In these times of confinement, Netflix provides very little content of interest to my liking. No big deal, because the news is producing quite a spectacle.
These travelers’ vacations aboard Sunwing, organized by an individual bordering on deceitful behavior, are the best vacations that will, in a way, never happen. This seems to be a Quebec version of the Fyre Festival, as several Internet users have pointed out.
I laughed a lot at this scandal fueled by OD Scoop. But with nervous laughter, because it seems to be part of the great theater of the possible decline of our civilization. As if the film Don’t Look Up was a documentary and a prophecy at the same time.
Justin Trudeau didn’t think so well when using the word “Ostrogoths” to refer to party animals with degenerate behavior. I am not saying that because of the analogy to barbarism. You see, the Ostrogoths are one of those peoples who literally participated in the fall of Roman civilization during the time of the empire.
The term is therefore eloquent. These “zin-flu-ranceurs1 “ , who embody an unbalanced individualism, have little in common with the Gothic peoples, but perhaps also signal the downfall of a society. The analogy ends there. However, it invites serious reflection on our collective future.
The rise of social networks over the past 15 years, while promoting connections that are impossible without technology, has above all served to get us stuck in a consumer society deprived of its solidarity.
Besides, didn’t they make you smile, these airlines which have invested millions of dollars in influencer marketing for years, and which today are making a big deal out of banning a few? zinflurancers of their flights? Where was the meaning of Air Canada citizenship when, last year, the company used influencer marketing to promote sun destinations in the midst of the second wave of COVID-19, contrary to the recommendations of the federal government?
The spirit of citizenship is in bad shape, but not only at Air Canada. In recent years, our political powers have, in my opinion, done very little to foster a sense of commonality within our populations. This is reflected among other things in the low voter turnout of young people. And beyond the vote, let us stress that we have witnessed the destruction of several spaces of citizen participation. The austerity of the previous Liberal government, which hit the youth forums head on, is a clear example.
The Institut du Nouveau Monde noted in a memoir dating from 2019 that young people, although interested in public affairs, maintain a feeling of incomprehension and helplessness in the face of the political system.
And the cocktail of decline does not taste very good if, in addition to all of the above, elected officials multiply decisions which, in the eyes of the population, are opaque and incoherent.
Unfortunately, several government measures recently imposed as part of the management of the pandemic contain just such shortcomings. It suffices to take as an example the imposition of a curfew, a measure whose legitimacy is seriously questioned by many experts.
However, the coherence of a society is lost in particular when the individuals who compose it, in addition to feeling powerless, lose confidence in the legitimacy of the rules, particularly those dictated by the political powers in place. Hence the importance of establishing acceptable and justifiable rules, especially since if disinformation is mixed with loss of confidence, serious crises can result.
As proof, as I write these lines, we are one year to the day after the insurgency on the Washington Capitol. I am therefore careful not to take for granted our democracy, which deserves that in all aspects of our society, we encourage a sense of community.
1 “Zin” is a Creole term for gossip. “Rancor” is a term inspired by Creole to designate a person who is unreliable. “Flu” is the disease, in English.