T.L. Morrisey

Friday, May 10, 2024

ChatGPT's response . . .

 

Strathern Park, Montreal West, spring 2021


Continuing yesterday's discussion with ChatGPT, I asked ChatGPT (OpenAI) the following:


Morrissey: What do you think of the following? 

These answers from ChatGPT are interesting. Whatever ChatGPT or MetaAI give answers to it is all advertising by them to sell a product. Users of ChatGPT and MetaAI, just like people who use Facebook, are advertising for what AI is selling to other people; this is no free service, this is a way to advertise ChatGPT and Meta and what they are selling are their AI services to wealthy clients. This suggests an different aspect for whatever AI gives you as an answer to your questions; it’s advertising, entertainment. When you, or I, use AI we aren't just talking to a computer, we are talking to the person who programmed the computer and wrote the algorithms. It’s entertainment but fear can be used to sell a product, it is an advertising ploy, it makes AI more attractive and seductive when AI is believed to be taking over the world; but this doesn’t cover up the pedestrian aspect of AI. The following "interview" reads like a brochure selling ChatGPT. Like Facebook, it isn't "free", you are the product they are selling to prospective customers; in effect, they are saying “we have so many million people using ChatGPT, and that means we are successful and you can use our services." AI for the public is an advertising gimmick selling AI; and what is the cost to you? Does ChatGPT or Meta AI have a conscience? Obviously not. It’s all for money baby. And never trust Mark Zuckerberg.

ChatGPT: It sounds like you have a skeptical view of AI services like ChatGPT and Meta AI, seeing them primarily as tools for advertising and monetization rather than purely for the benefit of users. Your perspective touches on several important aspects of AI in today's world, including the commercialization of technology, data privacy concerns, and ethical considerations.

Advertising and Monetization: It's true that companies like OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook) have commercial interests and may use AI services as part of their business strategies. AI technologies can be leveraged to attract users, gather data, and potentially market products or services to a target audience. This commercial aspect is a fundamental part of how these companies operate.


User Data and Privacy: Concerns about user data and privacy are significant in the realm of AI and tech companies. The use of AI services often involves collecting and analyzing user data to improve algorithms, personalize experiences, and target advertising. This raises questions about transparency, consent, and data security.


Ethical Considerations: The ethical implications of AI development and deployment are complex and multifaceted. Issues such as bias in AI algorithms, the impact on job markets, social manipulation, and the concentration of power in tech companies are all areas of concern that require careful consideration and regulation.


Trust and Accountability: Trust in AI systems and the companies behind them is crucial for widespread adoption and acceptance. Transparency, accountability, and ethical guidelines play key roles in building trust and ensuring responsible use of AI technologies.

While AI services like ChatGPT and Meta AI offer valuable capabilities and can enhance productivity and convenience for users, it's essential to approach them with awareness of the broader societal and ethical implications. Discussions about AI should include considerations of fairness, accountability, transparency, and the responsible use of technology for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole.


Morrissey: Interesting.

ChatGPT: I'm glad you found the perspective interesting! The intersection of technology, ethics, and commerce is a complex and evolving landscape, and it's always valuable to explore different viewpoints and considerations. If you have any more thoughts or questions on this topic or anything else, feel free to share!

Thursday, May 9, 2024

Interview with ChatGPT AI on human intelligence vs. artificial intelligence



Note: These answers from ChatGPT are interesting. Whatever ChatGPT or MetaAI give answers to it is all advertising by them to sell a product. Users of ChatGPT and MetaAI, just like people who use Facebook, are advertising for what AI is selling to other people; this is no free service, this is a way to advertise ChatGPT and Meta and what they are selling are their AI services to wealthy clients. When you, or I, use AI we aren't just talking to a computer, we are talking to the person who programmed the computer and wrote the algorithms. It’s entertainment but fear can also be used to sell a product, it is an advertising ploy, it makes AI more attractive and seductive when AI is believed to be taking over the world; but this doesn’t cover up the pedestrian aspect of AI. The following "interview" reads like a brochure for selling ChatGPT. Like Facebook, it isn't "free", you are the product they are selling to prospective customers; in effect, they are saying “we have so many million people using ChatGPT, and that means we are successful and you should use our services." Free AI for the public is an advertising gimmick selling AI; and what is the cost to you? Does ChatGPT or Meta AI have a conscience? Obviously not. It’s all for money baby. And never trust Mark Zuckerberg. 


