The Crank & File
Death to Isms
Non-Fiction by Matthew Firth
In a world gone crazy, we could do with fewer isms and the behaviours they incite. Typically, this column calls on me to be a pugilistic cranky pants, ranting and railing against this and that. In the Spring of 2021, more than a year into this wretched global health pandemic, I do not feel the tug to align with a belief system, ideology, dogma, religion, creed, or any bloody ism. I’m anti-isms of all stripes going forward. It’s bleak out the window this rainy late-April morning.
Don’t worry, the fight hasn’t leaked out of my bones. It’s more that I’m tired of people taking sides and blaming, shaming, naming, maiming this group or that group, positioning themselves in this camp or that, shitting on this view or that. Let’s lay down our weapons, intellectual and actual. From my old, white-guy vantage point, we need less entrenchment, less isms. Let’s lean on truth and decency, rather than tribe and philosophy. Humility rather than pride, arrogance, and egotism.
Let’s ditch egotism first. It literally means putting yourself and your self-interest first, muscling to the front of the line while disregarding and trampling others. Selfishness goes in and out of style. Right now, we’re awash in it. Some politicians tease it out of voters. Some philosophers, geneticists, cognitive scientists (and again, politicians) claim it’s innate, even a righteous human characteristic. Narcissus revelled in it until he died and was replaced, apparently, by a flower. Egotism is a notch below narcissism. Both smack of entitlement and grandiosity — things we need less of, not more — if we’re going to dial back the tension. Stop beating your chest in self-adoration. Stop trying to turn yourself into a brand. Instead, help pick up and boost another human (figuratively and/or literally).
We can also do with less wokeism in favour of more humility. Wokeism can be construed as an outer branch of egotism. If you’re woke, you’re on the correct side of progress. You’re ahead of mere mortals and so damned convinced you’re right about everything that you basically worship at the altar of your own ego and intellect. You are above reproach, perfect, no matter your shape, size, age, colour, ability, self-ascribed gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual preference (ick, preference singular? ... how heteronormative). Have I missed anything? If I have, I’m sure you’ll call out my shortcomings and correct me, cast me out among the grubby heathen. No, you won’t, because you stopped reading this bit after a couple of sentences when you exploded in a fulminating dander. Listen — I guess I am ranting after all — everyone is wrong; me, you, the guy driving the bus, the grocery clerk, the Prime Minister, Lady Gaga, LeBron James. Every fucking one of us. Get off your high horse and join the rest of us mere mortals down on this crumbling earth.
Can we override wokeism with humility? Can we listen rather than shout others down? Can we calmly breathe rather than spew what we see as correct/irrefutable/unassailable dogma at our opponents?
While we’re at it, let’s shelve snowflake-ism. And by this I mean, let’s stop being offended and put off all the time. Stop retreating/melting when you encounter adversity. This pandemic should help restore human resilience and co-operation, something we will need to emerge fully from covid hell and then deal with the climate crisis (and other crises staring at us down the pipe). Humanity needs all hands on deck. We can’t have folks mewling and taking a timeout to examine their feelings. We need to roll up our sleeves and get shit done.
With others, expect decency and act decently. Simple as that. When and if you come face to face with different views and perspectives, dig your heels in and push back with truth (not opinion or anecdotes). And don’t run and hide. If you melt, you vanish and seep down the sewer. Happens every Spring.
Less tribalism would help now, too. Toss nationalism to the curb as well. Knock off the us vs. them crap. Stop flying colours, flags, banners; shit like that. Especially here in Canada. I’m tired of Canadian arrogance and this manufactured notion that Canadianism is innately superior. You know the mythology: our health care system, the Tragically Hip, the cbc, our hockey teams/players, Tim Hortons coffee, being polite, etc. Hell, while I’m here, let’s add public funding for the arts to this damned list. It doesn’t make us any better. Tim’s coffee is just OK. The Hip are just an OK rock band; they’re not the Rolling Stones for Christ’s sake. Maybe the pandemic is revealing that our health care system isn’t the cat’s pyjamas after all. Our poets are just OK for the most part. I concede, however, that McDavid and Crosby are the best hockey players on the planet.
OK, I am riled up. Let me step back and breathe and gain some perspective. There, all better.
Still, I circle back and stand by my assertion (though not in a crazy assertive way): let’s ease up on wearing isms on our sleeves. Let’s admit we’re wrong (I’m wrong here about a lot of things; I’m just a dude with a platform; this is only anecdotal stuff, not fact). Let’s be decent, tolerant, openminded, kind, but most of all humble without allowing ourselves to be ass-kicked by some egomaniacal woke narcissist. Keep it simple, honest, direct and we’ll crawl out of this shithole intact and ready for what’s next.
Hey, look at that: it’s stopped raining. Mind you, now it’s snowing. »