Ever wonder what the "Cheese-is-alive" French Professor might have to say about whether Quebec is a nation? I wonder if Ignatieff ever chatted to this professor before he launched his rash constitutional gambit?
Clotaire Rappaile is a marketing guru who was born in France but grew up in the US. He is hired by companies to find out what the "code" for products or places or things are in people's reptilian minds (the oldest of our three brains, and the one concerned with safety etc). Rapaille digs into what people think about something and then searches for what our lizard brain has in store regarding our impulses, needs and early memories about things (our imprints, in his lingo). These imprints are the ones which really drive us.
And he has delved into the minds of Canadians, trying to understand what we think about our country.
And his results are rather interesting, and should make Ignatieff stop and think a bit about that nation motion thingy he is pushing:
" Right now, most Americans are convinced that the nation is profoundly divided by this gulf between red and blue states. But you don't think it's that significant.
Well, there is a culture war, the nation is divided in many ways and so on. But the reality is that the differences are nothing compared to what we have in common. Especially compared to other cultures. There are more differences between Canadians than between blue and red state Americans. Americans may be in permanent search of personal identity, but the Canadians are in permanent search of a collective identity. As Canada, they don't know who they are. The French Canadians are not part of Canada and there are so many differences between Toronto and Vancouver that the people in Toronto say the people in Vancouver are part of California. The Canadians' anxiety is about how to survive as a country. A Canadian magazine had a headline that read, "If Canada Disappears Tomorrow, Would Anybody Notice?" (from Salon, article by Laura Miller entitled "In America, seduction is dishonest").
He thinks Canadians "are in a permanent search for a collective identity." And our anxiety is about "how to survive as a country".
What a motherlode Ignatieff has tapped in his quest to amend the constitution. Any wonder now why the reaction to Ignatieff's gambit is so strong? Ignatieff is challenging our basic search for a collective identity, by focusing on one province only, and in so doing is prodding our deepest anxiety.
Oops! Better back off, Michael. You are making us even more anxious ...
