Dystopia and the temper of our times.

• Author: Atkins, Michael
• Position: President's Note

OK, we are showing off a bit with 'dystopia' in the headline. It's cropping up a lot these days, so let's start with what it means.

"An imaginary place where people are unhappy and usually afraid because they are not treated fairly.... A society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease and overcrowding."

It's Greek.

Think back to high school and George Orwell's "1984" or Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." More recently, Margaret Atwood's offering, "The Handmaid's Tale," which made it to the Bravo TV network this year and has already been renewed.

Since the election of Donald Trump, these books are flying off the shelves again. People are unnerved about what it means to have such an odd, inexperienced, Bully President running off at the mouth daily on everything from chocolate cake to North Korea without coherence or discernible understanding of the consequences of his actions. Fake news leavened by a Fake President.

It could be expensive for us. Softwood lumber is nothing new, but "America first" manifestoes, border taxes, slashed corporate and personal taxes in the United States, the scrapping of NAFTA, along with potential nuclear destruction--well, it does not bode well.

It is going to take extraordinary dexterity to find stability in these crazy times. America is having a nervous breakdown and we are going to suffer. Not far behind will be Britain, which is getting a divorce without a clue of the penalties. There is no prenup.

This behaviour is unusual.

To me it is not just economic uncertainty driving these times and choices. It is rage--a disconnectedness between genders, between classes, between generations and between nations. We are connected to one another through Facebook and apps of our choice but often without purpose. It is soul-destroying.

The prospect of being without work in addition to this general malaise of world-weariness causes people to look for radical solutions. They want something different to fix what ails them. Often it is some kind of strongman who acts out their frustrations in some satisfying manner. He may not get them a job, but at least he hammered the media and insulted protesters.

In Germany, it was the humiliation of the First World War that left the population vulnerable to...