness or meaning.
But then the media fails to question or explore or even recognize economic myths such as the myth of full employment; ignores or fails to perceive that the Canadian economy has undergone a fundamental shift; in its ignoring or failure to perceive the fundamental shift in the Canadian [world] economy the question of how many Canadians can be excluded from the Canadian economy before the economy suffers a significant negative impact is unasked and the consequences of continuing this behaviour go unconsidered, at least until the economy nosedives.
Media also ignores provinces such as British Columbia using millions, tens of millions or hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize businesses such as Walmart.
Alberta’s ex-Premier Jim Prentice stated during Alberta’s provincial election “In terms of who is responsible, we all need only look in the mirror, right? Basically all of us have had the best of everything and have not had to pay for what it costs.”
Which resulted in a media feeding frenzy – focused on Mr. Prentice’s ‘insult’ to Alberta voters telling them to “look in the mirror” and Mr. Prentice blaming taxpayers for the state of Alberta’s economy.
The important questions, for the future financial state of Alberta, ‘what responsibility did voters bear for the current state of the province’s finances, what issues face voters and what choices need voters make to improve the province’s finances’ went unasked and unexplored as did the consequences if voters continued the behaviours that put the truth in ‘look in mirror to see those responsible’.
However, in terms of the future and the world we will be handing to our children [the first generation of Canadians to inherit less from their parents; to inherit a diminished future] the egregious fault was ignoring the truth and consequences in “Basically all of us have had the best of everything and have not had to pay for what it costs”.
A question that will afflict not only Albertans but all Canadians. A question, a reality, that politicians, media and 99 plus percentage of Canadians do not want to think about, much less acknowledge and change their behaviour because of.
Making it another thought, another reality, that goes against what Canadians want, choose, to believe; adding to the list of issues that are disbelieved, wilfully denied or ignored by politicians, the media and the public. At least until reality asserts itself and they are forced to deal with the consequences of their actions – and inactions.
Aided and abetted by the media we have become a nation that seeks scapegoats, someone to blame as being responsible and a people totally adverse to accepting responsibility for our own behaviours no matter how inconsequential.
The public speaks about society as though it appeared out of thin air and had nothing to do with the actions and behaviours of Canadians. As media sits there “tsk, tsk; how terrible”, never asking where or how ‘society’ [without defining what we mean, what we define as ‘society’] comes into being.
Yet the origins of society are egalitarian and, in light of the breadth, result from simple addition. Society is the product of adding up the actions and behaviors – ALL the actions and behaviours – of everyone. We all, in our choices of actions and behaviours, create our society. A creation that is on going – second by second, hour by hour, month by month, year in and year out.
But nobody wants to acknowledge that they, that we, are responsible. Because it is easier to believe that some mysterious ‘them/they’ are responsible than to acknowledge our own responsibility not simply for what is but for creating the change to a better future.
Wilful denial, disbelief and ignorance are far easier than the commitment necessary to the daily grind of consciously choosing even our tiniest actions or behaviours from [for want of a better word] the enlightened side of our humanity and awareness instead of letting those actions and behaviours come from our ‘human nature’ [self interest, greed].
Having grown up with 3 daily papers in the house [the Globe and Mail, the Telegram and the Star] being without a paper leaves me feeling uninformed and having missed events I need to be aware of to be informed. Although it does spare me the frustration of all the unasked questions, the ignoring of reality, all that is ‘known for sure that ain’t so’ in the media.
But the harsh reality is that with finances that include $0.00 for food, and diabetes, a daily paper is an extravagant luxury that is only slightly more probable in my future than a Ferrari.
A rather bleak reality for myself and a growing number of Canadians. Actually most Canadians face a circumscribed, diminished financial future because no amount of denial, disbelief or wishing will change reality or the way mathematics works or the consequences of our current behaviour.
Albert Einstein stated “we cannot use the same thinking that got us into this mess to get ourselves out of this mess”
Mark Twain stated “It isn’t what we don’t know that is the problem, it is what we know for sure that ain’t so.”
Martin Luther King Jr. said “This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists” and that “Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
Because “…….crowd pressures have unconsciously conditioned our minds and feet to move to
the rhythmic drumbeat of the status quo. Many voices and forces urge us to choose the path of least resistance, and bid us never to fight for an unpopular cause and never to be found in a pathetic minority of two or three.”
It is those who are transformed nonconformists and creatively maladjusted who will fight for the unpopular cause, be a minority of one, two or three and will gird their loins and do what is necessary.
And who will speak of the reality, and its consequences, so assiduously ignored by the media.
