Institutions

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  Where is this Ship Headed, Captain?

  Brian Dijkema

  October 12, 2012

  The watchwords of his speech are intended to be non-threatening and romantic; inspirational even. It started with the quote from the father of German romanticism and continued in that stream—love, trust, listening, open minds, big dreams (his and yours!), and youth. I got a sense that Canada was the Dead Poets Society, with Justin as O Captain! My Captain! This is, of course, good politics. It's hard to motivate the masses with a level-headed realism.

  As you cut through the hype and horror of the daily news cycle surrounding the daily movements of Justin (no formal titles among friends), and read his opening speech, you get a picture of a candidate who—des...

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  Our Religious "Nones" Wait For Us

  Judith Valente

  October 11, 2012

  The finding that grabbed many of the headlines and has produced a fair amount of handwringing is the statistic showing that Protestants are no longer a majority in the U.S. In fact, there are now more "nones" than there are people who identify themselves with any Protestant religion—whether Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Church of Christ, or non-denominational Christian.

  Like any person of faith, I read with great interest the recent Pew Forum study showing that a rising number of Americans say they have no religious affiliation. In fa...

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  The Pathetic Family

  Peter Menzies

  September 25, 2012

  The most recent example comes in the approach to last week's release by Statistics Canada on the shape of modern living arrangements. In summary, the 2011 Census report showed that the modern Canadian family structure is as follows: This "diversity" was the focus of much of the media coverage, along with the facts that for the first time, there are now more one-person households in Canada than there are couples with kids and the gap between couples with and without children continues to grow.

  One of the great capacities of the modern age is its ability to deny and, more alarming, refuse to address the negative outcomes of its progress.

  The most recent example comes in the approach to last week's release by Statistics Canada on the shape o...

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  Malthus, Darwin, Rand, and Social Conservatives

  Diane Weber Bederman

  September 21, 2012

  I fear that social conservatives are falling into an ideological abyss that has somehow attached itself to an 18th century evolutionary idea: the doctrine of the survival of the fittest, which began with Malthus. According to Jacques Barzun, who wrote Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of a Heritage in 1940, Malthus taught that one need not worry about overpopulation.

  We have recently heard the views of Mitt Romney in a newly released video where he says that 47% of the American population think of themselves as victims, entitled to government care like food, housing, and shelter. And he claims this same 47% of the popul...

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  Millennials Will Save Cities, and Destroy the Country

  Robert Joustra

  September 20, 2012

  The so-called delay of adulthood is now the subject of a great deal of nervous hand wringing amongst media elites. Millennials, generally adults between 20 to 34 years of age, also known as Generation Y or the Echo Boom, have statistically delayed childrearing, postponed marriage, and opted out of building households.

  Two converging trends are leading to some ironic demographic conclusions: first, the oft repeated truism that Millennials are flocking to urban cores, part of a process called gentrification; and second, that this urban lifestyle of job switching, meeting f...

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  Culture without War still needs Parties

  Robert Joustra

  September 6, 2012

  This is the point that is badly missed by Senior Fellow John Seel in his blog yesterday, "A Moderate Moment." His misread of The Newsroom is instructive. He describes fictional anchorman Will McAvoy as "a clarion voice for independents" equally disdaining both Democrats and Republicans for their casual lies and dirty tactics.

  Civility is now a cosmopolitan watch-word, coupled with a sensationalist non-partisanship which seems to be sweeping the American religious elite. Undoubtedly the vitriol of American election cycles has fuelled its star struck launch into religious circles,...

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  A Moderate Moment

  John Seel

  September 5, 2012

  And yet in this contested election, moderates are in control of the election. The Republicans moderated their Tea Party rhetoric during their Convention to appeal to the undecided independents or the "disappointed" Obama supporters—those with glue still on their car bumpers. It will be interesting to watch how the Democrats handle the same challenge this week as they hold their convention in North Carolina, a state that recently affirmed a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions.

  An oft-quoted adage in Washington is that "moderates have no mailing lists." Consequently, partisanship rules.

