Why the world isn’t in as bad a state as you think

The bursts of terrorism, bombings, and political turmoil in today’s world have convinced many people that peace is impossible. I dissent from this view. We are not having a “clash of civilizations.” There are many reasons to express a realistic hope that a safer world can be built. We must be able to see beyond the headlines of the day in order for hope to overcome fear. The hope for peace I express is not based on mindless optimism. I am not running away from the terrible things that happen in the world every day. The election of Donald Trump to the United States presidency and the 2016 vote in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union are the result of a populist fear of an unknown future. Personal insecurity is driving voters to “strong” leaders; at the same time, people’s anxieties are exacerbated by fear of what authoritarian leaders will do. Fear is a vicious circle. Right-wing nationalism, underlain with a message of hate, is rising in some regions of Europe and North America and certainly captures the headlines, but it is not sweeping the world. Already we see the countermoves against bigoted populism as people, shocked at the chaos suddenly engulfing political systems, push back against those who would destroy the institutional structures needed to preserve order. Even in the midst of political chaos, great numbers of people are awakening and demanding, at the very least, fairness in the societal systems. The women’s marches around the world the day after the inauguration of President Trump and the massive global protests against his stern immigration restrictions revealed the heart of humanity, beating for equity and justice. I am not saying that everyone in the world is clamouring for social justice, but it is equally wrong to think that the revolt against the political establishment, so evident in the Trump and Brexit votes, signifies nothing more than people letting off steam. Insecurities today have many causes. Many people feel left behind by the forces unleashed by globalization, since the gains have not been distributed evenly, but instead are concentrated in the hands of the already rich. Job-eliminating automation threatens to intensify this trend even further. Politicians, often beholden to corporate interests, are reluctant to challenge a lopsided capitalist system in which the “super rich” take home in a day what an ordinary worker earns in a year. The greed of the powerful, enriching themselves at the expense of the common good of humanity, has caused extremism, not so-called enmities between Islam and the West. Most people, whether they live in Western or Muslim countries, want a peaceful development of the world. Their fears, stoked by extremists and spread by a sensationalist media, lead them, unfortunately, to support public policies based on militaristic thinking. Hope Not Fear: Building Peace in a Fractured World by Douglas Roche 143 pp. Available on Amazon $19.95 (print), $9.95 (Kindle) Trump personifies this militaristic thinking. His call for a 10 per cent rise in the U.S. defence budget—already larger than the military spending of the next seven nations combined—is a shocking manifestation of fake facts of how to achieve peace. Canadians should be deeply concerned about the Trump militarization of foreign policy. In dealing with the aberration of the Trump presidency, Canada must consider far more than our trade balance. When Lester Pearson criticized the U.S. bombing of Vietnam during Lyndon Johnson’s administration, when Pierre Trudeau urged Washington and Moscow to stop the nuclear arms race, when Brian Mulroney said no to joining the U.S. “Star Wars” initiative during Ronald Reagan’s administration, when Jean Chrétien refused to join the Iraq war during George W. Bush’s administration—these leaders stood up for Canadian values. A testing of Justin Trudeau is surely at hand, and we must encourage him to resist the American pull to militarization. We do not want more defence spending in Canada; rather, we want our resources to be used for diplomatic negotiations, helping refugees, sustainable development, and control of climate change. We must not be afraid to tell NATO when it is wrong, as it is in conducting military exercises on Russia’s borders, just as we proclaim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is wrong in annexing Crimea. In our polite, Canadian way, we must make it clear that Canada will not be a lapdog of Donald Trump. There is so much noise in the political systems today that some fear the rancour will inevitably lead to permanent chaos. However, we are not living through a clash of civilizations, no matter how much right-wing extremists want class warfare. Rather, we are witnessing a rebellion against the elite political and economic establishments that have for too long betrayed the interests of people. An attitudinal change is taking place in modern society. A new way of caring for the wholeness of life is being defined. We see this in the efforts to promote the Sustainable Development Goals and to stop global warming. The outline of a new global ethic is coming into focus. Today we are revolted by acts of carnage that our forebears took for granted. The rejection of violence as the normal way of resolving conflict is the basis for a culture of peace, which has already been defined by the United Nations. The world is capable of providing adequate food, health care, and education for all, thus allowing us to build an equitable and peaceful society. We ought to celebrate this framework for a culture of peace, because such an elevation of humanity has far greater consequences for the world than the acts of violence still occurring. This is an adaptation from Hope Not Fear: Building Peace in a Fractured World, a new book by former Senator Douglas Roche. The book is available at hopenotfear.douglasroche.ca. The Hill Times