August 1, 2024: Hair-Trigger Vitriol and Behaviors

The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.  Attributed to a Turkish proverb

It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude.  To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire.  Arthur Schopenhauer

Our experience is composed rather of illusions lost than of wisdom acquired.  Joseph Roux

We are facing innumerable and formidable problems as a nation—as most everybody knows.  But, I am not seeing a list I think is correct, only those things that I consider subsets of our problems.  Here’s a partial list of concerns:

• Incivility
• Us and theming
• Disinformation and misinformation
• Confirmation biases rather than questioning our own assertions
• Greed

Politics are an example of all five of the above.  It is the insanity illustrated by the hair-trigger vitriol after the assassination attempt on Trump (notice there are two asses at the beginning of that word): one by the willfully arrogant “left” for saying the attempt to kill Trump was a set-up by the “right” and the other by a willfully arrogant “right” for saying the “left” did it because they couldn’t get Trump legally.  Clearly zero effort was made to fact check, to think, to pause—it was just two different kinds of a lynch mob, salivating to make others pay.

Immigration is also an example of all five of the above.  We need ways to properly deal with our borders.  However, it is not proper to take a small minority of people entering the country who are bad players and lump the rest in the same category.  The data seems clear to me: the vast majority of folks who’ve entered the U.S. are helping the U.S.  If it bleeds, it leads, but news and assertions of threats to U.S. citizens is way off base.  Most trouble comes from our own citizens, which to mirror immigrants, does not mean most of our citizens are trouble.  Anyone who is a bad player does have to be dealt with.  Leave others alone and quit greedily looking for an enemy.

Abortion is also an example of the above list.  What constitutes a human life is all over the map.  It has become almost a mother vs. the embryo.  Or the fetus.  It’s like trying to decide once and for all every problem that will arise on a journey.  Good luck.  Maybe we might focus on paying attention to what’s afoot during that journey and remember that a map is a guide, not a place.  How greedy is it to want a once-and-for-all solution?  What does that say about us?

The economy is also part of the above list.  Yep, there’s been inflation.  Yep, the stock-market is really high (a stretched bubble?).  Yep, unemployment is down.  Yep, homes for younger folks starting careers and family are high priced, may be in short supply, and are subject to high interest rates. Yep, retirees (I’m one) are concerned about the “golden” years turning to lead.  What’s actually new here?  Again, there is no permanent fix—there is paying attention and not over-correcting.

Religion and/or special interests and/or the monied and the powerful imposing their will is a concern.  We all get “tread-on” in one way or the other.  The question is about imposing vs. allowing.  Because there are those with religious beliefs who think the problem is secular or vice versa, or that one political party or the other is being fascist, or that the monied one-percenters are in charge, etc., etc., doesn’t mean there isn’t needed scrutiny, but it also doesn’t mean an out-of-the-gate imposition is required or needed. Freedom of religion does not mean the freedom to impose it.  Secular interests do not automatically mean taking religion out of other people’s lives—it could mean keeping governments from publicly imposing a religion. Imposing laws doesn’t automatically mean fascism.  Imposing protections doesn’t either.  There is always the need to check out if checks and balances are properly working.  That’s our job!  It is not our job to keep ourselves or others in one kind of a box or another.

This country and its principles are because of our ancestors and their progeny—us.  We’ve been fooled many times.  We will be fooled many more times.  There is always a list.  There are not many permanent solutions.  Everything in the last five sentences is true.  We all know that. Lose the illusions.

We have to be very careful who gets the levers of power and why.  Checks and balances begins with each of us. We can have an actual community without the group-think and a need for villainy.

I’m not cavalier about a notion we will overcome.  I think we will, but I do not like any thought or feeling about how many we lost because we were so uncivil to each other that we failed to see the real threat–hair trigger vitriol and bad actions.  There are those who cannot function without a conspiracy (yes, there are conspiracies), but that shadowy-secrets-and-enemies mind-set can make it easy to get distracted and at each other’s throats.  Passion and sense-making are not opposites.  Perhaps we need to keep an eye on our own self, instead drooling over a need for enemies?

Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose.  Wilma Rudolph