Canadian Generosity Can Inspire Americans to Resist Authority

 I am an immigrant to Canada from The Netherlands, and cannot be more proud of my adopted country and its whole-hearted embrace of Syrian refugees and pride in being a multicultural nation.

I’m also a part-time resident of the United States and based on numerous discussions I have had with many Americans, as well observing the protests and reading sources from honest journalism, I believe the majority in the U.S. are more like Canadians than not.

In the research I have done in workplace dynamics, I have come to understand how people become entrapped in an authoritarian culture. Stanley Milgram, in the Perils of Obedience put it so well when he wrote, "...ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of mortality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority."

This is why it is so critical for people to unite against the shift to totalitarianism. My new book From Bully to Bull's-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire  directly addresses how everyone can provide leadership as described by Mohandes K. Gandhi when he declared,  "It is possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honor, his religion, his soul and lay the foundation for that empire's fall or its regeneration."

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America, What Have You Become?

Some recent articles reinforced my pride in being a Canadian. In the October 29- November 4 edition of The Economist the cover story “Liberty Moves North: Canada's Example to the World” outlined how “Canada is uniquely fortunate in many ways—but its liberalism and tolerance hold lessons for other Western countries.” 

USA Today reported, “The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a law that prohibits insulting or verbally abusing a public school employee in front of students violates the First Amendment.” This perplexing ruling makes it OK to bully and abuse employees, and—worse yet—do it in front of students during their most impressionable years.

Then there was the piece in The New York Times about Hamdi Ulukaya who employs resettled refugees in his Chobani yogurt factories. He’s now being targeted on social media by right-wing websites.

When you compound these examples with all of the bullying and hate mongering we are witnessing in the media in real time on prime time, Americans appear to want to normalize the abnormal. Again: thank God I am a Canadian!

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