Post Democracy

 

 

First, there is no bottom in sight. It's one thing to manage to a new reality; it's another to be trapped in an apparently unending downward spiral.

 

 

It's not just Postmedia, of course.  How often have we heard that our democracy is trapped in a downward spiral?  Our politics becoming more polarized, with less room for actual discourse?  How about burning people alive suddenly being a legit act for somehow justified in the name of religion?

 

We are experiencing the twilight of an era, a new dark age and yes, even as Prime Minister Harper has suggested, a great evil is descending on our world.

 

If, that is, you define evil as that which moves us away from civilization.  Sociology, collaboration, dialogue, art and ideas, all that kind of stuff.

 

Don't give up yet, though - don't barricade your home, hoard canned goods and take up religion in preparation for Armageddon.  This isn't the end - it's an ending, to be sure, but it's not the first one we've experienced, is it?

 

Of course we have.  And we know how the story goes, too.

 

How does the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened?

 

A new day comes; the light of civilization shines out all the clearer.

 

We adapt, we grow, we diversify and empower.  We always have.  And we always will.