Then, was it good, Sunday, your construction paper cards, your macaroni necklaces? Everything ok, now that the #FêteDesMèresGate is in the past? Quebec tore its legendary shirt last week because two teachers with poor communication skills had announced their desire to celebrate neither mothers nor fathers, but parents, out of sensitivity towards certain children living in special situations. Faced with the outcry, they reconsidered their decision, but it was the psychodrama of the week.
The usual mechanics are in place: the troll malicious social networks, the usual columnists claiming that Western civilization was rocking, the opportunistic politician seizing the case to make a hallucinated link with drag queens, the minister summoned to decide…
How could such an insignificant affair, motivated by a good dose of benevolence and weighed down with its share of clumsiness, take us into this media-political vortex?
Mother’s Day has passed. The colored paste necklaces were discarded discreetly, but it is worth wondering about the mechanisms and effects of this umpteenth episode. At the extremes of the ideological spectrum (this time, to the right), we live in the constant instrumentalization of helium-filled microevents by outrage specialists; from bike paths to drags that read tales to children, from orange cones to cultural appropriation, from Mr. Potato Head to inclusive carbonaras.
The analysis is done in two ways. Either the microscope is trained on a microphenomenon and a war of chroniclers ensues, with fiery social networks, or else we are in the macroexplanation: the thesis of the great replacement or delirium on gender theories, which, according to some, are the main threats to the West in general, and to Quebec society in particular. In both cases, it jumps, it gets carried away, it revokes, it poses peremptory judgments.
If we looked calmly between the two, if we came out of the echo chambers, we would nevertheless see a society that is changing, for good reasons most of the time, with the sincere desire to make room for everyone, to open facing each other. We would see fears, sometimes well-founded, which require listening and consideration, but above all, a desire to advance the common good.
We should look at ourselves with a gentler, more generous, less angry look. To think differently than in ideological silos, in entrenched positions. Because yes, there are a lot of deconstruction sites on the left, and just as much construction of delusional myths on the right.
And in all these very real upheavals that we will go through, minor or major, there are questions to ask ourselves that are not the ones we are tackling while we sink into the “scandal” of the day.
So, randomly: is our society endowed with enough empathy? Are we doomed to apprehend reality through rigid boxes and inflexible militant principles? And above all: what is the effect of all these weekly psychodramas instrumentalized on the right and on the left on people’s real lives? We have the breathless impression of being restless in the bowl, who jump from one scandal to another. It ends up leaving scars on our great social body, scars in people’s heads, exhausted and weary.
We no longer ask the real questions.
The industry of indignation has arrogated to itself the monopoly of reaction.
With its big mouths, its wild feathers, its hordes of virtual warriors, its tough politicians, its clicks and its retweets; his business is prospering. Tracking down or creating THE juicy subject that will add a piece to the edifice of controversy is a talent to be cultivated.
During this time, the social bond crumbles. The ordinary citizen tells himself that the state of the world, of his world, is deteriorating, that it is threatening. He cowers, when his true nature would be to show empathy towards others, and to want to alleviate the feelings of children struggling with complex family situations by making crafts with inclusive pasta. But the columnist tells him it’s war outside!
We must stop hysterizing our reading of the world around us. We must breathe through our noses, take back our minds, our personal opinions. It seems that we are obsessed with mental health these days in Quebec? Ben, we should look at the side of the industry of indignation. It produces noise, tension, worry, even hatred sometimes. Let’s say it doesn’t help the common balance.
DIY, yes.