Jordan Peterson: Open the damn country back up, before Canadians wreck something we can’t fix

 

From The National Post:

I spent more than three hours on the phone this weekend trying to get through to the online security department of one of Canada’s major banks. One of my accounts was shut down (because I had the effrontery to sign in from Alberta — an event too unexpected for the bank’s security systems). I was placed on hold interminably, subjected all the while to the corporate world’s idea of music (to soothe me). I was then offered a call-back, which I duly received, 45 minutes later. Then I was placed on hold again, and again, and again. This all occurred after my patience had already been exhausted in the aftermath of trying to fly in Canada. 

Like so many Canadians, I have been unable to see many of the people I love and who are tolerant enough to return the sentiment for nearly two years. Lockdowns. Restrictions. Limits on personal and social gatherings. Precautions. Precautions. Precautions. 

But everything had opened enough, in principle, so flights for such purposes were — in principle — once again possible. My wife and I therefore took the opportunity on the last day of 2021 to fly first to Comox, British Columbia, and then, several days later, to our joint hometown of Fairview, Alberta. 

However, the airline we had arranged our flights with cancelled/delayed all six flights we had scheduled. Furthermore, they had no staff available in one entire wing of Edmonton’s airport. This made rescheduling prohibitively difficult. 

We were delayed by one full day travelling to British Columbia, and then another day travelling to Alberta (and there were further delays on our way home to Toronto). This took quite a chunk out of an eight-day trip. 

All this from an airline that not so long ago was a model of efficiency. But there are empty shelves in the grocery stores here in Fairview. The supply chain that provides our food — just in time — are severely stressed. While I was here, I spoke with a local restaurateur who operates the pizza place I worked in forty years ago. She is barely hanging on. This is true of most local businesses. I was on the phone for three hours trying to sort out a minor banking issue, after being delayed for a full day while flying, after having been delayed in a similar way only four days before. 

And, because I am an entitled Westerner, accustomed to my privileges, I got whiny about it. I have a banker that takes care of my affairs, and I sent him and his associate a string of complaints about the service I was receiving. They wrote back, apologetically, and told me that they’re barely able to function with the COVID restrictions, the attendant staff shortages (also caused by illness) and their inability to attract new employees — a problem besetting many industries at the moment. 

We are pushing the complex systems upon which we depend and which are miraculously effective and efficient in their often thankless operation to their breaking point. Can you think of anything more unlikely than the fact that we can get instant trouble-free access to our money online, using systems that are virtually graft- and corruption-free? Just imagine how much work, trust and efficiency was and is necessary to make that a reality. 

Can you think of anything more unlikely than fast, reliable and inexpensive jet air travel, nationally and internationally, in absolute safety? Or the constant provision of almost every consumer good imaginable, in the midst of plentiful, varied and inexpensive food? 

These systems are now shaking. We’re compromising them seriously with this unending and unpredictable stream of restrictions, lockdowns, regulations and curfews. We’re also undermining our entire monetary system, with the provision of unending largesse from government coffers, to ease the stress of the COVID response. We’re playing with fire. We’ve demolished two Christmas seasons in a row. Life is short. These are rare occasions. We’re stopping kids from attending school. 

We’re sowing mistrust in our institutions in a seriously dangerous manner. We’re frightening people to make them comply. We’re producing bureaucratic institutions that hypothetically hold public health in the highest regard, but subordinating all our properly political institutions to that end, because we lack leadership, and rely on ultimately unreliable opinion polls to govern broadscale political policy. I’ve never seen breakdown in institutional trust on this scale before in my lifetime.