There are some industries whose value must be measured in more than dollars. Cultural industries help reflect, strengthen and challenge a place and people's identity and understanding of the human condition. They contribute to wellbeing and retain the dreamers and thinkers. They build morale. They make a place cool, which is a more fundamental and profound requirement in today's world than the glib nature of the words might make you think.
Halifax needs the Khyber. Cape Breton needs Gaelic language. Nova Scotia needs the film and theatre industries. Without these things, our collective soul dissipates. (We lose our shine, if you want to belabour the embedded unintentional reference).
Government is the collective way we express how we want our society to look. We, as a people, need to stop differentiating between ourselves and what government does ("What can ya do? the government just ruins everything.") because this is a democracy which means we are the government. We are the bosses*. We run this show. Sure, the formal performance review is only every 4-5 years, but in between times, we can give feedback, directly and individually by mail, email, telephone, web posts or in person (a bit harder!). Or we can get together in groups to provide it, by marching, petitioning, or organizing civil protests (strong feedback!).
BUT - to be effective, each of us needs to be clear on what kind of a city, province, society we want to live in. We need to get clear on what we value, and why. We need to talk to each other about that, because if you are the one saying you value debt-free government above all else, I would like to talk to you about diversity and compassion and humanness... and the evidence that exists about the effectiveness of austerity governance.
*This is not your cue to go cuss out the next government clerk or teacher you see by saying "I pay your salary!" -- because I pay their salary too, and our say is equal -- and I say, leave the front lines alone.
(Thoughts on the film, music and arts industry inspired by the world's loss of Bowie and the short-sightedness of our government.)
I have opinions on things and I like to talk about them.