  And yet in this contested election, moderates are in control of the election. The Republicans moderated their Tea Party rhetoric during the...

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  What's left to be progressive about?

  Peter Menzies

  August 27, 2012

  Words such as "moderate," which in their dictionary meaning imply a sense of temperance and conservatism, are now popularly used by people who have sought and continue to seek institutional change that in historical terms can only be considered radical in nature. Similarly, the term "progressive" has become fashionable, particularly in terms of politics.

  There is much to be said for the command of language and how it can translate into a language of command over the public square.

  Words such as "moderate," which in their dictionary meaning imply a sense of temperance and conservatism, are now popular...

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  Glorious Adaptation: Institutions that are Future Ready

  Milton Friesen

  August 24, 2012

  I happened across Jantsch's book a couple of months ago while on one of my habitual shelf reads at a local university. It was the title that caught my attention and led to a Contents scan and then the discovery of Chapter 9 "Adaptive Institutions for Shaping the Future". After re-reading my notes from social innovation scholar Frances Westley's keynote at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities I realized that the reference I had noted as "Jantz" was Westley referring to Jantsch and then it all made a whole lot more sense.

  Memory bends and folds time. Ideas distant in time can be suddenly pertinent. In his 1972 book Technological Planning and Social Futures, Erich Jantsch explores very...

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  Clear Cutting Social Landscapes

  Milton Friesen

  August 17, 2012

  Could the same be true of our social landscapes? Are the "old" institutions, both formal and informal, being over-taxed, eroded, or clear-cut faster than they are being replenished, floundering on a demand gradient greater than their supply? Are we dismantling them because they are perceived as obstructions to building the better future? I offer a comparative reflection.

  In the modern era, we have treated the plenty of nature as limitless—the carrier pigeon, buffalo, cod, rainforests, oil, agricultural land, and oceans. In painful slow motion, the long dawn of our awakening may be taking place. In time? Certainly not in som...

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  Reinvigorating Unions

  Ray Pennings

  August 16, 2012

  Last week's announcement of a proposed merger between the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) is certainly a bold move. Choices had to be made whether the future of unions rested in focusing on the nuts and bolts of grassroots collective bargaining or by taking on the bigger social questions of the day.

  Leading a union in today's environment of declining union numbers is not a job for the timid.

  Last week's announcement of a proposed merger betw...

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  Secular Does Not Mean What You Think it Means

  Brian Dijkema

  August 15, 2012

  What exactly would a secular charter look like? Well, see if you can figure it out from the CBC's report: Maybe something got lost in translation. But, there's not much clarity to be gained by the reports in Le Journal or Le Devoir either. What I glean is this: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  The Parti Québécois (PQ) announced yesterday that, if elected in Quebec's upcoming election, it would introduce a secular charter.

  What exactly would a secular charter look like? Well, see if you can figure it out from the ...

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  Who's Serving Whom?

  Peter Menzies

  August 13, 2012

  For instance, Canada's women recently lost their Olympic semi-final football (soccer) match to the USA (4-3 after extra time), due in large part to a couple of quaintly creative decisions by Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen. My initial reaction to this was that Canada should scramble the CF-18s pronto and launch an invasion of Norway or at the very least make some bold incursions into its airspace as an expression of outrage. Given the sense of injustice I was feeling at the time, this felt like a moderate approach. What did inspire, however, are some thoughts about service that were prompted by the fact Canada's team contained one dual Canadian-American citizen, Chelsea Stewart, while the American team contained another, Sydney Leroux. This is not unusual. Canadians have for years played hockey and other sports for foreign countries and as we are all aware, Team USA swimmer and gold medalist Missy Franklin is also a Canadian citizen with Canadian parents. I don't think these matters should be controversial, particularly in the case of Franklin who was born and raised in the USA and always dreamed of representing the land of her birth; the nation that nurtured her.

  The beautiful game, as it is known, can inspire some frightfully ugly reactions.

