In Memoriam

Revolution, Industrial – 1750-2008.  Survived by his wife of 103 years, Assembly Line, and their many children, grand children, and great-great great-great grandchildren.  Mr. Revolution lived a long and prosperous life.  He was fond of large corporations and money.  True to his name, he “revolutionized” the way we live, breathe, work and think.  His influence touched almost every known corner of the world.  So far reaching, in fact, that those parts of the world in which he was most prevalent were prone to being labelled “industrialized”.  He was born in England amongst a time of exploration and political turmoil.  At his conception, almost a quarter of the world was still undiscovered.  But due to his unending energy and dedication, he made sure that England, and soon all of Western Europe would have to look elsewhere for the great deal of natural resources it now needed to feed Mr. Revolution’s grandiose appetite. 

This caused the greatest advancement of the “Age of Discovery”, marked by the mass exodus of people from the countryside to the city.  When the people got tired of living in large tenements and hovels in European cities, they streamed endlessly to the newly discovered territories and land that their nation “owned outright” on the other side of the Atlantic, to enjoy the “gold-paved streets and oodles of indoor plumbing” that this transatlantic Eden provided. 

Soon, factories spread like Philadelphia Cream Cheese all around the globe.  Cities that were once muddy encampments on forgotten riversides and ocean shores got new leases on life.  First to benefit was Manchester, England, which became a leader in both textile manufacturing and pottery.  Soon after, Birmingham, with its many glassworks took the helm.  Then, Liverpool, with its large importing/exporting empire soon became the hub of commerce and trade. 

Meanwhile, over in North America, a small, ruddy town described by a British conscript in 1768, as “the loneliest godforsaken place I have yet to set my eyes upon.  We often have the weevils that infest our hard tack and salt pork for our only companions.  We are worse off than Oliver Twist, if that book had been written yet”.   This town, more of a fort with a collection of small huts with thatch roofs, was known as “Fort Detroit”.  Soon it would play host to the most important aspect of Mr Revolution’s life.  You see, this is the birthplace of his wife, Assembly Line.

Miss Assembly Line introduced blinding speed to old Mr Revolution and he fell deeply and uncontrollably in love with her.  Spawned by the need to make a lot of things very fast for some reason, the Revolution all but abandoned its ancestral home of Europe.  The goods, the labour costs and the people were all cheap and plentiful in this land of opportunity called America (or New France, or Upper Canada, or Louisiana, or New Spain) Henceforth, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham would only be known as the birthplaces of many kick-ass rock and roll bands, and Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Akron, and Windsor, Ontario would now get all of the jobs and attention from Mr Revolution.

However, the honeymoon was abruptly ended as the nosy chambermaid known as “reality” knocked on the door, and Mr Revolution, now crippled by senility, had to be hospitalised.  After Mr Revolution’s favourite drink, “oil” became scarcer and scarcer, he couldn’t keep up with the changing times, and succumbed early last night to a lingering illness brought on by the stifling pain of gasoline withdrawls. 

There will be no funeral.  Flowers are to be sent to the head offices of General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford Motor Company, three of his favourite children.  Yes, he played favourites.

I will now let all of you grab a tissue and wipe your tears away.  This indeed is a sad day, but it isn’t all that bad.  Ideally at the end of a movie, the credits roll and the audience leave the theatre.  Except us here in Windsor are the actors who are going to have to live past the end of this great film, this blip on the great timeline called “The Industrial Revolution”. 

We are going to have to rely on creative people and learn to conjure up our latent sense of ambition that we are all born with in order to survive the coming era.  In this city we have the habit of relying on large corporations for help in times of trouble.  We’ve grown up with them, we’ve housed them and nurtured them when they needed us, yet they have all fallen away from us to easily.

We need to embrace other forms of commerce.  This includes the “service based” and “creative class” economies.  All over the industrialised world we tend to look down on service based and creative jobs.  That is due partly to the fact that we don’t have enough examples of service based/ creative careers in mind.

Examples are: owning your own business, research, information technology, small manufacturing, custom manufacturing, art, journalism, media, and a plethora of other disciplines and livelihoods that we could pursue.  We need to re-capture our self-starting spirit and realise that no large corporation is going to come here and save us.  That those of us looking for that red herring of another large, high paying employer coming to Windsor will have no choice but to stop staring at the ocean and do it themselves. 

On Scaledown radio today, I heard Chris bring up the question of a Visual Arts major at AgendaCamp, a young man named Justin who asked “Why should I stay in Windsor after I graduate?”  This made me angry on Justin’s behalf because he had to grow up in a city where his ambitions were looked upon as vacant pipe dreams, and that he would probably have to move away to another city to pursue his passion.  I look at Justin, and people like him not only as a creative person, but as a valuable resource.  Imagine if he could have a place to ply his trade?  This would undoubtedly cause a ripple effect and spur a generation of fine minds to inhabit our confines. 

I apologize to all of you for using the horrible phrase “Brain Drain” in a previous post.  I have eradicated that from my verbal lexicon, and I think we all should do the same.  Now is not the time for slogans and vacant words.  Now is the time to fall in love with Windsor again.  We need to stop arguing amongst ourselves and unite under a common goal. 

I promise you this, Justin; soon there will be a place where you and anyone like you can be who and what they want to be.  You won’t have to leave the city of your birth, looking for inspiration and employment, you will be able to live and work here in a creative hub surrounded by like-minded people. 

Just read this site, watch The Agenda, and see how many people are acting towards a better way of life in our great city and this country at large.  See how many of us, from all walks of life have come together for the greater good of our city.  Then see how far we go in the next few years.  The wheels are in motion, my friends.

This revolution will be televised, and we will have the lead role.