Hope Within When Life Doesn’t Turn Out as Expected
It wasn’t what the American people expected. Maybe it wasn’t even what Donald Trump expected – his hope within realized in his ascension to the presidency after a highly unpredictable election race in November 2016; stunning but no less than the Republican Party sweep of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
As I sit and write this post it is the beginning days in the first hundred in which the newly inaugurated President promises to make his mark on the country. He certainly made his mark in getting elected. I recall the first reactions. When the election results came in Hillary Clinton’s shell-shocked Democrats had a lot of company. Many Canadians and most of the world had for months watched from the sidelines the increasing vitriolic and harsh campaign. Barely could Canada believe what was happening to their neighbour south of the border. It seemed the American population had gone mad – the country polarized into two distinct attitudes starkly dividing the nation; the magnitude reminiscent of the civil war but without the canons.
“God writes straight with crooked lines.”
It was a commentary from a radio interview leading up to the election. The interviewed cited that when he was a student this was one of his Jesuit school teacher’s frequent sayings. Certainly as Donald Trump campaigned his gaining popularity seemed at odds with an election platform driven by xenophobia, racism and misogyny. It was gob-smacking incredulous for millions when he actually won. Yet there is some small hope expressed in the truism “writing straight with crooked lines” because life doesn’t turn out as expected. And it is likely two iconic events in 2016, Brexit* and the US Presidential election, are products of this failure.
Hope Within for A Changed World
I am a Canadian but like many Americans I grew up in a middle-class home during an era where the expectation was that if you got an education you were pretty much assured a decent job. A good job meant that if you worked hard you would likely progress with your employer. Steady increases in wages assured you had the means to support your family, buy a house, have modest vacations and save for retirement. This is was what we expected.
But the world changed – with the dawn of the information age the planet shrunk. Nations like the US and England could no longer keep their super-powerhouse positions as traditional manufacturers. 
The global economy is the new marketplace. To provide affordable goods to their own citizens companies must become more competitive: robotics replace labour and/or lower labour rates sourced elsewhere – outside of their borders. In a catch-22 labour-intensive domestic manufacturing jobs trade for imported lower cost goods. Not yet able to pivot with the changing times the North American middle class start to slip, life as expected becomes unexpected.
Brexit and the US Presidential election have the overtones of a resistance movement – a kicking-back at the paradigm shift that is sweeping our world; to revert to the days when life felt secure. But that was an illusion then and it remains an illusion now.
Every age has its paradigm shifts, but in the past they tended to evolve more gradually and over greater lengths of time. With technological advances and the information age these shifts accelerate. What once may have occurred over a person’s lifetime now occurs almost every 15-20 years and the gap is narrowing. For many, the scary part is there is no turning back. The genie is out of the bottle and it can’t be put back. But that doesn’t stop people from trying.
To be continued in the next post.
What were the expectations inculcated in your upbringing? What was your hope within when you matured and moved into adulthood?
*Brexit is an abbreviation for “British exit,” which refers to the June 23, 2016, referendum whereby British citizens voted to exit the European Union. The referendum roiled global markets, including currencies, causing the British pound to fall to its lowest level in decades. www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brexit.asp.