Ottawa Diary: The Myth of normal in Canada and Global North: By Fayyaz Baqir

A few days ago I received a podcast by a well-known activist Chris Hedges on Hungarian-Canadian physician Gabor Mate’s new book “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture”. The book narrates how success in the growth of income has led to toxic social relations, polarization, and mental illnesses. Mental illness and irrational patterns of development have persisted for such a long period that unjust and mental illnesses are now considered ‘normal’.

The book is a timely response to this myth of normal that is a major block in mobilizing public opinion against a system that is threatening the wellbeing of humanity and the planet we live in. This myth of normal now needs to be challenged across the globe.

In the global North success and wellbeing of a society is measured by the wealth generated during the course of a year. Not much attention is given to the cost of producing this ‘success’ in the form of degradation of natural resources, wasteful consumption, climate change, poverty, and inequality and insecurities created in society. The pressures created by this unjust and irrational system has had a major impact on the mental health of people, especially youth now known as generation Z.

The most important thing that Gabor Mate has pointed out is that we live in an interdependent world where everything is dependent upon everything else, and we cannot cure an illness we change the context that is producing that illness. Ironically traditional societies known as underdeveloped societies understood this idea very well. In Africa, this concept is known and practiced as Ubuntu. The same has been the case of many societies in the global South. Ubuntu means we rise and fall together. We produce and consume together. One person or group should not try to get ahead of others by depriving others of their share.

Loss of Ubuntu causes imbalance at the personal, social, and planetary levels. Conflicts generated by these imbalances have created a toxic culture. People are living in the tyranny of the past and do not see any sign of hope to resolve these conflicts amicably. Pain and anguish in the past influence how we deal with our failure, stress, and trauma. The pain is caused when we find out that we are not lovable. This trauma is very common in contemporary Northern societies. Trauma is the fracturing of the self. It can take the form of violence or not taking care of the needs of the people If one is not accepted as s/he is. This happens in childhood and recurs in adulthood. Indigenous people are the most traumatized. They are 5 percent of the population, 30 percent of traumatized people, and 50 percent of the imprisoned female population. Trauma is shame based view of one’s self. It takes the form of work pressure, multi-tasking, social media news updates, gadgets, meaningless conversation, and loss of meaning in life. It becomes painful to be in one’s own body.

All addiction is an escape from the pain. It is a response to shame based view of one’s self. Consumer society makes use of confusion between desires and needs. Desire is confused with needs. It creates false needs. People devote their attention to trivial matters and have no knowledge of things happening in life. Joy is outside this pattern of behavior. Society creates false needs and then creates an economy to meet these false needs at the cost of health and happiness. It depends on the pleasure principle. When trauma is not resolved at home it is recreated in society. Drugs help people not confront the emptiness inside. Some people have seen parallels between the experience in concentration camps and people suffering from anxiety.

Restoration of balance is simple and easy. It calls for knowing the difference between need and desire, freedom and comparison, self focus, and solidarity,