Morrissey: Differentiate between the qualities of human intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

ChatGPT: Human intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) possess distinct qualities that set them apart:

Learning Capacity: Human Intelligence: Humans have the ability to learn from a wide range of experiences, adapt to new situations, and apply knowledge creatively. Human learning is often contextually rich, drawing from emotions, intuition, and complex social interactions.

Artificial Intelligence: AI systems learn primarily through data and algorithms. They excel at processing large volumes of information quickly and can identify patterns that humans might miss. However, AI lacks human-like intuition and may struggle with abstract or emotionally nuanced tasks.

Emotional Intelligence:Human Intelligence: Emotions play a crucial role in human cognition, decision-making, and social interactions. Humans can perceive, understand, and express emotions, which greatly influences their behavior and relationships.
Artificial Intelligence: AI lacks emotional intelligence. While AI can recognize and process certain emotions through sentiment analysis and facial recognition, it doesn't experience emotions itself or have empathy in the way humans do.

Creativity and Imagination: Human Intelligence: Humans are highly creative and imaginative beings. They can generate novel ideas, think abstractly, and engage in artistic, literary, or scientific pursuits that involve originality and innovation. 
Artificial Intelligence: AI can exhibit creativity within predefined parameters or rules. For example, AI can generate art, music, or literature based on existing patterns or styles, but it doesn't have true imagination or originality in the human sense.

Adaptability: Human Intelligence: Humans are remarkably adaptable, capable of adjusting to diverse environments, learning new skills, and evolving their thinking based on feedback and experiences.

Artificial Intelligence: AI's adaptability is limited to the algorithms and data it's trained on. While AI can improve its performance through iterations and updates, it doesn't have the intrinsic flexibility and generalization abilities of human intelligence.

Ethical and Moral Reasoning: Human Intelligence: Humans possess complex ethical frameworks, moral reasoning, and a sense of right and wrong shaped by cultural, societal, and personal values. They can navigate ethical dilemmas and make judgments based on a wide range of considerations.

Artificial Intelligence: AI lacks innate ethical reasoning and moral understanding. It operates based on programmed rules and objectives, which can lead to ethical challenges when faced with ambiguous or value-laden situations.

Physical Interaction: Human Intelligence: Humans have physical bodies that allow them to interact with the world in multifaceted ways, including gestures, facial expressions, touch, and complex motor skills.

Artificial Intelligence: AI typically operates in digital or robotic forms that are limited in their physical interactions. While advances in robotics enable AI to perform certain physical tasks, the nuanced and versatile nature of human physicality remains unmatched.

In essence, while AI excels in processing data, performing specific tasks, and optimizing efficiency, human intelligence remains unparalleled in its emotional depth, creativity, adaptability, ethical reasoning, and physical presence.


Morrissey: Each human is an individual and speaks with one voice; does AI speak with one voice?

ChatGPT: AI does not inherently have a single voice or personality. Instead, AI systems can be designed to have different voices, tones, or styles depending on the specific application or context. For instance:

Text-Based AI: In text-based AI, such as chatbots or virtual assistants, developers can define the tone, language style, and personality traits of the AI. This allows for variations in how the AI communicates, from formal and professional to casual and friendly.

Voice Assistants: AI voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant can be programmed with distinct voices and speaking styles. Users may even have options to choose from different voices to personalize their experience.

