The Witness Chronicles, May 8, 2024
The power of comversation
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The Most Important Action All Americans Need To Take Right Now
It costs nothing except a little time and it could change everything that’s broken
We need to talk, literally. Calmly and in person, with others we don’t know. Distrust of the Other has become a virus across the country. Some, including me, will argue that this division is an intentional strategy pursued by those who want to disrupt and destroy.
At this point blame does not matter. The fears and distrust have been installed, despite rarely having had a bad conversation with those we disagree with. Humans are social.
But one word I just typed is vital to understanding this. Conversation. Not yelling, not arguing without listening, and especially not fearing out of habit.
How important is this? It might be the most important civil action any of us can take, right up there with voting.
I write almost daily about US politics, which constantly teeters on the edge of chaos, brought on by fears that are being stoked by people with questionable motives, including extreme self-interest about things like not getting thrown in jail, and money and the power it brings.
Judges take the law into their own hands, some media giants knowingly lie, pay huge fines, and continue with the lying. Wars in other countries divide us when for many they become black and white issues, rather than the complex ones underlying them.
Savvy politicians with short term goals leverage these things for a weekly five minute sound bite on a news show. The hard, sausage-making of actual governing takes too long for sound bite congress people and others, so they resort to sensational and usually unproven lies about their perceived enemies, lies that are treated as hard news by some media.
Often, behind closed doors, those ‘enemies’ are their co-workers and an entirely different conversation goes on.
As hundreds of protestors are arrested on college campuses we find out that as many as fifty per cent of them are outside agitators, some who will agitate on both sides of issues, apparently out of a sense of outrage about everything. Or maybe for entertainment.
It’s not an environment conducive to dialog, decency, respect of those we disagree with, and talking things out without shouting and hurling insults. It’s also an environment conducive to our country’s enemies using their propaganda and intelligence groups to stir things up even more with advanced digital tools and a shadowy dark internet.
But the simple reality is that most of this is manufactured for and by those self-interests, not because we all hate each other. Though if you listen to some of the more demented ranting, you’d certainly think we do.
Anger is different than hate. Anger can sometimes be justified. Anger at injustice, corporate greed, unnecessary war-mongering for personal, political reasons- all these things can make any of us angry. But before anger morphs into hate, it must be examined to see if it is justified. And if it is, what next rational steps can be taken to change things.
It almost never is totally justified. But those who manipulate opinions know that their readers and listeners must never be given time to think about their anger, because much of the time it will dissipate. So the drumbeat intensifies, keeping us off balance and away from the simple act of reasoning and discussion.
Politically this is the oldest strategy in history. And it is predicated on the idea that regular people, whoever we are, are easier to anger than to calm. Professional mediators know that taking two angry foes and getting them away from this storm of hate and fear, often results in unlikely allies.
It is the way some wars end and compromise is found. Compromise is a concept that is the enemy of those who divide. They have worked to make it a dirty word when, in fact, it is the way humans get things done.
We work together. Which means a constant stream of compromises. That does not means we give up our ideals, it means we respect those of others when we can find them.
Even as I write these words, which are common sense, I know there are those, on both ends, that will find them naive and impossible. But think about that phrase, common sense. It literally means a shared sense of what is right and what is doable.
When we say something is just common sense, we are saying that this is something we agree on. It’s a shared experience that we can all tap into regardless of who we are or what we say we believe. But if you look at extremists, common sense is something they avoid at all costs.
Take those who disrupt and want to shut down the federal government no matter the cost. Common sense tells us that you can’t control and manage a country that is huge and has 330 million people, without some kind of central authority.
Yet, defying common sense, there are those who devote their lives to the cause of the ensuing chaos, just because they can. Those who embraced their view at any cost do not want us talking. They don’t want to talk one on one with anyone.
Which says they have lost their faith in humanity. And they likely don’t even know it. But experience says that if we get them in a room with those they see as demons we often find a solution, that is to say a compromise, that dirty word.
Normally we find ourselves somewhere between looking forward to a better life, and coping with the stuff that is hard because it has to be dealt with. But there are factions in this country who reject the idea of a better future, maybe because they won’t be here to see it or because it will interfere with their short term plans.
The world turns into winners and losers with nothing in between. Except disdain for those who try to do what has worked for eons.
Simply sitting down and talking.
~ I write The Grasshopper, a letter for creatives, The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate, and The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. All are weekly and free, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your upgrade to a paid subscription helps make that happen.
If you want to show support but don’t want to commit to a subscription, you can always buy me a coffee!
Believe me, it makes my day. M
If we took a fraction of the military budget of the world and used it to to help people meet and talk with people around the world, we wouldn't need a military budget of the world.
Common sense, as you say...
AGREED!