This week I attended the movie, Civil War. I wasn’t caught up so much in the ‘making of the movie’ per se, but rather the ‘intent’ of those producing and directing it. It seemed to me that the movie’s focus was to provide a warning of what was coming, even though today, we are inundated with warnings, which few apparently pay attention to.
One thing has become abundantly clear to me, ever since Donald Trump appeared on the political scene, America’s discourse and the way that Americans address those who are not of like mind, has become adversarial and perjorative. Depending on one’s political stripe, we listen to or watch media of a particular political position. It’s obvious why we do that as we all have our own biases and predilections.
However, what is different today, and has been increasingly evident, is that those creating the message are deliberately attempting to ensure that the audience they are playing to will not listen to any other views. They play to our biases, deliberately attempting to invalidate what up until now has been the balance that exists in a society between alternate views. Lies, outright lies, which will find an audience with the uninformed and those only wishing to verify their opinion, are now the norm.
‘Alternate facts’ are preferred, which essentially to any rational mind means that lies are being constructed to keep the possibility of rational discussion and validation or dismissal of those lies in question, from occurring. They have already dismissed the intelligence of the reader. How dare you question my lies?
I would have thought that this situation would have been impossible when one lives in an informed and educated country. Sadly, this is not the case. People, due to their inherent bias and often anger, as in road rage, refuse to be rational or to test their biases. They simply want to find fault, to act out their frustration. In effect, they know at a subconscious level that their argument or stance is either wrong, immoral, irrational, or unethical, but their anger or disillusionment is such that they cannot stand to test its veracity or its value.
America today, is in just such a position and situation. Both sides have created illusions and realities that don’t exist, yet to find justification for their positions, they will refuse to visit or test those positions.
The problem is obvious. The longer such a situation continues, the greater the entrenchment and the more difficult it will be to find solutions. What is necessary now is to end the tribalism that exists in the US. Left or right, rich or poor, black or white, educated or uneducated, religious or irreligious, what is happening cannot continue. Echo chambers will not create discussion or a willingness to test our ‘belief’.
In the movie “Civil War”, one line stood out that seems to sum up America’s present dilemma. “What kind of American are you?”
I think it’s time for Americans to reflect on what they want America to actually be and represent. I use the word ‘actually’ not by accident, but for intention. Is that what you really want? That is, an America at war with itself? Do you want to ‘get even’ for your avowed abuse by the ‘other’ Americans, or do you want America to thrive and to find solutions in a very complex world that serve the needs of ‘America’?
Because the answers to these questions are formative and foundational with respect to where America goes in the future, both politically, economically and societally. America can become self-possessed and retract from the world stage. It can become isolationist and focus on the self-interest. It can return to its history of violence and Civil War, or, America can attempt to listen and resolve its internal problems while continuing to believe and act like a democracy.
Whatever stripe you are politically, American history has thrived on rational discourse, for the most part. Yes, there have been periods of isolationism (1930’s) and the internal political witchhunts of the 1950’s, all of which led to America’s loss either in its talents, diplomatically, economically, influentially, or in relation to its security.
If America decides in this coming election to ignore rational discourse and to act to serve the interests of only one of its ‘tribes’, then externally it will be sending a signal that America is withdrawing from its position of primacy in maintaining world order and democratic institutions. It will have become, lesser, more irrational.
Autocrats, demagogues, dictators and kleptocrats will all be emboldened. Populists, populism and hate will flourish. Strife, social-disorder, insecurity, retribution, distrust and warfare will increasingly surface as part of the world’s politic, as America becomes entrenched in settling old arguments and injustices, while ignoring those same injustices around the globe.
So this election, whatever your political leaning, color, age, sex, education or religious belief, ask yourself;
“Is the path I’m on going to make my life and this world better, or will it lead to a more damaged and diminished future?” Remember, it isn’t about self-interest, and it’s not supposed to be. Democracy is about what is best for the majority of those willing to use intelligence, rationality, communciation, discussion and conflict resolution in order to find solutions to what otherwise would be intractable problems.
To do otherwise is a fool’s errand.
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