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What we've lost (2): Stigma

It turns out that population-wide disdain for those who live to get high was a very good thing

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The last 10 or 15 years have not been kind to Canada. Along with a decline in prosperity has come an erosion of the things that made our society great, a decline of what held us together and made us the envy of the world: things like resilience, friendship and service. In this series, National Post writers consider What We’ve Lost.

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Progressives were so preoccupied with eradicating stigmas that contain anti-social behaviour in Canadian society, they didn’t stop to think if they should. Well, they accomplished their goal: that natural containment field of shame that once stood between people and bad decisions is gone. Is your life better because of it? Probably not.

What we've lost (2): Stigma Back to video

We were assured that the stigma against drugs was really just a Darwinian filter erected by 20th-century prudes to stop the most vulnerable and addicted from getting help. If only that were true. Breaking down the shame of drug addiction — by legalizing cannabis and decriminalizing possession, among other things — didn’t shrink homeless encampments or stall overdoses. Instead, it grew them.

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It turns out that population-wide disdain for those who live to get high was a very good thing. Though it was a barrier to getting the few who wanted it help (often psychological), it prevented countless others from ever starting down the path to addiction in the first place.

It’s still frowned upon to fry one’s mind out of one’s brain, but it’s legal now, and even the boomers are experimenting at marijuana shops. How hard drug use is viewed isn’t that much better, considering how normal it is to witness crack pipes and meth foils in public. A life of drug dependency is still pathetic in most people’s eyes, but it’s no longer unthinkable, and that’s a problem.

More delicate than the stigma of ruining one’s life was the stigma against ending it. The conversation around depression and mental health became so accepting of the plight of the afflicted that suicide is now considered a reasonable, worthwhile option — even a right that’s owed to you by the government. Assisted suicide, or MAID, went from being unthinkable, to being tightly reserved for terminal patients of terrible diseases, to being handed out to anyone with a vaguely uncomfortable diagnosis if they’re persistent enough.

There are now doctors in Canada who will kill a 26-year-old diabetic who struggles with depression, which is exactly what happened in a Vancouver funeral home on Dec. 30. There are others who will kill an elderly woman whose husband tires of caring for her — even when she says she doesn’t want MAID.

What we've lost (1): Masculinity

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Speak out about these what-should-be crimes and expect to find yourself under a dogpile of moralists telling you not to judge others. Some judgment is necessary, though: people who take their own lives should face resistance for degrading human dignity, whether it’s assisted by the state or not.

Judges and lawyers have contributed their fair share of disruptions, too: the criminal justice system perpetually fails to punish criminals in a way that’s aligned with popular morality, and even gives discounts for race and immigration status. The overall effect? Crime is accepted like the weather in Canada, often understood as a symptom of victimhood. The moral rules set out in the Criminal Code feel more like guidelines meant to be bent by judges to excuse mass murderers, pedophiles, drug dealers and thieves. Society still condemns these people, but not with the sheer force that it used to.

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Not all invisible rules we had were life-or-death, but they were no less important. We had conventions of modesty that were most clearly expressed in the stigma against sexualizing children. Thus, there was once a time when libraries, schools and even the national broadcaster weren’t on an aggressive mission to introduce children to cross-sex burlesque, a.k.a. drag. Nor were teachers attempting to normalize the false idea that a person can change their biological sex — and even help young children embark on the transgender lifestyle without telling their parents. No, in fact, the people tasked with caring for our next generation of leaders and caretakers during the daytime once had respect for the beliefs of parents, and knew to steer widely clear of sexual topics. The fight to rebuild these boundaries comes with heavy resistance: just ask Premier Danielle Smith in Alberta.

Even the failure to be self-reliant doesn’t carry the shame that it once did. There were always people who fell on hard times, and always institutions to help them, whether they be churches, food banks or government assistance. But there was also stigma in using these crutches; though uncomfortable, they kept people from abusing charity just to get ahead. Fast forward to Canada today, and this force is a fraction of what it once was. The safety net will only survive if there is shame in using it.

Today, the strictest social rule is the one that mandates agreement with Liberal policy. Question immigration? You’re a racist. Question climate taxes? You’re scientifically illiterate. Question Islam? You’re Islamophobic. Question gender ideology? You hate gay people … even though gay people were among the first to question the wisdom of medically altering the bodies of effeminate boys and masculine girls. Question limitless Indigenous reconciliation? Well, they’re owed something for colonization, aren’t they? These morals aren’t universally held in Canada, but they are backed up with intensity by courts, professional bodies and human rights tribunals, silencing many dissenters like a gun to the head.

What we need now is the resurrection and empowerment of the traditional boundaries that gave us a pro-social, high-trust country. It’s an easy sell at this point: everyone has seen the degradation of their country around them and the damage that ensues when standards are traded for a juvenile sense of liberty and open-mindedness. You might as well fight to bring the old stigmas of Canada back, because without them, this place isn’t going to feel like home for much longer.

NEXT up in What we’ve lost: Friendship

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