The Wars’ significance cannot be understated at this time in Canadian history. Findley’s work show us how deviation from societal norms may be an outpost of reason. The destruction wrought by blind colonialism in World War I is mirrors the current status quo of profit at any cost to nature is manifest in the expansion of Alberta’s Tar Sands.
During any era and in any culture, the degree of conformity to norms is how humans determine the morality of their fellows. Robert’s final act is therefore startling and disturbing to his contemporaries as it challenges the passively accepted system of sanctioned murder and disregard for life upon which the British Empire hinged.
In 1914, the dominant Canadian paradigm had been shaped by its identity as a British colony. It was expected that Canadians should whole heartedly defend the prosperity of the motherland (Canada Britain Relationship). And they did.
GOD SAVE THE KING!!! (a banner) (Findley, 8).
The current dominant paradigm also defies rationality and preaches and celebrates its religion like a fanatic. The recklessness of industrial expansion lays ruin to natural systems for the sake of job opportunities. As the government swings closer to liberal capitalism, the reasons not to exploit bitumen to its fullest potential are secondary to the ultimate goal of securing an imminent boost to the economy. The life put at risk by the Alberta Oil Sands Project is regarded as a mere externality incidental in the process of wealth accumulation. According to Prime Minister Harper, “Canada’s incredible share of this endowment will fuel the prosperity of our country for generations” (Kosich). This is typical of the dogmatic neo liberal blindfold which hides the obvious role environmental sustainability plays in resource management.
Young men died so that future generations of British would be more prosperous. The environment has now been cast as a pawn, its casualties seen as sacrifices in the tunnel vision of projected economic growth.
Just as the flame thrower was invented as war threatened to exhaust itself in deadlock, oil has literally been squeezed out of sand due to the increasing instability of Middle Eastern supply. Each day in operation, 1.8 billion litres of potable water are used to purify bitumen from the Alberta tar sands, and, since the beginning of this venture, 30 000 km2 of the Boreal Forest has been cleared. If they are developed to the level projected, they will be responsible for almost half of all carbon emissions in Canada (Stop the Tar Sands). Such ‘innovations’ would have been - previous to the context that begat them – utterly inconceivable. However Canadians, trusting in and dependent on the dominant paradigm of the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, have come so see such destructive ventures as progress.
Robert, however, could not see the mechanised attrition of warfare as progress. The innocent lives caught in the cross fire are to him unjustifiable deaths. He and his friend Rodwell bring these creatures to the sanctuary of the 'stained glass dugout'; "There was a whole row of cages....Birds, Rabbits, Toads and things....They [were] resting. [They were] all injured.That's [a] sort of hospital (Findley, 85-86)." Together they shelter and care for and the refugees they find blown out from destroyed trees and burrows.
This pair can be compared to the work of NGOs such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, campaigning against the current corporate mentality that has trickled down into the minds of the average constituent. Clearly, the message of such organisations will be drowned out if attention is not gievn to their appeals.Eventually Rodwell dies of his compassion for the helpless creatures who have been dragged into warfare. He commits suicide after men desensitized by warfare force him to watch the murder of a cat. Rodwell, like Ross, cannot live if it means resigning to a world order won by unfeeling brutality. It was not the Kaiser or the King who killed him, it was the ordinary men and their adoption of the designs of officials. Afterall, "It is the ordinary men and women who determine who we are (p.12)."And ordinary men and women have accepted the Tar Sands. The stirring of individual thought and conscience has been suppressed by the collective acceptance and apathy toward the way things simply are.
Just as the debate on Robert's actions should instead focus on the a retrospective analysis of the factors which drove Canadians to the killing fields, the attention placed on "fringe" environmental activists should be shifted to the oil fields against which they are campaigning. Humans are just like the rest of nature in striving for survival, which in a capitalist context, is manifest in ‘ensuring’ the prosperity of future generations at any environmental cost. Findley warns us that this blindingly selfish urge - when manipulated by a government concerned with its own preservation - will ironically be our downfall.
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2 comments:
This is an incredibly insightful and deciphering piece of formal analysis- through what seems to be a difficult narrative style, the connections are made in history and present day dilema. I wonder though, why is it so important that this kind of novel; this kind of narrative; this kind of portrayal be paid attention to? In turn, what makes uncovering the ironies concerning government and nature so illuminating in literature? Specifically Canlit?
This is a very passionate commentary on a very serious contemporary issue. I do not think, however, that you sufficiently identified or defended Findley's role as an artist whose purpose, in part, is social commentary. Too much oil sands, not enough Findley.
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