Walt was pleased to discover, just today, that there really is an Angus Reid. As in "Angus Reid, polling and market research guru". Mr. Reid is a Canadian, born in Regina SK on 17 December 1947. That makes him old enough to retire, and he can well afford so to do, having sold the polling company named after him for $100 million. But at only 67, he's far from ready to put down his clipboard and pencil. Last year, shaped by his early career as a sociology professor at the University of Manitoba, he founded the Angus Reid Institute, so he could conduct "investigative polling" on the issues of the day. He’s already spent almost $1 million of his own money on it, and takes no salary.
Why? Because, with media outlets, governments and academics drastically cutting their polling budgets, Angus Reid feels called to make available his own surveys on a host of social, moral, religious, cultural and political questions. He was inspired by his mother’s fascination with spirituality and philosophy, the Jesuits who educated him, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian who was executed for resisting the Nazis. Now Mr. Reid is ready to do some of his own "shit-disturbing". That's the way he puts it in "Angus Reid, unchained", an interview with Vancouver Sun's Douglas Todd. "Anything, in our view, is fair game," he told the columnist. "We rely on no corporation, government or other source of funding.... I’ve always wanted to have complete free rein in the research I do."
Mr. Reid says he's free, now, to look into controversial questions "without fear.” That’s because, unlike most other polling companies, he doesn't need to worry about offending or embarrassing corporate or political clients through his polling, which is based on sampling from a pool of 130,000 Canadians who have registered with the Angus Reid Forum. [There's a link to the forum at the end of this post. Ed.]
Angus Reid is a practising Catholic, and attends Christ the Redeemer Church in West Vancouver. As such, he's not always pleased by the answers he gets to his questions on issues with moral as well as political dimensions.
For instance, he was dismayed by respondents' backing of assisted suicide, which he worries will be dangerous when doctors start “handing out suicide pills.” His poll on palliative care also showed how this potential alternative to assisted suicide is offered haphazardly.
He is likewise unimpressed that "a very large chunk of Canadians believe abortion is OK for choosing desirable characteristics in your kids." The era of designer babies may be upon us, he warns. His polling consistently reveals that Canadians (as well as Americans) are succumbing to the "trivialization of morality", including an obsession with the antics of celebrities.
"Consumerism is the new religion," Mr. Reid said. The number of Canadians who are "anti-religious" has risen to 30%. Another 40% are in the “muddled middle” with regards to spirituality. And young people are increasingly uninterested in prayer. In his opinion, "These people don’t have any serenity in their lives."
Walt finds Mr. Reid's remarks sad commentary on the morals and mores of the society in which we live. But this is the kind of information we -- especially our political and religious leaders -- need if they are to guide us out of the morass of spiritual and ethical decay into which we have sunk.
The danger already too evident is that the same "leaders" will substitute poll results for their own moral compasses. "Never mind what's right! Do what's popular!" God save us!
Useful link: Want to make your opinions matter and get rewarded for your feedback? Click here to join the Angus Reid Forum (brought to you by Vision Critical). Does doing these surveys make any difference? Considering that governments and businesses pay thousands of dollars for polling, Walt believes so.
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