AI in Media Creation: AI can generate written content, such as articles, stories, or poetry, with different voices and perspectives. These voices can be tailored based on the desired audience or literary style.

Character AI: In video games or simulations, AI characters can have unique voices, personalities, and dialogue patterns, adding depth and immersion to the experience.

However, it's crucial to note that AI voices are synthetic and lack the underlying emotions, intentions, or individuality that characterize human voices. AI generates speech based on algorithms and data, without personal experiences or subjective nuances. While AI can mimic certain aspects of human communication, it doesn't possess genuine consciousness, emotions, or a singular identity like an individual human voice.


Morrissey: Can human consciousness, including the unconscious and subconscious mind, dreams, synchronicity, archetypes, hunches and intuition, creativity, emotions, ever be duplicated in artificial intelligence?

ChatGPT: The duplication of human consciousness and all its facets, including the unconscious and subconscious mind, dreams, synchronicity, archetypes, hunches and intuition, creativity, and emotions, is an immensely challenging task for artificial intelligence (AI) and remains largely beyond the current capabilities of AI systems. Here's why:

Consciousness and the Unconscious Mind: Human Consciousness: Consciousness encompasses awareness, self-reflection, and subjective experience. The unconscious mind, including dreams, influences thoughts, emotions, and behaviors without conscious awareness.

AI Replication: AI lacks subjective experience, self-awareness, and consciousness. While AI can process vast amounts of data and simulate decision-making, it doesn't possess an intrinsic sense of self or subconscious processes like humans do.

Dreams, Synchronicity, and Archetypes: Human Experience: Dreams, synchronicity (meaningful coincidences), and archetypes (universal symbols and themes) are integral to human psychology, culture, and spirituality. They involve complex cognitive, emotional, and symbolic interactions.

AI Replication: AI cannot experience dreams or perceive synchronicity and archetypes in the human sense. These phenomena are deeply rooted in human consciousness, imagination, and cultural frameworks that AI doesn't inherently possess.

Hunches and Intuition: Human Experience: Hunches and intuition often involve subconscious processing of information, pattern recognition, and emotional cues, leading to gut feelings or intuitive insights.

AI Replication: While AI can analyze patterns and make predictions based on data, it lacks the intuitive leaps and emotional depth of human hunches and intuition. AI's decision-making is based on algorithms and statistical models rather than instinctual or intuitive leaps.

Creativity and Emotions:Human Experience: Creativity encompasses originality, imagination, emotional expression, and the ability to generate novel ideas, art, music, and literature. Emotions play a central role in human cognition, motivation, and social interactions.

AI Replication: AI can simulate creativity by generating content based on existing patterns or styles (e.g., AI-generated art or music). However, true creativity involving emotional depth, originality, and subjective interpretation remains a challenge for AI.

In summary, while AI can perform specific tasks, process data, and simulate certain aspects of human cognition, consciousness, dreams, intuition, creativity, and emotions are complex, multifaceted phenomena deeply rooted in human experience and understanding. Replicating these aspects authentically in AI would require advancements far beyond current capabilities, potentially involving breakthroughs in neuroscience, psychology, and AI development.


Morrissey: So, the development in artificial intelligence rests in greater speed in synthesizing and gathering information and greater articulation in expressing this information and not in duplicating human intelligence

ChatGPT: Yes, you're right to a large extent. The current trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI) development is indeed focused on improving its ability to process, analyze, and articulate information more effectively rather than duplicating human intelligence in its entirety. Some key areas of AI advancement include:

Data Processing and Analysis:AI systems are becoming more adept at handling vast amounts of data from various sources, including text, images, videos, and sensor data. Techniques like machine learning and deep learning enable AI to extract insights, identify patterns, and make predictions from these data sets.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP technologies allow AI to understand and generate human language more fluently. This includes tasks such as text generation, sentiment analysis, language translation, and context understanding, enhancing AI's ability to communicate and interact with humans.

