Kid Nation Segregation… Or Canamerico Conglomeration?

Barry and I were watching Kid Nation tonight — the reality show where kids up to 15 years old are working together to build an old-time town called Bonanza City, but also competing in teams. There’s no elimination on this one though… in fact, they’re all encouraged to stay till the end, but some can’t take the heat and leave (usually because they miss their families).

Here’s a party scene montage from another episode:

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The over-riding topic of tonight’s show seemed to be religion — and the kids were encouraged to hold some kind of religious service, with the big decision being whether to have a cross-denomination gathering or split everyone up into groups based on their beliefs.

Interestingly, many of the youngsters quoted facts about how religion is the root cause of many wars; for a moment they seemed rather clever and well-educated.

Then they started using that as an excuse as to why they should NOT mix based on religion. One girl said, “how can you expect people with different beliefs to be in the same room together?”

Umm… hello, are we not in rooms with people of different beliefs all the time? You probably work and/or live and/or play with people who have not only different religious beliefs, but different moral beliefs, different beliefs about sex and relationships, different beliefs on what’s fun, different beliefs on what success is, different beliefs on the most important things in life… different beliefs on EVERYTHING!

Should we all segregate ourselves then, in case we inadvertently start wars based on our beliefs?

(Hopefully you believe that that comment is hypothetical and sarcastic!)

I’m sure the kids weren’t thinking through the extent of beliefs and their power like I’ve laid it out, but they were still saying things like, “religions start wars… so if we come from different religions, we have to stay apart from each other.”

Religions start wars.

Wars cause separation between two different religious groups.

Therefore we should separate ourselves first??

Why waste time fighting when we can just get to the same end result quicker by making sure we’re all segrated into little groups???

Well, that’s the epitome of divide and conquer.

It’s always fascinated me how we do it to ourselves. In Toronto, where I grew up, I could never understand why there were Jewish Associations at school, and Greek Nights at dance clubs, and Italian Festivals, Caribbean Celebrations, Ukrainian Days, Finnish Fests, and so forth.

Also Chinatown, Greek Town, Little Italy, Little Portugal, and on and on.

Celebrating other cultures is cool. Dividing ourselves into little patches of real estate where nobody speaks the same language as anyone outside that little patch, and looking cross-eyed at anyone who dares enter that area who looks to be of a different cultural descent, is not cool.

By the end of the Kid Nation episode, the kids were choosing a library of religious texts as their reward for the week instead of a miniature golf course for everyone to play on.

Seeing as how every week so far they have wanted the frivolous fun item over the intelligent, useful choice of a prize, it seemed rather fishy that they would actually choose the library of books from all different religions.

I wonder if the producers of the show were closer by than they appear… not only making sure nothing goes severely wrong, but also making sure that certain agendas are shown — like how kids who have been taught that segregation is right can learn that different religions are valid too?

Okay, not bad… except what about the vastly more important message that we don’t need books to find spirituality? That religious texts are guidelines at best, and it’s what’s in your heart and soul that really counts?

That the only person who matters in your quest for religious enlightenment is yourself — and that how you interact with others (rather than segregating from them) is the true indication that you understand we’re all one… there is no “Them” out there (and in fact there’s no “out there”)… it’s only us?

Okay, never mind — that’s a little too deep for a prime time reality show.

But if you’re ready for it… check out Manifest Life or Masters of the Secret.

Now in the “real world”, there’s something going on that appears to be the opposite of segregation. It seems that behind our backs, our elected leaders have decided to amalgamate North America into one nation… I’m calling it Canamerico (Canada-America-Mexico).

Our friend and colleague Roger Haeske just posted an article about it on his blog… and he referenced a web page from The Hal Turner Show about it.

Hal Turner is apparently a super-right-wing, super-opinionated conservative with an online talk radio show.

Hal Turner’s site shows you shots of the new coin that’s apparently being minted in Denver as you read this… and some video clips from CNN as well.

Whether you agree with Hal’s opinions or not, the site makes an interesting read.

Now let’s think about what this new nation would be like…

Milk in bags in every store? (If you’re American, you probably don’t realize that 4L of milk is most often sold in bags in Canada, which have 75% less waste than jugs… I just assumed that was a normal thing until I couldn’t find bags of milk in the States).

People saying “zee” in Canada and “zed” in the US?

Official rulings on whether to use words like “elastic” or “rubber band”, “napkin” or “serviette”, “couch” or “chesterfield”?

More widespread use of Canadian inventions like zippers, insulin, garbage bags, TV cameras, walkie talkies, and basketball? Oh, wait… they’re already widespread.

Canadians hosting the American news? Starring in American blockbuster movies and hit TV shows? Canadians topping the US pop charts? Canadians touring the American comedy clubs? Oh, wait… that’s all happening already too.

Well, I can’t say for sure at this point whether this is going to be a good move or not… assuming it goes through, which it looks like it will.

After all, didn’t we have the North American Free Trade Agreement passed quite a few years ago? And what the heck did that do for us… it still costs an arm and a leg to ship books from the US to Canada or vice versa.

My only advice is to keep an open mind… and open ears and open eyes, to take in and be aware of what’s going on around us.

That’s always good advice, no matter what happens.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Heather Vale