{"id":14255,"date":"2010-07-24T14:49:25","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T18:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=14255"},"modified":"2010-07-24T14:49:25","modified_gmt":"2010-07-24T18:49:25","slug":"frye-alert-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Frye Alert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"maccov06_28_10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

John Geddes in yesterday’s online edition of Maclean’s <\/em>reviews a list<\/a> of some of the best political books to come out of Canada, and then, out of left field, adds a book he thinks is missing:<\/p>\n

Still, casting an eye over their catalogue, I\u2019m reminded of how often the most penetrating political insights are found in books that we would not put on the politics shelf. I\u2019m sure examples would spring to any reader\u2019s mind. For me, Northrop Frye\u2019s slim The Modern Century<\/em><\/a>, published in 1967 to coincide with Canada\u2019s centennial, is the prime case of a book that made me think differently about politics, even though it\u2019s not about parties or elections or leaders.<\/p>\n

Frye writes about how hard it is\u2014given our age\u2019s incessant soundtrack of commercial and political spin, ad copy, PR hype \u00a0and on-message blather\u2014to keep from being bludgeoned into a passive stupor. Resisting\u00a0everything<\/em> in the air makes a person feel anti-social. \u201cWhen propaganda cuts off all other sources of information,\u201d he observes, \u201crejecting it, for a concerned and responsible citizen, would not only isolate him from his social world, but isolate him so completely as to destroy his self-respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thinking too much is stigmatized as snobbery. Let\u2019s say you read up on global warming and conclude that a carbon tax is the way to go; The Modern Century<\/em> prepares you to be dismissed as an out-of-touch elitist. \u201cDemocracy is a mixture of majority rule and minority right,\u201d says Frye, \u201cand the minority which most clearly has a right is the minority of those who try to resist a passive response, and thereby risk the resentment of those who regard them as trying to be undemocratically superior.\u201d<\/p>\n

A truly active, original response is almost always attacked. On the other hand, a phony sense of urgency is encouraged. We\u2019re bombarded with messages pretending to be important, like so many emails flagged with red exclamation marks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Geddes in yesterday’s online edition of Maclean’s reviews a list of some of the best political books to come out of Canada, and then, out of left field, adds a book he thinks is missing: Still, casting an eye over their catalogue, I\u2019m reminded of how often the most penetrating political insights are found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frye-alert"],"yoast_head":"\nFrye Alert - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frye Alert - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Geddes in yesterday’s online edition of Maclean’s reviews a list of some of the best political books to come out of Canada, and then, out of left field, adds a book he thinks is missing: Still, casting an eye over their catalogue, I\u2019m reminded of how often the most penetrating political insights are found […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-24T18:49:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/07\/maccov06_28_10.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Happy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Happy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Happy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/#\/schema\/person\/666be62a4e8014df67296baeeaf4db95\"},\"headline\":\"Frye Alert\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-24T18:49:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/\"},\"wordCount\":332,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/07\/maccov06_28_10.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Frye Alert\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/07\/24\/frye-alert-20\/\",\"name\":\"Frye Alert - 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