NADA IDENTITY Nada - dada - hobby horse.
The word Carousel means "little war" a game of horsemanship brought back by crusaders to France where it was transformed into a spectacle for the wealthy. Distressingly, anyone is allowed on a musical ride, to carry a flag and make similar pictures. What it's all about: Who's identity? Who is stealing identity? What is it? Who owns yours? You will observe in in my work frequent references to Canada's struggle with it's imaginary Germanic identity. Nada is Kanada without the Ka. Nada means "nothing at all" which is the material banks make money from. I like to pun. In Canada, back when it was a colony of the German royal family in England, a mounted contingent of soldiers was assembled to enforce the families "rights;" - mostly to prevent U.S. alcohol sales from undermining family profits, back when beavers and totem poles and drunks were more common. Enter stage right, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with "Up Hold The Right" as their motto. I was an adult before finally I realized " The Right " wasn't referring to the right thing to do. In Canada the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ( R.C.M.P. ), a totem pole, and a beaver came to symbolize the "Canadian" and up until very recently, Canada the sovereign nation, never questioned their identity as a subject of the German royal family business empire - which collapsed in 1922, 85 years ago. Never looking up from the dead mothers breast to notice she had died, Canada sucked away for emotional gratification ( belonging ) but, grew increasingly anemic culturally. No milk there. Art was never important or more accurately it's purpose never understood in Canada as the only vehicle of genuine identity. That is, material culture as opposed to genetic culture. England had no investment in Canada having it's own identity as this would cause control problems of the " you're not the boss of me" type. When ever the subject of art came up Canadian's would dutifully haul out their "Group of sevens" dust them off and hold them up proudly for the rest of the world to see what complete ninnies they actually were. This constant dusting off over time caused these rather drab dabblings to become highly polished and much more colourful than they ever were in real life. No one question the disparity between the calendar date and the dates on these paintings. Canadians over the years have made every attempt possible to remain a colony, anyone's colony... is just fine. Canadians themselves never questioned the appearance of the German queen's head on all of their currency until very recently and still have a great deal of trouble trying to figure out who they are. The identity crisis remains unresolved to this day, but certainly Canada is not a German, English or American state. What is a Canadian? Depends on the weather really. In winter Canadians spend most of their time in snow houses watching American T.V. and taking anti depressants. In spring after the snow and their houses melt they commune with mosquitoes and nature in an endless search for grubs and roots and live with the constant fear of being eaten by America. For a time some sold trees and wheat. Little else is known. |
The "identity crisis"
began back in the sixties ( not the 1860's when a quick survey of the situation
might have put us on the right track ) and wasn't much of a crisis at all.
Huge sums of money were allocated to cultural projects and Canadian history
was invented there and then. Museums opened and heritage sites popped up
everywhere across the land through the 1970's and 80's. Most of this "culture"
focused on the German royal's ( failed ) business empire and our "belonging"
to it. Almost all of this newly presented history focused on the dutiful
Scot's, French and Irish hacking a living out of the Canadian wilderness
for "Mother England." By the mid 1980's some of the other immigrants and
native people began to question this version of history and minor modification
were made to accommodate, when unavoidable, the concerns of others. By
the 1990's more and more accommodation requests came in and more accommodations
needed to be made to include a much broader group of histories. The term
"Multi - Cultural" popped up and gained great currency at this time.
Comically, some Scot and Irish Canadians still refer to themselves as W.A.S.P's
( white anglo saxon protestants ) as if they came from the father land.
Angle's and Saxon's are from east of the Rhine river. Land of the Angles'
(i.e. the people from the continental homeland of Angel in Schleswig, Germany).
Only a few Canadians subscribe to the German religion these days.
Identity crisis phase two: The existence of "other histories" created questions, about the German royal family's fail business as a focal point, and problems of what to do about too many histories. Clearly there was no cash left to tell so many different stories. The Queen's portrait, Mountie, beaver and totem pole thing was no longer acceptable material culture, but problematically, being a resource seller and not a producer of goods left little in the way of material culture to choose from. The cultural industry it's self failed to identify what the problem was being deeply embedded in the wasp holographic and utterly unable to distinguish sentimental pap from useful icon. Brief attempts were made to insert beer and hockey, then, trees and rocks, where once mounties and queen had been. Of these trees seem the best bet. Beer ( lagers and ales ) are both Germanic things and point at a subconscious attempt to keep the imaginary German identity going. Hockey ( violent competitive sport ) also points toward the competitive Protestant world view I. E. competition is most sacred, then deference to authority and last, all that religious mumbo jumbo. Rocks are very interesting and make pretty good mountains, but, half of Canada has no rocks at all. Trees on the other hand everyone can identify with. Trees are non partisan, passively standing through all sorts of weather doing not much more than making sugar and changing colours. Like Canadians themselves. Also like Canadians, there are hundreds of species of trees; a tree gives us the maple leaf on our national flag. Trees are a dwindling source of livelihood for many Canadians still, so, I'm ok with the trees thing. In the midst of this second " crisis" Canadians sold the rights to the R.C.M.P. identity ( Canada's former identity ) to Disney Land ( great joke ) who couldn't turn it into anything profitable ( one slap stick movie and a short lived sit com ) and sold it back ( greater joke. ) I think something in the Canadian psyche wished Disney Land would act as a new surrogate for long dead mother England that the "Mounties" represented and would do anything other than leave their protracted childhood behind, unclench mommies dress, grow up, put away the toys, clean and sharpen the weapons and except responsibility for self determination. "One segment of the population in Alberta actually believes they are American and they are. Alberta, historically, was settle by established American ranching and farming families, unlike the rest of the country. This by it's self is only demographics. What is new and interesting is that this minority group of largely Protestant ( the German Religion ) Camericans was recently elected to form a national National Government in Ottawa and until 4 years ago called themselves the "REFORM" party in honour of Martian Luther. German people are only a small minority in Canada as is the German religion in terms of actual practitioners ( %35 in Alberta, highest of all provinces ) and so, it will be interesting to watch the Canadian "identity hologram" for what happens next. Smart money is on "less arts." and more American flicker projected through a Protestant lens." No, Im not Catholic or Jewish or Muslim
or a Woman, or Native or Black or Asian or Gay or "Feeble minded" or Liberal
or any of the innumerable other people Protestants consistently attack,
I just like to watch is all. I'm watching for electoral "reformation" just
now. The same old tricks really.
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