Anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.
If there is one abiding theme in recent American politics it is
probably not any particular issue or scandal but rather something
more basic and potentially self-destructive:
outrage
Even beyond the winner-take-all divisiveness that is the rule of
the day in our political lives now, the tendency toward and the
addiction to ongoing outrage on a wide variety of topics seems to
be making it impossible to step away from the fighting, infighting,
and useless chaos. The media is eating it up to the detriment of
our ability to connect on and address any of the real problems
facing us. Online forums are loving the self-generating clickbait
of tirades and text-based knife-fights that seem to have no end.
Even beyond politics per se you see arguments over cultural
appropriation and finger-pointing between neighbors and people on
the lookout for anything they can dog-pile onto someone for.
We need to end this addiction to outrage over everything.
I don't want to hear what politicians are going to fight against. I
want to hear their plans to deal with the serious issues facing
this country, including the political divisions that are slowly
destroying us. I don't want to hear that you can't believe someone
keeps their dog outdoors and you think it's inhumane. People are
looking for the stupidest, smallest details to pick at and tear one
another down and get the dose of outrage that they need. Almost
none of this outrage is genuine - nearly all of it is driven by
addiction to the adrenaline rush of telling someone else off.
There are also better ways of expressing and acting on the things
that legitimately generate outrage.
What are we going to do for all of the people out of work, addicted
to opioids, struggling with medical bills? What are we going to do
to address the millions of jobs that may be lost to automation and
the consequences to those workers and their families? How are we
going to address the crumbling infrastructure of roads and bridges
and the fact that our network infrastructure is falling further and
further behind the rest of the first world? How are we going to get
our trade relations with other nations sorted out and get back to
doing business?
Those are the questions our leaders need to be answering, not
ongoing never-ending arguments that are leading us nowhere. But
they keep up this charade of leadership because we are all
rewarding them for it and egging them on. We should let go of the
bullshit political fodder.
I really enjoyed Mark Lilla's book 'The Once and Future Liberal -
After Identity Politics'. He makes some important points about the
growing divisions within the 'left' side of American politics due
to the embrace of identity politics. I fully agree that rather than
looking so hard at the differences between people we should be
insisting good and hard that everyone be treated well with respect
and equality and work to protect and help everyone that needs it.
I think his main points are equally applicable beyond the
Democratic Party and liberals to the American public as a whole. We
are losing our ability to see one another as people first, instead
focusing on the categories and perceived differences of everyone we
see. The reality is that we are all different, you can always find
some distinction between yourself and someone else if you want to.
As often as not it is a distinction without a difference that
matters. Instead of looking for how we can help one another and
learn from one another we are looking at how to get ahead of each
other and put someone else in their place. We can and must do
better than that.
I'm still working my way through Ben Sasse's book 'Them: Why We
Hate Each Other - and How to Heal'. His message thus far seems to
be that Americans have abandoned a local social life that holds us
together and allows us to know that we matter to one another and we
should be helping one another. I look forward to seeing what his
recommendations are for healing that rift in the later parts of the
book. I personally disagree wholeheartedly with some of Sasse's
political positions but at the same I time think he earnestly wants
to take care of people and end the bitter self-destructive spell
that we seem to be under.
My wife and I recently watched the movie 'The Brainwashing of my
Dad' that shows how taking in media designed to drive outrage and
divisiveness can change a person's views and put them in a state of
ongoing outrage and anger. While that film is primarily about
Fox News and conservative talk radio driving outrage there are
certainly examples of the same phenomenon on the left. I think I am
seeing the same approach in CNN's daily afternoon schedule of shows
although it is done in a more subtle fashion.
We are being trained to seek out media and stories that fit with
our political biases and drive further enragement. You can find
yourself seeking out new articles on Reddit to feed your need for
more outrage, more tidbits about President Trump or Hillary Clinton
to get pissed off about. It slowly becomes something you do more
and more. Even outside of political coverage people in forums look
for discussion threads on cultural appropriation or white privilege
or any number of other subjects to get them wound up - purely
because they're used to being wound up.
Another closely related point that came up in a podcast I listened
to recently was the idea that we are becoming more disillusioned
with the idea that our institutions and theoretically neutral
parties (judges, other government officials, sports referees, etc.)
are fair. That in turn is driving a constant raging against
referees and umpires that was unpleasant to listen to. There are
entire websites devoted to complaining about referee mistakes and
bad calls and they get a lot of traffic. As noted in the podcast
players, coaches, and fans talk to and about refs in ways that they
would never talk to anyone else. In short, they are being
dehumanized by the fans' ongoing rage against the world being
unfair to them, even though it's the same world that it has been -
and objectively refereeing has never been as good as it is now,
driven by our ability to look back and catch mistakes.
Rather than focus on the things we are fighting over and who your
political enemies are, please take a moment to think about what you
believe in. What really matters to you? What do you think this
country should stand for? We need to stop defining our selves and
our social groups and our political parties based on what we are
against and get back to talking about what we are for.
Some of the things I am for:
I am for people respecting one another's rights, almost to a fault.
I am for helping other people out when they need it and building
things that are useful for all of us.
I am for people being able to support themselves, able to access
healthcare and other basic needs, get enough healthy food to eat,
get an education so they are good citizens and respect one another.
I am for being allowed to say almost anything you want and to take
responsibility for what you say and accept others' reactions to it.
I am for people having dignity and as much privacy as they want.
I am for being willing to listen to the other side even if you
think you hate them. You probably don't have any reason to hate
them.
The United States as I see it is for liberty to live your life as
you please, for asking what you can do for your country and your
fellow Americans. How we have strayed so damn far from that I don't
know but it is time to put our knives away and start helping one
another to solve our problems. If some don't want to come along and
help with that then rather than screaming at them, try telling them
calmly that they're welcome to come join any time they change their
minds.
We need to let go of our rage so we can fix the problems that we
believe are driving so much of it.
One last item if you've managed to read this far, if you have not
read it before, go read this:
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe
(it is formatted as a series of images but at least they're cute
and funny.)
NO CARRIER