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What Are the Issues That Divide Us?
I received an interesting text message this morning:
Hi Amy, I’m a volunteer with New Conversation Initiative. We want to talk to people from all walks of life to figure out how we repair the divide in our country. What issues do you think divide us the most?
It was an odd question. There were obvious answers — stupid politicians, border walls, taxes, abortion, social spending, wars — and that’s probably what they were looking for. But in thinking about, that seemed too shallow. We differ with our fellow Americans over those things, certainly, but the wedge at the heart of that split was something deeper. I sent back this:
The relative values of life verses convenience, the importance of the rule of law, and whether humans improve the world or destroy it.
This was the reply:
Those are big issues for sure. I’d love to know more … in what ways would you like to see us improve the world?
I feel like she missed my point, so I elaborated:
I think what divides us is a paradigm. It’s not exactly left vs. right, though there’s a lot of overlap. On one side, people think that humans are killing the planet, poisoning the environment with CO2 and pollution. They discourage people to have children and have convinced people to commit suicide to reduce their carbon footprint.
On the other is the belief that humans are a force for good in the world. That as we become wealthier we are better able to care for our fellow humans and the rest of creation. That we should “go forth and multiply” because the problems of humanity shouldn’t be solved by eliminating humanity but by humanity creating solutions. e.g., in the 1800s, there was concern that if cities kept growing, all the streets would be knee deep in horse poop. We solved the horse poop crisis with automobiles.
I proudly stand on this side that says whatever problems humans create, we can fix. Which makes me incomprehensible to those who push for population control; inefficient toilets, washing machines, and dishwashers; carbon taxes; and the general attack on civilization.
This was apparently not what they were looking for, as I received no further replies, but the exchange did get me thinking. Ricochet, for all its flaws and failing to live up to its standards, is a place where we can discuss the issues that divide us both as a country and as a community. So what do you think those issues are?
Published in General
Living with history vs. ahistorical dreams of utopia.
Pizza, deep dish or thin crust.
I think you were on the right track. The best expression I’ve seen of the idea is this:
Whether people have more personal or collective responsibility. Whether a society should create individuals within it to do good, or the society as a whole shall do good.
Do we want the country that our forebears sacrificed so much for? Or do want to liquidate the assets and create a serfdom?
It does appear your questioner missed the point. I suspect he or she (or they) was looking for easy superficial topics to do focus groups or surveys.
We are divided over fundamental world-views. Do we have a purpose on earth or are we just random chemicals? Am I answerable to (responsible to; owe obligation to) someone larger than life-on-earth? Do others have a purpose on earth and is there any reason I should be concerned with them? Is there a basis for universal morality (i.e., God)? Is there universal Truth?
Among the divisive issues at a somewhat more practical level, are all humans “equal” or is there some basis on which some are entitled to rule over others?
They might have been working from a script book. Those have become common in all sorts of situations. In which case, Amy went way off script.
Do you believe in all-powerful, all-loving and almighty God who created the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them?
Yeah. I’m pretty sure this was a thinly disguised attempt to get “X% of people think Donald Trump or not being nice enough to illegal immigrants is dividing us” headlines, particularly since I was targeted for having lived in Anne Arundel County Maryland. Which I don’t, but whatever.
Huginn and Muninn: Thought and Memory. There are those who think and remember and those who don’t.
Amy, I would gravitate toward your “paradigm” reference. While this is admittedly a broad generalization, sometimes it seems like the emerging groups and tribes within our society no longer have common frames of reference, rendering it virtually impossible to effectively communicate, argue, and persuade. This is my truth, my reality, and yours is invalid and evil. And if you associate with any one or any thing that I don’t like, then you are forever one of “them” and must be destroyed.
It seemingly doesn’t matter what the topic is anymore. Everything is used and viewed as a facet of “identity”. Who I am is increasingly defined by what I align to and that to which I don’t align. The fear is that I am merely the sum of all the labels I claim. Take that away, who am I? Who are we?
In such a relativistic society, all issues have the potential to divide us – and they do divide us.
The question is, what do we have left that unites us?
I like your answers, Amy, but I suspect that you may have been in communication with a ‘bot. “Women’s right to choose” answers go into one digital pile of email addresses, “right to life” answers in another, to pick just two. Then they sell (or lease) the lists to politicians, organizations, or anyone else who has an agenda. The agenda may just be how to get “donations.”
re-create
Yep, you nailed it. The issue is that the founders fought to make it here. Folks who have been born here often take it for granted or are just hard-wired in their personality to not like liberty. It isn’t for everyone. Being an American isn’t about race, geography or even religion. It is a state of mind.
Whether or not asking stupid questions on the Internet should be punishable by catapult.
I think it boils down to those who think we can usher in a utopia and those who don’t. I am in the don’t side. I think we can keep solving problems, and we can make things better, but we will not have heaven on Earth and any attempts to get their will result in hell on Earth instead.
Why was the inventor of “blister” packaging not sentenced to life in prison, where he or she would be in solitary confinement, forced to try to open said blister packs with no tool other than their bare hands?
Your answer is better than mine, but I’d point out that when the little Dutch boy’s thumb can no longer do a temporary repair, it may be time for bulldozers and sandbags. Whatever it takes. The divide between land and sea must be repaired and maintained!
What divides Americans the most are people who text questions instead of emailing them.
I’m fairly certain that one doesn’t divide many of us.
The devil is not that cruel, he does give them a knife. If they can get to it.
You said it better than I could, @amyschley. I think implicit to your comment is a belief in G-d and related values.
Well actually, the punishment I mentioned was my wife’s idea. I was willing to let him off with merely the death penalty.
Everything. We are so divided now, I don’t see a way out until people realize the left is ruining this country, not the right.
Most of us on the right (IMHO) believe in “Live and let live”. The left doesn’t. They believe in, “You must think this way or else.” This is the religion of Political Correctness.
Homosexual “marriage”? Imposed on people by force.
Picking one’s own sex (or pronoun)? Imposed on people by force.
Wasting tax dollars on leftist government programs even if they don’t work? Imposed on us by force.
As I remarked in another comment in another post, we may be at the point where we need to divorce – become two separate countries.
I don’t think it’s an issue that divides us; I think the main thing that does is an inability to admit that someone else has a perfectly valid way of looking at the world that just happens to disagree with your own. That any heretics must be burnt at the stake.
Do you think it was some sort of bot or screening with a political actor behind it gathering data? In other words, maybe not an actual person asking – so the answers they have were generic. What do you know about this group and how did they get your number?
I fail to see the divide here, when it’s an unambiguous yes…
Shows the folly of federal catapult controls. When you outlaw catapults only scofflaws will have catapults.
The initial question your received makes me think it comes from a politician looking for hot-button issues upon which to build a campaign platform. Of course, I could be wrong; I know nothing about the “New Conversation Initiative,” or if it exists.
Metaphysics, apparently. The biggest Ricochet thread I ever started: metaphysics. Times I got insulted on Ricochet: more metaphysics threads.
Also epistemology, marriage, and interpretation of the Torah. I won’t burden you with more links. (But I got plenty if anyone needs them!)