Have you ever heard the story of the woman who always cut the ends off her roast beef before putting it in the roasting pan? One day her little girl, watching her mom prepare dinner asked, "mommy, why do you cut the ends off the meat?" The mom stopped, thought about it for a minute and said, "I don't know, I guess because that's how my mom did it." Later that day, the mom called her mother and asked, "mom, why do you cut the ends off your roast?" Her mom said, "I don't know, I guess it's because that's how my mom always did it." Later that week, the grandmother of the little girl was visiting her elderly mother in the nursing home and had to ask, "Mom, why did you always cut the ends off roasts before you put them in the roasting pan?" Her mother, the little girls great-grandmother, said, "I had to, l didn't have a big enough roasting pan."
This simple and innocent illustration shows how easy it is to pass on values, and worldviews by blind trust. The colonizer's worldview has created the Canada we now live in. It's up to us to ask the "why" questions and begin to analyze our beliefs to determine how we came to understand them, if they are based in facts, and whether or not we still value them.
In our busy, ultra-focused lives we often blindly follow those who we believe to have our best interests at heart. Our parents, our partners, our spiritual leaders, and our government officials just to name a few. Parents often passed on the colonizer's vision of Canada by trusting leaders and people in positions of power blindly. And when I say "blindly" I mean that they trusted these leaders were doing the right thing, they trusted their integrity and intelligence. But they also trusted and believed in the underlying values of the colonizers worldview. Maybe it's time we looked critically at the colonizer's worldview, opened our eyes to other ways of being and knowing, and understand the flaw in making decisions based on blind trust.
Acting "blindly" is taking the easy way out. It's a way of shirking our duties to be educated and aware of the issues around us. To blindly follow is one of the most dangerous ways to live. I remember a poster on a grade 8 classroom wall which has impacted my entire life; "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything!" But how do we know what the "something" is that deserves our devotion? Or the "anything" is that deserves our scorn? How do we decide what to believe in and how to act accordingly? Who do we trust to teach us and lead us in a direction that is worthy?
Many of our role models raised with the colonizer's worldview were taught to be fearful of others and alternative ways of being and knowing. This type of thinking has created a very judgmental and exacting society which causes incredible stress on individuals who do not fit the mold, or have the same values. The colonizer's worldview is 'binary' in nature, meaning there is a "right and wrong" "black or white" way of being and thinking. Colonized society has placed values and expectations on how to live, act and think in order to be accepted and valued in society. If you don't live, act or think in a certain way you will be laughed at, judged, shunned, scorned, or worse.
The binary aspect of the colonizer's worldview also creates situations where we say one thing and do another, in essence it makes us hypocrites. Being hypocritical is endemic in a colonized society. It is really tough to live up to the exacting expectations of right and wrong, leaving many stuck feeling they must do things a certain way in order to be valued. Grey spaces between right and wrong aren't valued as spaces where growth occurs, therefore many feel pressured to say one thing and then follow their heart, or their desires, and do another.
We all know there are plenty of grey areas in our lives. Areas where we struggle emotionally and intellectually. These are situations we find ourselves in when what we were taught to believe as truth do not make sense any longer. At these times we are often unprepared to deal with the thoughts and feelings that surface. A worldview where things are either right or wrong leaves little room for speculation or contemplation, and even less room for change or challenging the status quo.
Elementary school is a perfect example of how this hypocritical, judgmental, binary thinking continues to be an issue. If the above wasn't true, there would be a lot fewer children going home from school feeling bad about themselves for what clothes or shoes they were wearing, who they chose to play with at recess, how their hair was cut or not cut, or what they had in their lunch box. The rates of anxiety disorders, and depression in our children and youth is staggering, and we can't stay blind to the causes of it any longer.
If children were better equipped with collaboration skills, critical and creative problem solving skills, and empathy and understanding for others, they would be able to work through the more difficult experiences of youth, and grow into adults who accept others that act, look or think differently as equals, not less than. The colonizer's worldview our children have inherited has limited their capacity in this area. Embracing other ways of knowing and being has been discouraged, and in fact, most of us were taught, either directly or indirectly, to be fearful of those who were different, believing our inherited views and ways of doing things are superior.
We need to stop the madness of placing expectations on our children to be, think, and act a certain way. We need to discourage the idea that there indeed is a superior way of being. Embracing differences and allowing people to contribute to society in a manner best suited to their particular skills, gifts and personalities would create a much happier, content society with much less mental health issues such as anxiety, stress, and depression. Just imagine if you were able to express yourself or make decisions about your life without fear of being negatively judged. How would that have changed your self-image, confidence, and creativity? What path in life would you have chosen to follow? How might you be contributing to society today?
We're standing at a crossroads. The colonizer's worldview is being questioned and challenged by those who were raised with it, and those who have stood on the periphery of it. Those who have embraced the grey areas are championing new ideas and ways of being. The country is slowly waking up to the injustices and inequities of the past. New demands are being placed on us to embrace change and shed the colonizer's worldview once and for all.
In the next part of this series we'll look at how now that we see the downfalls of the colonizer's worldview, we can't unsee it. We have an obligation to be critical and creative problem solvers, to work collaboratively with those that have different ways of being and knowing to create spaces and a culture that we can all be proud of. It's time to stop being fearful of differences and embrace diversity as a positive way forward for Canadian society. This is a different approach, a path that one will have to choose to explore, instead of being blindly led down.
Let's not walk blindly any longer, remaining ignorant of other ways of being and knowing. Let's move forward with our eyes wide open to the many wonderful opportunities that lie before us.
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