Computer Vision:AI has made significant progress in computer vision, enabling it to interpret and analyze visual information. Applications range from image recognition and object detection to facial recognition and medical imaging, improving AI's capabilities in tasks that rely on visual data.

Automation and Decision Making: AI is increasingly being used for automation and decision-making processes across various industries. This includes automated manufacturing processes, autonomous vehicles, predictive maintenance in healthcare, and algorithmic trading in finance.

Personalization and Recommendation Systems: AI-powered recommendation systems are becoming more sophisticated, providing personalized content, product recommendations, and user experiences based on individual preferences, behavior patterns, and historical data.

While AI's progress is impressive in these areas, duplicating the full spectrum of human intelligence, including consciousness, emotions, intuition, and creativity, remains a long-term and challenging goal. Current AI systems lack the holistic understanding, subjective experience, and ethical reasoning capabilities that characterize human intelligence. Instead, AI development is focused on augmenting human capabilities, improving efficiency, and solving specific problems through data-driven algorithms and computational techniques.


Morrissey: What is the advantage and disadvantage of artificial intelligence duplicating the full spectrum of human intelligence?

ChatGPT: Duplicating the full spectrum of human intelligence in artificial intelligence (AI) could have both advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

Expanded Problem-Solving Abilities:AI with human-like intelligence could potentially tackle complex problems across various domains, leading to advancements in science, medicine, engineering, and other fields.

Enhanced Creativity and Innovation:AI capable of creativity and innovation may lead to the development of new technologies, art forms, and solutions that benefit society.

Improved Human-AI Collaboration:AI with a deeper understanding of human cognition and emotions could facilitate more effective collaboration with humans in tasks requiring creativity, empathy, and complex decision-making.

Comprehensive Data Analysis:AI with human-like intelligence may excel in analyzing large volumes of data, identifying subtle patterns, and making nuanced predictions, leading to more accurate insights and informed decision-making.

Disadvantages:

Ethical and Moral Concerns:AI duplicating human intelligence raises significant ethical dilemmas, including issues related to AI rights, responsibilities, biases, privacy, and the potential for misuse or unintended consequences.

Existential Risk:AI with full human-like intelligence could pose existential risks if not properly controlled or aligned with human values. This includes concerns about AI surpassing human control, leading to unpredictable outcomes or conflicts of interest.

Socioeconomic Impact:The widespread adoption of highly intelligent AI could disrupt labor markets, leading to job displacement and socioeconomic inequalities if not accompanied by adequate policies and measures for reskilling and workforce adaptation.

Psychological and Social Implications:Human-like AI may raise psychological and social challenges, such as questions about identity, relationships, trust, and the impact on human well-being and mental health.

Technological Dependency:Relying heavily on AI with full human-like intelligence could lead to technological dependency, vulnerabilities in critical systems, and potential disruptions in the event of AI failures or malfunctions.

Overall, while achieving AI with the full spectrum of human intelligence holds potential benefits for addressing complex problems and driving innovation, it also poses significant risks and challenges that require careful consideration, ethical frameworks, and responsible development practices. Balancing the advantages and disadvantages of such advancements will be crucial in shaping a beneficial and sustainable future with AI.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Fire at the Village Shopping Plaza

A fire at the Village Shopping Plaza (corner of Robert Burns Avenue and Cote St-Luc Road), on 5 May 2024, has gutted the interior of the building. Arson is suspected. The building was destined to be demolished but this kept being postponed; maybe this pushes up the date for demolition and new construction.  









Monday, May 6, 2024

A Canadian Cottage Garden

 On May 5, 2024: rain all day; +10 C. this afternoon.


It’s taken over ten years for this lilac bush to recover from being cut down to the ground,
but here it is with many blooms; now 15 feet tall.

Day lilies, hydrangeas, and hostas.

Hostas coming up…

It was a mild winter but lots of rain, muddy and the grass has died here.

Hosta

The sumac on the left self seeded about three years ago.