  For instance, Canada's women recently lost their Olympic semi-final football (soccer) match to the USA (4-3 after extra time), due in large part to a couple of quaintly ...

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  This Was Never Going to Happen

  Peter Menzies

  July 31, 2012

  I am not sure why this is the case, but I expect it is because, being human, we often don't ask questions when we suspect the answer will be uncomfortable. Western marriage has undergone a good deal of change in the past 40 years. Once based on three fundamentals (heterosexual; monogamous; permanent), it is now a union between any two people and can be dissolved at any time without cause. I suppose the monogamy application still exists, but within secular unions it seems this is as much a shared expectation between participants (or not) as an institutional or societal imposition (women, particularly, seem hung up on it). In most parts of the continent—Quebec is way out in front—fewer and fewer people bother with the union and prefer simply to co-habitat without formal commitment. More noticeable, at least to me, is the more frequent tendency for women who become pregnant to postpone a wedding until some future point when they think they will regain their figures (I know, much thigh-slapping here among those who know) and look like they always imagined they would on their "special day." What's so special about a day confirming a years-old relationship that has already produced offspring and holds little mystery about the future does, I admit, elude me. I concede, however, that time may be passing me by and that for many today, a wedding day is not about the marriage, it's about the dress. As Dylan put it, my old road is rapidly agin' and I should get out of the new one if I can't lend a hand for the times they are a changin'.

  As much as who should and should not be married and to how many people at any one time continues to be a debate in North American society, no one seems anymore to care about whether or not marriage is a useful institution and if it is, is it healthy?

  ...

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  Buildings Encouraging Idiocy?

  Brian Dijkema

  July 26, 2012

  I have a hunch that most of us think of our buildings as inert shells. They might be pretty or ugly places, but they don't any power to change us. They're just there; we, the humans, are the actors. Rooms are places where we change our shirts, shorts, and sheets. They are places where we make love, play music, brush our teeth, eat, sleep, hold meetings, do business, pray. Unlike traditional condos, the units are all three- and five-bedroom apartments. The building will have student-friendly features including parking, a social room in the building and on-site gym. And the units are designed to handle the rowdy student life as well with insulated concrete walls. "If you were to punch the wall, this concrete, you're basically going to break your knuckles. It's just designed in such a way that it won't be destroyed," Mr. Firsten, president of In8 Developments, said he came up with the idea for the purposed-based units after several years of owning and renting student houses in Waterloo. "What I determined was there's a lot of wear and tear," he said. "It's challenging moving kids in and out, parties in the backyards, keggers, kids punching or putting their heads through the wall. Crazy stuff."

  Can the shape or condition of a room change you?

  I have a hunch that most of us think of our buildings as inert shells. They might be pretty or ugly places, but they don't any power to change us. They're just there; we, the humans, are the actors. Ro...

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  The Leaning Tower of Ivory

  Robert Joustra

  July 20, 2012

  What is to be done to resolve this stalemate between a marginalized academy and a disinterested, maybe hostile, political class? A few options have surfaced over the last decade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  ...

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  Church Meetings Matter

  Ray Pennings

  June 13, 2012

  The very existence of churches and the witness of how they conduct their business provide a living example of an alternative way of dealing with the challenges of life. Church meetings begin not with bold affirmations of "we the people" but rather with times of worship. Those gathered are created beings acknowledging the authority of the God who made them.

  Just because something may not be newsworthy does not mean it isn't of public importance. Last week I carried out responsibilities of the church office I hold, by attending our denominational synod. The lens through which that activity is viewed is usually ...

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  Two-Way Streets: Where Efficiency Isn't Everything

  Kathryn de Ruijter

  June 1, 2012

  As more and more people are moving downtown in cities across North America, more people are questioning how to revitalize downtowns after decades of flight into the suburbs. In Hamilton, a growing number of voices are pointing to the conversion of one-way streets to two-way as an important next step in this process.

