Book Review: ‘Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed’ by Charlie Angus

The 80s

Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed by Charlie Angus is the antidote to the fake nostalgia propagated by right wing politicians with their cries to make things “Great Again”. They offer a rose tinted perception of the past, a world which never existed, to entice people to believe they can be better off if only the clock could be turned back.

Angus dispels those myths – those false memories of a glorious greatness in our past – by taking us on a trip back to the 1980s. While, like many of his readers he came of age during that decade, and does have fond memories of the period, he’s also aware of how the social, political, and economic environment fermented at the time laid the groundwork for our current situation.

The Dangerous Memories of the book’s title do not refer to the bad things that happened during the decade – they actually refer to the memories that are dangerous to those in positions of power. In Angus’ forward to the book he quotes Candace McLean, theology professor at the University of Portland: “Dangerous memories are the subversive memories of the victims of history – they are the seeds of resistance and change”.

So instead of simply enumerating the ways the 1980s gave birth to the trickle down economics and right wing populism that plague us today, he mines the past for examples of the ways and means to offer resistance to the people and forces behind them. Drawing upon the history of the decade – not the airbrushed history which is currently trotted out for mass consumption – Angus paints a picture of how everything from small personal acts of resistance to mass popular movements can shape and change world events.

Dangerous Memory is not merely a history of an era. Sure Angus does a remarkable job of debunking the myths which have grown out of the 80’s, (Ronald Regan  did not bring down the Berlin Wall – it was the people of East Germany who overthrew their government by taking to the streets in numbers too great to be controlled) and how the economic policies of the time destroyed our economy and shuttered factories across the US setting the stage for Trump’s faux populism.

Dangerous Memory is also his personal story. He traces his journey from being an idealistic punk rocker who wanted to change the world, but with no idea how, to somebody who gets his hands dirty by working with the people society lets fall through the cracks. From volunteering in soup kitchens in Toronto’s poorest neighbourhood to he and his wife purchasing a house and turning into a refuge for those looking to escape the streets, he worked with everybody from addicts to women trying to escape the violence of domestic abuse.

In Dangerous Memory Angus shows us how grass roots movements can change the world if enough pressure is brought to bear on the political and moneyed class. When the US wanted to test its brand new Cruise Missiles in Canada – and build its guidance system in Canada as well – Canadians took to the streets. Initially hundreds, then thousands, and then hundreds of thousands across the country. 

The American military decided it wasn’t worth the aggravation and canceled the contract for the guidance system and testing was stopped. When CFCs threatened the ozone layer and the death of life on earth – governments were forced to pass a world wide ban on CFCs  (in spite of industry and American dislike) and save the world.

Certainly not everything is positive: American backed death squads in Central America killing peasants and church workers and a right wing Pope turning a blind eye as he tried to suppress liberation theology. The right’s war on workers and the poor – spearheaded by Ronald Regan, Margaret Thatcher and Canada’s Brian Mulroney – was heating up. 

It was economic policy to raise interest rates, create mass unemployment and ensure wealth was increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Central banks repeated the same pattern in the post pandemic world by raising interest rates and advocating for higher unemployment and lower wages to “bring the economy back in line”.

What’s remarkable about Dangerous Memory is it doesn’t read like a history book. In some ways it’s like have a conversation with an intelligent and insightful friend – a conversation that’s been carefully footnoted (or fact checked as we call it today) – about the past. It’s also a handbook for those who want to be inspired to resist the what seem to be overwhelming horrors of today.

Everywhere we look there’s a new disaster: From Gaza and Lebanon to climate change and the rise of the extreme right all over the world it can sometimes feel a little overwhelming. Dangerous Memory by Charlie Angus does not claim to have the answers for our circumstances, however it offers a blue print for resistance through how it worked before.

A member of parliament representing Canada’s north, a social activist, a musician and a writer Angus has been a voice of hope in Canada and the world for a few decades. Dangerous Memory is the latest medium for the man who has been referred to as the ‘moral voice of Canada.