Our Lord and Saviour

In jeans:

A Vancouver-based pundit for the arch-conservative Sun News Network, put on air last week to slam the mainstream media’s alleged fawning treatment of Trudeau, sounded as awestruck as a teen at a Justin Bieber concert after attending an event at Douglas Park in Vancouver on Aug. 4.

“He is like a rock star,” J.J. McCullough told a grim-looking interviewer who was clearly hoping for a more cynical assessment for viewers of the unabashedly pro-Harper government network. “I mean, he can barely move five feet without being swarmed by mobs of people wanting to, you know, take selfies with him.

When Princess Diana died the Queen Mother, a woman of the old school if there ever was one, dismissed the hordes of mourners as "hysterics." She was making a perfectly sensible point. Virtually none of the massive flower tossing crowds had personally known Diana, what they knew was a media distilled image. Some of the "hysterics" were, as a matter of probability, terrible people. They cared more about a flickering image on a television screen than the actual people in their lives. 

If we were to draw a Venn diagram of Justin Trudeau fans and Princess Diana mourners there would likely be a significant overlap. We live in strangely hysterical times. Never has the common man and women been richer, physically healthier or more blessed with material benefits. Never have they seemed so incapable of dealing with the vicissitudes of life. In the article there is mention of a Conservative voter  who, after a few moments in the presence of the Great One, is considering a vote for the Liberals. That might just be a courtesy. Then again this is behaviour I've seen at first hand.

Sadly I have been spared the privilege of meeting the Great One in the flesh. There is, after all, only so much happiness a sane man can take. I have met those who by great good fortune have been so blessed. Listening to their stories is quite fascinating. There is, in fact, a strange kind of rapture that seems to transfigure them. Most of these individuals are not religious except, perhaps, in the most shallowly ritualistic manner. Their descriptions, however, rival those of the saints upon encountering the divine presence.

This is more than my usual gest. With the decline of religion as a social force over the last century has come the rise of politics. The energy which previous generations devoted to the erecting of cathedrals has in more recent times been devoted to political activities. It's no coincidence that so many political activists display a strong puritan streak. It's the same psychological type expressing itself in a different social context. The lust for moralistic power is apparently eternal. 

Those on the Right have been amusing themselves since the elevation of Justin by calling him the Liberal Messiah. The joke stopped being funny when seemingly normal people started believing the hype. It helps that Justin is pretty. There is something in the human brain, or loins, that reacts well to an attractive face or figure. Women are more likely to believe a handsome man than an ugly one. Somehow the handsome man is better than we mere mortals.

Whatever element of the primal brain still working within us should, eventually, be overcome by the rational brain. The adult should over rule the child. Emotions giving way, if grudgingly, to reason. But this assumes there is a rational brain to intercede. What if there is no adult? What if there is only the man-child and woman-child?

There are, from what I have gathered, two types of Justin supporters. There are the fools who fall in love with the handsome and ageless looking man. Then there are the cynics who hope that Justin will be their stalking horse. I don't believe it to be an especially original observation to say that five percent of the population spends its days trying to manipulate the other ninety-five percent. May that be politics, media or even in corporate life. The typical executive, from my experience, is little more than a low-grade politician pretending to be an decision maker and leader. 

Asking what people think is the wrong question. People don't think. It's a polite fiction among pundits, amateur or professional, that in a democracy the people are always right. Saying flat out that the typical voter is ignorant, stupid and driven by emotions instead of reason would come off as arrogant. This blog is not so hindered. People feel far more than they think.

It is to the emotional brain that Justin appeals. The yearning to be lead and lied to. The need to be saved from one self. It's very hard to fight for freedom when so many people are calling for a leash. 

Comments

[Scott]

"The typical executive, from my experience, is little more than a low-grade politician pretending to be an decision maker and leader. "

I disagree. There is a difference, the executive is privately employed (or should be). Most politicians however work for the beneficiaries of the handout.

[Richard Anderson]

That's certainly true. I was actually referring to the personality type.

[John Chittick]

I prefer an analogy of The Spawn and Prince Charles rather than Diana as she was just a seemingly more innocuous lass with a more distant genealogical connection to royalty. The Queen Mother by that time could be excused by nature of her age and perhaps a legacy of G&Ts for ignoring that that same "hysteria" is what keeps the Monarchy from extinction. The Spawn is virtually royalty as he would be nothing were it not for the "hysteria" that anointed his Father, Canada's first native-born Queen.

The only similarity with Diana I suppose, is their profession as she had no ambitions beyond her family and charities. Charles, on the other hand, is a green, dhimmi twit, much more like the Spawn.