  Hamilton, Ontario is a city with an intricate (albeit confusing) network of one-way streets. These multi-lane expressways are very efficient in their purpose: to get people through the city core very quickly. They are not, however, conducive to building a v...

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  Cultivating Civic Virtue

  Brian Dijkema

  May 24, 2012

  Political parties, as always, have noticed this, and exploit these tendencies by routine use of a wedge to carve these various self-selecting groups into potentially winnable constituencies. As a result, while the conversations in our living rooms and across our fences are amiable and comfortable, our politics exude a special type of nastiness; extreme politics, if you will.

  When North Americans aren't bowling alone, we're drinking, reading, and laughing together with people who are like us. The media with which we engage, our friends, our neighbourhoods, and, increasingly (sadly) even our churches are filled with people like u...

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  A Heterosexual Problem

  John Seel

  May 23, 2012

  When the termites have done their work on the foundations of the home, it doesn't take much to knock it down. Such is the case of traditional marriage. It does not face a homosexual crisis as much as a heterosexual one. This is marriage season. Many, perhaps most, couples will be entering their marriages with expectations that are inconsistent to reality. It is only a matter of time when reality catches up to their relationship. Houses do not long stand when their foundations are gone. This much can be assured in marriage . . . in time the winds will come and the water will rise. Only those marriages with a firm foundation based on reality will survive.

  Marriage has a heterosexual problem.

  When the termites have done their work on the foundations of the home, it doesn't take much to knock it down. Such is the case of traditional marriage. It does not face a homosexual crisis as much as a heterosexua...

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  Canada Includes the State, But Is More than the State

  Brian Dijkema

  April 27, 2012

  This budget gives pretty clear signals of a different Canada, perhaps hard to get at because it is not about building but about dismantling: not dismantling the state—witness the expanded use of the coercive criminal law power and the build up of our military and security apparatus—so much as rolling back the progressive state.   

  Alex Himelfarb worries that our state is being dismantled and rebuilt as an ugly, uncaring, police state. The architect of this, of course, is Step...

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  Holy Week and Public Theology

  Ray Pennings

  April 5, 2012

  Those of us involved in public life, when explicitly appealing to our Christian motivation for these actions, are often quick to cite the Christian obligation of love for neighbour as an animating force. In fact, sometimes this emphasis can cause a perceived tension between believers who make social engagement a priority and others who fear this emphasis leads to a neglect of the vertical relationship between believers and God.

  Today is Maundy Thursday, the day in which some Christian traditions engage in feet-washing rituals, as a commemoration of the events surrounding the Last Supper. There Jesus instructed his disciples both through the object lesson of humbly washing their fe...

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  Socialists and so-cons in same boat now

  Ray Pennings

  March 28, 2012

  Was it a choice between power over principle, or was it an acknowledgment that the politics of incrementalism is the only way to implement principle in our post-ideological age? Was it perhaps an implicit recognition of the limits of politics and the fact that our political leaders can only work within the framework of a cultural consensus?

  The election of Thomas Mulcair as NDP leader (and leader of Canada's official opposition) this past weekend has been rightly observed by most as a preference for power over principle. Brian Dijkema has already ...

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  Centrist politics: the problem, not the solution

  Brian Dijkema

  March 26, 2012

  It is generally acknowledged among the punditry, and apparently among the NDP's leadership as well, that the election of Thomas Mulcair was a move to the mushy middle. Mulcair, who flirted with the federal Tories and served as a Liberal cabinet minister in Quebec before winning a seat for, and then the leadership of, the NDP, campaigned openly for the NDP to "modernize," and has maintained this position in the wake of his election. His pro-middle agenda was opposed by members of the NDP's principled elite, including Ed Broadbent, and was set against Brian Topp, whose position on matters of party principle could not be clearer. Topp wanted an NDP which found its "fundamental identity as a social democratic/democratic socialist party."

  The most interesting thing about this weekend's NDP leadership election is not that Thomas Mulcair won and that Brian Topp lost. No, what will last longest is the weakening of principle—call it ideology if you want—as a driving factor in Canadian pol...

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