It’s hard to watch the news because of the adversarial, uncompromising tones of the right and left. These aren’t just opinions being voiced for the sake of inquiry. These are people willing to upend the entire democracy to be right.
Single-mindedness causes escalation. Escalation’s end game is violence and we are witnessing that violence in every walk of life. The tone in the USA doesn’t come close to compromise.
Looking back at the Civil War in our country, the lines were drawn based on power and economics. The same elements are embedded in the current discord. Add a little “crazy” and narcissism in the mix, and we are in for trouble.
People who are threatened become tribal. That means they look for support among their own kind (whatever that means). A tribe can be a race, a geographical location, a socio-economic group, a religion, a gender, etc. The atmosphere in our country now is tribally divisive.
Although the Civil War of 2022 is not formally declared, it is clearly under way. We may not be wearying uniforms and blowing each other up in 3D, but we are doing just that politically through virtual means. These positions occasionally spill into the streets.
Let us pray that there is an open-hearted someone who can find the center and motivate us not to destroy the Great Democratic Experiment. In the meantime, each of us has a responsibility to not try to be right at the expense of our country.
With love,
Rosanne