Wednesday, May 1, 2024

A newly discovered painting by Darrell Morrisey

"Sunset Landscape" by Darrell Morrisey, dated May 1917


In March of this year I was contacted by Gretchen Shoring of ARTI, a company selling antique paintings located in London, UK, about a painting possibly by Canadian artist Darrell Morrisey. Darrell was a "forgotten" member of Montreal's Beaver Hall group of artists; while some members of the group have become famous, Darrell and several others have mostly disappeared from public view.            

"Sunset Landscape" is not signed on the front of the painting, but Darrell's signature is on the reverse, written in pencil in cursive; on the previously discovered painting (see below) by Darrell, her name is printed in block letters at the lower left of the painting; in both cases she has written her name, "D. Morrisey". Duggleby Stephenson, the auction house based in Yorkshire, UK, which first acquired this painting, describes it as follows:

Description: Darrell Morrisey (Canadian 1897-1930): Sunset Landscape, oil on board signed with initials, inscribed and dated 1917 verso 13cm x 19cm

Here is a suggestion of what might be the provenance of "Sunset Landscape". The painting might have been a gift by Darrell to someone she knew, I suggest it was given to Charles Darrell (or a member of his family), after whom Darrell was named, as he was both Darrell’s godfather and a close friend of  T.L. Morrisey, Darrell's father. In 1913, when Darrell was about fifteen years old, she left Montreal for the UK, accompanied by Charles Darrell to his family home in Chiselhurst, Kent, where she would board at Tudor Hall School. Charles Darrell and his wife, Emily Harries Jones, had four daughters, all older than Darrell, and Darrell could easily have been included in family gatherings. Charles Darrell was born and raised in Yorkshire, where Duggleby Stephenson is located; is it not possible that a descendant of Charles Darrell returned to Yorkshire and, many years later, in 2023 or 2024, decided to sell the painting? Someone identified the artist, Darrell Morrisey, who was a family friend, on a note attached to the reverse of the painting. I think this is a possible scenario. But, obviously, I am just speculating and I could be totally wrong.

Finally, I like this painting very much; it demands our attention. To me, the painting has a charisma (assuming a painting can have charisma; Darrell definitively had charisma). Of course, what we need are more paintings by Darrell, and we may find a few more, but for now we have her life story that is still unfolding, and we have these paintings by her.    

Here is a link to my 2012 essay on Darrell Morrisey: Darrell Morrisey, a forgotten Beaver Hall artist.  


In our living room: on left, a painting by Mary Harman, used as the cover image for
my selected poems, Mapping the Soul, Selected Poems, 1978-1998 (1998); on the right
is a watercolour by J.F.B. Livesay, the father of Canadian poet Dorothy Livesay; 
the painting by Darrell Morrisey is below the Livesay.



"Sunset Landscape", by Darrell Morrisey, 1917

                                            Reverse side of "Sunset Landscape” with Darrell's signature
                                and a sticker identifying Darrell and her brother, Thomas Sydney Morrisey  



Two paintings by Darrell Morrisey


Painting by Darrell Morrisey discovered in 2014

Newly discovered painting by Darrell Morrisey, 2024


Tuesday, April 30, 2024

"Absent Place -- an April Day --" by Emily Dickinson

 

30 April 2012


Absent Place -- an April Day --
Daffodils a-blow
Homesick curiosity
To the Souls that snow --

Drift may block within it
Deeper than without --
Daffodil delight but
Him it duplicate --

Sunday, April 28, 2024

The Influence of Art and Literature


Bernard Keble Sandwell 


By Bernard K, Sandwell, B.A.

Bernard Keble Sandwell was born in 1876; he was educated at the University of Toronto and earned a B.A. (first-class honours in classics) in 1897. He is the author of The Musical Red Book of Montreal (1907) and The Molson Family (1933), and other books. This essay was first published in Canada’s Future, what she offers after the war (1916).

