In reality, that polarization is starting to fade in favour of a global mobilization protesting the Trump administration's aggressive and unprecedented political moves against anything that is not American in origin. And yet I still read and hear people doggedly defending positions that call contemporary social progress into question, and that go so far as to disown our democratic institutions on the pretext that they are in the pay of shadowy power brokers named only by non-traditional media that are just as shadowy.
Our society is increasingly diverse and complex, and that trend will inevitably continue. The resurgence of ultra-conservative currents of thought reassures some people, because other people's difference stirs up fears. Indeed, many people, consciously or not, take refuge in beliefs of another era, forgetting why we consigned them to history more than two generations ago.
Many of the ills of our time are blamed on diversity, forgetting that in the “good old days”, so homogeneous and reassuring, women were denied the vote, homosexuals were institutionalized, Indigenous children were taken from their parents, and only white men had access to positions of power, while wealth was concentrated in a handful of great family fortunes.
Today, some people see in the rhetoric of leaders calling for a return to “tradition” a remedy for their anxiety in the face of a geopolitics that, as we all know, is unsettling everyone.
I would remind those people that the values of openness, secularism and equality that have defined Quebec over the past 50 years safeguard freedom of expression in our post-secondary institutions, have put religion back in its place and changed the behaviour of many politicians, as well as giving everyone — regardless of gender, origin or beliefs — the chance to contribute to society.
I would also invite them to reread our history books and to reconnect with traditional media — with those journalists people call “corrupt”, but who are the only ones bound by a strict code of ethics and who can be sued if they spread falsehoods.
Diversity is beneficial in every aspect of life — in choosing our friends, our employees, our sources of information or our political opinions.
Living together is an asset, not a threat. Some Americans seem to doubt it. Let us not make the same mistake.
