from Asia in Switzerland
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kiene angst: Home for the Holidays
Seeing Bowling for Columbine (Mike Moore's latest diatribe against his culture) in Europe was a revelation. If Canadians thought we had the edge on anti-American sentiment, boy were we wrong!
Then again, with a movie like that its always a case of preaching to the converted. Unless of course you can take the people who should see it and tie them to their cinema seats.
One Swiss woman I spoke to said, "the only time I felt myself relax was when he went up to Canada." She said the entire film put her in knots of fear and frustration. That there was no hope for the world if everything Moore says is true. "except" she said, "I had no idea that Canadians were so different"
My turn to ponder. Are we so different? Moore makes a very convincing argument. But he also chooses not to show that something like %80 of our media is fed from the States. That we can watch COPS or 911 or any of that sensationalist fear inducing crap every day of the week if we choose. And many do. CBC is a house of quality programming. But I rarely ever watched it. I preferred brain deadening re-runs of Friends or even Fraser. I'm not proud. But I think thats part of the problem.
We are proud of the differences - we revel in being put higher than Americans in the judgement of others. We bristle at anyone mistaking us for American. But we are sliding ever faster into becoming exactly what we hate. And only a very small fraction is speaking out against the Americanization of our schools, our health care and our foriegn policy.
Living in Switzwerland, a country for whom change is physically painful, I am astonished to see how much and how fast Canada has changed since I've been away. Its an odd feeling to be afraid of what I'll see when I go home for the Holidays.
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