I had a dream last night, that one of my ancestors was deemed a traitor and suffered great consequences from such accusations. I don’t know what era, or what the issue was. I just know the scenario kept repeating over and over again. He believed that it was those that called him a traitor who were in the wrong. He believed a great injustice was being carried out.
And so here we are today. In real life. As the fate of yet another U.S. election is being determined. We all have some very strong opinions – from two very different sides. My family is very divided over these issues. Each side is calling the other names like “crazy” and “deluded”. And each side is very, very, certain they are “right.” May we live in interesting times.
My father became very interested in his family lineage back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He spent countless hours searching through family albums and correspondence, and had many chats with his aunts and uncles still alive at the time. He compiled binders for many of the next generation to hold on to, highlighting the research he had done. This culminated in a trip to Scotland back in 2008 where we drove around to various graveyards looking at tombstones. It was a very interesting trip. What was also interesting at the time was watching my nieces, who were quite young at the time, passing away the boredom of visiting yet another gravesite by doing cartwheels on the lawn. I’m sure somewhere my relatives where smiling. Many of these cemeteries we visited were quite old and not “in use” anymore. Such that they didn’t get too many visitors. To locate some of them and to get access, we often had to find a local who held the key to get in. This led to many more long discussions which filled in many gaps about the town and what life might have been like “back then”. In the end, this is one of those trips our family bonded over, and will not be forgotten.
My biggest takeaways from this trip is that (1.) my relatives were reasonably well-off, in the fact that they actually HAVE tombstones. Apparently, this was reserved for those who could afford it. (2.) Another takeaway was that in order to be “well-off” in those times, there had to be a degree of compromise with the “powers that be”. And that those in “real” power didn’t appear to be the Kings or Queens of the day. In fact, there appeared to be a royal beheading every 5 years or so – when these “dimwitted royalty” got too full of themselves and actually thought they were in charge. No, it seemed in order to survive and prosper, you needed to maintain a very low profile, and “go along with the gang”. It is important not to pick sides per se, and that it is better just to not be noticed when inevitable conflict arises. Those who partied with the King were often taken down with the King, because they would defend the King not realizing the inevitable beheading was about to come to pass.
My third takeaway, was that when taking a stance is required, weigh the odds carefully and pick the winning side. Don’t get too attached to a particular outcome. Just make sure you’re on the winning side. This may seem traitorous and disloyal, and goes against much of what is “right” and “true”. But this is what it took to survive and maintain wealth through a number of generations. My hope for humanity is that we are about to evolve beyond these limitations. But it is important to understand the past and what it took to survive, in order to create a better future.
In his research, my father discovered that his ancestors had come over from Scotland and had initially settled in the Eastern United States. There they had amassed some land, and were living quite comfortably. A number of relatives were in the Royal Navy, and spent a great deal of time at sea. Others took to farming. Others were lawyers and accountants. The “clan” residing in the Eastern US become quite large, and there were many who had reasonable areas of influence throughout the region.
Along came the war of 1812. In that war, my father’s portion of the family moved to Canada and fought on the side of the British. Of course, not everyone in the family chose to do this. This created quite the rift. The deal offered was land in Ontario in exchange for services offered during the war. Many “settlers” took the Crown up on their offer, fighting against those pesky entitled “deplorables” fighting to rid themselves of British Rule once and for all.
When I heard this years ago, I was proud that my ancestors fought on the side of the British. Being a Canadian, and enjoying the country that I live in, in my mind things turned out alright for the Canadian side. Our lives were of good quality, and from my perspective we experienced a great deal more peace than the American side of the border. For example, I was very happy were were not sent to Vietnam against our will. Canada appeared, from my perspective, to be the “good guys”. We had very little military strength, which from my perspective was a good thing because military was often used by the others to invade countries they had no business invading.
We were known for our diplomacy and Peace Keeping operations around the world, and we were a safe harbour for the slaves during the civil war, and for Americans who didn’t want to fight in a nonsensical Vietnam war. I was proud of this. So, from my perspective at the time, thank god my relatives chose the side they did. I even laughed when I heard that we actually made it so far into the country that we actually burned down the White House. We felt that we won, and that part of the fight was about where to draw the border, and the pressure from the American side was to draw it somewhere along the 60th parallel. We settled on the 49th, with some exceptions. This is viewed as a victory.
In the 1990’s, Canada was one of the best places to live in the world. I traveled a great deal in those days, and where-ever I went I was greeted with smiles and open arms. Canadians were truly loved the world over. I had a great job, I had a great life, and I truly believed that world world was a kind, wonderful place full of great people where-ever you went. During this period of time the Berlin wall fell, freedom was bestowed upon Eastern Europe. Russia and China opened up its borders for tourism, fighting decreased in South America, and more and more countries were hospitable for travel. It seemed to me that the age of war was winding down and we were headed for a bright new future.
I have spent a great deal of time traveling to the States. We have the world’s largest undefended border. And up unitl 9/11, all we needed to cross the border was to show our driver’s licence. It was extremely common for Canadians to own a winter place down in Arizona or Florida, and hang out for the entire winter. And really, at the end of the day, I did not see a lot of difference between the two countries culturally, and wrong more freely back and forth.
After 9/11, there was that big push for engaging in war with Iraq and every other country in the Middle East, I was once again very happy to be Canadian, and very unhappy with the tragectory of the US and their Military show of force. While I still visited many States during this period of time, and have much in common with many Americans, I felt a little superior because I believed our country maintained a “higher moral ground” because we weren’t actively killing innocent civilians in countries we couldn’t even find on a map.
My perspective is different today. As I sit here watching Canada’s national debt double every second, our freedoms being taken away with lockdowns and mandatory masks and temperature checks, I envy those in the US. As the screw is tightened more and more on us.. I see across the border a pathway out of this mess. I see the value of a valid constitution. Something we don’t really have. We sorta have one. But nobody actually believes it’s real.
And I see a lot of other things today that I didn’t know then. Canada, while being known for being very polite and fun to be around, were turning a blind eye to a great deal of criminal and worse behaviour. We had not idea. Much of the drugs and contraband coming into North America comes through Canadian ports of entry. Two Canadians own the biggest online porn hubs in the world that actively destroys people’s – including children’s – lives as videos of them are uploaded and shared online without their permission or knowing. Canadian companies are involved in businesses overseas that profit from the endless wars waged, the active use of child labour, and the prolonged history of bribing government officials in order to ignore environmental concerns and even worse. Apparently, we are not always so “nice” after-all.
My conclusion is that, based on the persoective we are using, it is easy to see another as completely wrong and “on the wrong side”. On the other hand, what I also see is that the people who are the most passionate and convinced they are “right” are not the “bad people”. There mere fact that you have this much passion, no matter what side you are on, means that you are very much human. This is the crux of the matter. This is the game that is being played.
I was listening to a podcast today talking about experiments with mice. They put mice in small containers and forced them to live in these cramped quarters for long periods of time. Eventually they stopped reproducing. And they were more apt to attack each other for minor things. They even resorted to canabalism. This expericment was done in the 1970’s. I fear that perhaps we are now those lab rats and the very same experiment is being carried out in a larger scale. Are people expressing a great deal of anger? Have people stopped communicating effectively? Are people going to stop reproducing? Hopefully people “wake up” before we get to the actual canabalism stage.