Postmodernism: Its own
worst enemy

There came two declarations last week, from very different and utterly unrelated sources, but containing by implication the same message – namely that the assumptions behind our new society and new lifestyles are not true and therefore do not work.

The first came from Lucien Bouchard, who abandoned a federal Conservative government to become a Quebec separatist and now appears to be abandoning separatism to return to conservatism – not to the party, but the philosophy.

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Bouchard headed a panel of 12 Quebec economists, business leaders, politicians and journalists who issued what they described as "a wake-up call" to Quebec. Unless Quebec gives up some of its most cherished ideals, said their manifesto, "in a few short years, our dreams – or rather, not ours but our children's – will be brutally interrupted by a knock on the door when the bailiff comes calling."

Quebeckers work less than other North Americans, retire earlier, have the most generous social programs, enjoy by far the lowest university fees, and run the highest credit card debts in Canada. Interest on the provincial debt, at 16 percent of revenues, is also highest in Canada. And however distasteful, Quebec must improve the teaching of English, because university graduates who speak only French are "unacceptable" in North American society.

Worst of all, because of its birth rate, lowest in North America, Quebec is about to suffer the "demographic shock" of a chronically aging population. This means "more elderly people to care for and fewer people to pay taxes," said economist Pierre Fortin. "More money going out and less coming in."

Bouchard resigned from the Conservative government led by fellow Quebecker Brian Mulroney in 1990. As separatist premier of Quebec from 1996 to 2001, he routinely blamed Quebec's economic problems on its being part of Canada. This view, too, has radically changed. As panelist Joseph Facal put it: "Whether Quebec remains a province or whether it becomes a country we will still be saddled with a massive public debt." Quebec's universities and health-care system will still be under-funded, and its hydro-electric system still problem-riddled. Neither staying in Canada nor getting out will solve these problems. "There is no miracle cure."

Since these warnings apply almost as much to Canada as they do to Quebec, they gained much national attention. Quebec, however, has led the country in its embrace of the new and rejection of the old. In 1950, the province was a virtual theocracy, its government and the Catholic church imposing a heavy puritanism on all aspects of life. Families were huge and church attendance massive.

All this vanished in little more than a decade, and today Quebec has the highest divorce rate, highest illegitimacy rate, highest abortion rate and lowest church attendance rate in Canada. The new attitudes and assumptions, all endowed by the '60s, have produced the crisis the panel describes, simply because the assumptions don't work.

Oddly, on the same day in Toronto, another celebrated citizen came out with much the same distressing message. He is Neil French, worldwide creative director of WPP Group PLC, the world's second-largest marketing company, overseeing huge agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, IWT, Young & Rubicam and Grey Worldwide. French's skill as an ad man, said one news report, "is legendary."

He was addressing an advertising conference in Toronto, and a woman asked why there were so few female creative directors.

"You can't be a great creative director and have a baby, and keep spending time off every time your kids are ill," replied French. "You can't do the job."

"Somebody has to do it, and the guy has to do it in the same way that I've had to spend months and months flying around the world and not seeing my kid. You think that's not a sacrifice? Of course it's a sacrifice. But that's the job, and that's what I do to keep my family fed."

The following day, amidst the vast brouhaha raised by the teeming feminists in the ad industry, French quit WPP, neither apologizing nor retracting, because what he had said was true and pretty well everybody in the business knew it. Furthermore, that the same reality exists in a great many other industries is also true, however unmentionable.

Some unamendable sociological principle seems to be at work here. If mothers aren't wholly committed to their job, the job suffers. If they are, the children suffer. It may be politically incorrect, but that's the way the world is, and maybe we can't change it.