Our industrial world is an existential and binary one, which has turned each one of us into a specialized commodity. We have been reduced to units of production, evaluated by our costs and contributions to society. If you do not think this is so, think about the most common question we ask of others in society: what do you do? We have placed one another, ourselves in fact, in labelled boxes, simplifying our world to make it easier for us to comprehend our functionality.
Looking at each other through these industrial lenses, we appraise each other’s value to society through our titles and the roles that we play: doctor, lawyer, teacher, plumber, welder, the list can go on, but each one of these creates a predetermined set of circumstances that establish and limit our worth to one another, negating our true value, creating an inflexible understanding of a person’s significance.
Though the question seems cold and rude, maybe it would be better to ask, “Who are you?” None of us wears one hat, so to speak, as we play many roles within our lives. More importantly, we all have passions and talents that make us unique, that humanize us and make us who we are. If we look behind the labels, the titles, even the roles, we gain a better understanding of one another. If we do this, we can begin to see the unbounded possibilities and potentials of every one of us.
If we extend this view to the macro-perspective, moving from beyond the individual, the same rules apply. Here in Alberta, we have positioned ourselves as an oil and gas province, at the expense of all other industries, forgetting that there is more going on in this province. Whether it is forestry, agriculture, even tourism, these were all industries that pre-existed the discovery of oil in Alberta.
Every one of these industries contributed to Alberta’s economy, and each led to the development of secondary (manufacturing) and, more importantly, tertiary industries, including education, health care, government, and a service sector. Though these continue to be important contributors to our modern economy, we seem to think that we are only an oil producer, limited in what we can do.
The slow down in the oil and gas sector can have an up-side. Though the media presents the “doom and gloom,” as this sells papers, it may force us to re-examine who we are, as a province. And through this introspection we might learn that there is more to Alberta, and Albertans, than we have given ourselves credit for. More importantly, we are fortunate to have one of the youngest provinces in Canada, which we should be optimistic about, for we can re-envision ourselves, and our economy, to meet tomorrow’s needs. To do so, we need to step outside the box, discard the labels, for there is such potential in all of us, and this province.
John Kennair is an international consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.