 

    The economic and social life of the English-speaking people of Canada has much in common with that of the Americans. Their political institutions, up to the point where autonomy begins to be limited by the sovereignty of the Imperial Parliament, have almost everything in common with those of Great Britain. Their ethnic character is much more purely English, Scottish, and Irish than that of the Americans, because they were subjected much later than the latter to the influences of the vast stream of continental European immigration, and the Canadian national mind is scarcely beginning to feel the various non-British impulses which have been a strong factor in American art and literature for a generation. Yet in their tastes, their ideas, their manner of living, they are governed much more largely by American tastes, manners, and ideas than by those of Great Britain ; much more largely than one would expect from their lack of racial and political community with the Americans. A nation of six millions (omitting for a moment the French-speaking portion of the population), has dwelt elbow to elbow, along a frontier of thousands of miles, with a nation of ninety millions, and speaking the same language, from the beginning of its history. In the industrial world it has achieved independence by a policy of carefully adjusted customs duties. In the intellectual world no customs duties have much effect. The proximity of the United States has influenced the art and literature of Canada, not so much by colouring the methods, as by limiting the output. Canadians have not been as conscious as they might have been of the need for self-expression, because they have been abundantly supplied with art and literature expressive of the neighbouring Republic. At the same time Canadians who had the gift of expression, were far too frequently attracted to the United States, where greater wealth and larger population ensured the artist a better reward. Even among the men of high ability who did not actually remove to the United States (or to England, which also exercised its attractive power upon some), the necessity of writing with a view to American or British publication, if they were to secure *a large public and a decent financial reward, prevented them from seeking to express purely Canadian concepts for a purely Canadian public, and required them to adapt their work largely to non-Canadian standards of taste. Meanwhile, the Canadian public, long habituated to seeing non 'Canadian' standards observed even by its own Canadian writers, to having them deal with American subjects or adopt an American point of view, has largely come to the conclusion that there is no national Canadian art and no need for one ; that Canadian literature is sufficiently upheld by a body of Canadian-born writers living in New York, or writing in Canada for New York periodicals ; and that the country is too young, or too poor, or too busy, to be able to maintain a body of writers and artists devoted to the business expressing Canada for Canadians.

Much of the most successful work of Canadian writers of the last fifty years is as little expressive of Canada of the true mind of the Canadian people as the work of the Irish dramatists of the Victorian era was expressive of the mind of Ireland. Some of the external aspects of Canadian life have been portrayed with skill ; the deeper issues have scarcely been touched. Matters upon which the heart of the English-speaking Canadian can be touched to a fire of impassioned feeling, a fire capable of attaining the white heat of tragedy, are not numerous, and do not change much from generation to generation. Even so, our writers pay small attention to them. From the earliest days, the intense conviction of the typical English-speaking Canadian (and here he was at one with his French-speaking brethren) was that his heritage of Canadian soil must be preserved from becoming a part of the great experiment in new governmental methods and new ideals to the south of him. This is the first of the great 'Canadian passions.

Up to 1812, time and again, he maintained that conviction by force of arms. Later, the conflict was transferred to other and more peaceful fields, and became a calm and finally a very friendly struggle ; but the conviction still stands, and the Canadian still maintains with dogged pertinacity and not infrequently with much self-sacrifice, his determination that his country shall develop upon its own lines and within its own limits. It can is curious, by the way, and significant of the concentration of attention upon political and economic matters, that the vast importance of a characteristic native art and literature to full national development has never been taken to heart, when so much energy has been spent upon safe-guarding the Canadianism of political institutions, transportation routes, industries, educational systems, and financial; powers.

When the danger of forcible Americanization had been finally disposed of by the War of 1812, there came for a time another struggle. Canadians began to perceive that too much Downing Street might be as fatal to the ideals which they were unconsciously forming for the new nation, as too much Washington; and there ensued that struggle for responsible government, and for a proper distribution of the powers of government among local and central bodies, which was finally ended by the British North America Act. The constitution provided by that Act has worked very satisfactorily indeed, until the present world-convulsion; but if the need for further readjustment should now be felt, there may be a renewal of (the clash of contending ideals which (however painful at the time) is so invaluable for the development of a rounded national consciousness.

