Brookman: Anyone else feeling the madness of today’s society?

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In a recent newspaper column, a well-known Canadian scribe referred to a certain “madness” that seems to have gripped our society.

During these past few days, I have begun to believe that we are so distrusting of leadership that we have all become confused about things that would never have been objected to or even questioned one or two decades ago.

There was a great cartoon on Facebook this week that showed an old couple watching television and she said to her presumed husband, “If Fox News were around in the Fifties, we’d still be battling polio.” Most of us had smallpox shots when we were babies or a polio vaccine when we were children. No one told us the brand name of those vaccines and I am quite certain that our parents never questioned the need for them. Today, smallpox is virtually eliminated in the world and polio is equally on its way out; yet we have mobs of people, encouraged by individuals who should be community leaders, protesting the efforts of governments to save lives by vaccinating our citizens.

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Let’s carry on. Somehow, we have a candidate running for mayor who has a checkered history with the law and has threatened to track down employees of Alberta Health Services. For me, it defies all logic that an individual like this would even be permitted to join the list of potential candidates and you have to ask yourself whether the selection process has simply been allowed to become too accessible. So many times lately, it feels like we must tolerate the behaviours of the fringes of society. Reading the stories surrounding this candidate, I could only think that the process feels like madness.

Meanwhile, the premier of Quebec declares his province is a country and that the language laws of that country need to be strengthened. As I drive around Calgary, I see signs of all kinds in many languages and no one feels that they need to protest a sign with Chinese symbols or Arabic symbols or signs written in French or Italian or whatever. Yet, the prime minister actually says that he supports that Quebec can unilaterally change the Constitution and increase the emphasis on language laws. We hear the words “sovereign nation” about other areas within our country, and you have to question how far we should go supporting these areas of questionable jurisdiction when they seem to only want to take from the Canadian system but object to many of the rules and standards that we believe in. Take the time to read about this latest attempt by Quebec to blackmail Canada and ask yourself, is this not madness?

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Finally, do you remember when we were told that switching to plastic bags for our groceries would save the forests? Remember the statistics about how many trees it took to supply all of the paper grocery bags? Well, on a recent shopping trip, I was told that my supermarket did not have plastic bags and I would have to pay them to provide me with a paper bag. In a supposed effort to save the planet, we have now come full circle. Well, not quite, it used to be the job of the store to make your shopping experience as simple as possible. I began my career as a grocery packer at Woodward’s and took great pride in how neatly I could stack the groceries in the bag. Somewhere, in some board room, you can believe that someone said, “Let’s see if we can get the customers to pay for the bags.” Today, the question, “Do you need a bag?” when you are standing there with 15 things in your arms is ridiculous, but somehow we have accepted it and complied. Where does this madness stop and when do we say “Enough”?

It starts with leadership, moves through religion, government, retailers and consumers. Every decision is fraught with uncertainty; every word today is subject to scrutiny. I believe that there are people who spend their days trying to figure out how they are being offended. It is truly madness.

George H. Brookman is the chairman and company ambassador for Western Canadian Digital Imaging Inc.