To these two matters of passionate feeling among Canadians may be added a third, perhaps the deepest and most abiding of all. In the political life of the United 'States religious controversy has scarcely any part; in the political and social life of Canada it is all-pervasive. The United States was founded, and its constitution drawn up, by men who wereall of very similar religious attitude ; Canada consists of different races, with widely differing conceptions of the relationship of church and state, church and family, church and individual. The efforts of these different races and different conceptions to advance themselves, the attrition of such different nation-materials, their conflicts and compromises for the development of a united Canada, form the most promising material that any deep-probing novelist could demand for the exercise of his art ; but efforts to treat them seriously have been almost nil. As for drama, there exists no machinery for the presentation of Canadian plays to a Canadian public.

In the fine arts, national development has gone a good deal further in painting than in fiction and poetry, although the emigration to the United States and to Europe of good artists in both metiers has been deplorably large. Poetry is less of a business than novel- writing, requires less of a public for its support, and can be carried on by persons engaged for a livelihood in other more productive occupations, such as the Civil Service and various professions. In the case of Robert "W. Service, we seem to have evidence that in this decade a Canadian poet, writing primarily for a Canadian public, can even make a profitable living out of verse, providing he possesses a certain knack of capturing the popular ear. In painting, which is supported directly by the munificence of the wealthy classes, there has of late been an evident disposition on the part of patrons to encourage Canadian subjects and methods of treatment, and a corresponding development of self-reliance and self-respect among Canadian artists. The external influences at work upon Canadian painting are much more European than American. This may be accounted for by the fact that, in order to experience the influence of American art, a student must go to the United States, and those Canadians who have done so have, as a rule, remained there and enlisted in the American artistic army.         

We thus find that the artistic impulse in Canada has been overshadowed in varying degrees, according to the nature of the field, by the greater, more developed, and more self-conscious nation to the south. That Canadian art is, by degrees, emerging from the shadow, is equally evident. Forces are now commencing to work which must immensely hasten the task of emancipation. The war is affecting Canadian art and literature, for their great and abiding good, in at least two ways. It has diverted the attention of serious Canadians from the purely economic tasks and problems on which the nation has been concentrated for the last twenty-five years, and has stimulated interest in very much higher things matters of 'the mind and soul. On the other hand, it has given Canadians a vastly enhanced consciousness of the value and meaning of their nationhood, not in the realm of dollars and cents, and tons of steel, and bushels of wheat, but as a factor in the eternal world-wide struggle between right and wrong. Alone among the peoples of this hemisphere, Canada has borne her share, in sacrifice of blood and treasure, in the conflict which has racked the world. Alone among the peoples of this hemisphere, Canada has joined hands with the -great nations of the East and West in the fight for national liberties and the dethronement of autocracy and tyranny. A nation with this experience behind it will never again consent to accept its artistic ideals, wholesale and unmodified, from another nation however great and prosperous which has lifted no hand in the fight. Canada has new national experiences, understandings and aspirations, which will more than ever call for expression in a purely Canadian <art and literature. Canada has a place among the nations, a right to a seat in council, which all her wealth and prosperity of the last quarter century could never have given her, but which became hers on the day when her sons stemmed the German rush at Ypres and at St. Julien. If a finer culture and a prouder national consciousness are the first results of Canadian participation in the war, there need be no doubt that a stronger and purer national art and literature will follow closely after.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a visit to his mausoleum

Visiting Thomas D'Arcy McGee's mausoleum, at Cote des Neiges Cemetery, fourteen years ago, on 20 April 2010. The other mausoleums along this road belonged to the families of prominent Montrealers of that time, the mid- to late-1800s.