What to some feels like tacit approval of sexism, of racism, bigotry, sexual assault, religious discrimination, bullying, the politics of insults (as if that's new), and so many variations of the same--to others feels like a hopeful transformation of something inexplicably and surreptitiously corrupt. It feels like a chance for safety for those feeling fear... maybe as much as it feels like fear in so many others--muslims, mexicans, blacks, gays. And I am troubled.
It seems tonight--as Donald Trump has just been elected president for context if anyone is reading this later--that while the president elect ws remarkably sedate and self-controlled in his victory speech, even calling for unity, so many are drawing abrupt divides between the two sides. If any of my Facebook friends voted for Trump, you voted for hatred and you might as well delete me because I don't want you in my life--that sort of thing. Now, I find Donald Trump as a person to be fairly deplorable (and I choose that word deliberately) and the horribleness of what he stands for and what he expresses far too often and far too freely and far too publicly bothers me a great deal. Before even considering what he might do as President it disturbs me that this is now a person we've set forth as an exemplar of someone good, someone worth being... And that sounds more insulting than I wish it would... more insulting maybe than I think I mean it to sound.
Permit a change of gears.
The problem is that the fears that drove many to vote for Trump are not new. They do not originate from him and he may, and probably does, foment them out of a genuine belief in, for example, the danger of allowing too many Syrian refugees into the country. I am not even sure one could isolate a particular source for such fears beyond innate human tendencies. Certain news outlets and certain public figures definitely make such fears worse, tend to them like ugly plants in a nightmarish garden, but ultimately what matters is that too many people live in a world where it is far too easy to hate that and those which you do not know or understand. I saw a tweet tonight remarking on how we followed up our first black president with a president approved by the KKK as if the painful irony were poetry and this was not simply a more extreme version of the same partisan political reversal our nation regularly exhibits.
We should not be forcing out of our lives those who disagree with us. We should be embracing them. It is not an easy thing, and I know personally that I have little interest in it, but it seem like what we should be doing. It seems like what we need is for more people to know more people, different people, people from varied religious and cultural backgrounds, people who are queer (in regards to sexuality, if you will, and in regards to any other peculiar difference that sets them apart from anyone else)... What's that line from Bulworth? "All we need is a voluntary, free spirited, open ended program of procreative racial deconstruction." He's suggesting that we can rid ourselves of racial conflict by procreating our way out of racial divides, biologically. But, take that same notion and extend it to anything.
For example, I deliberately follow some very extreme groups on Facebook that absolutely would disagree with my political ideas and with whose political ideas I absolutely disagree. My impulse when I interact with them is antagonistic. But, that is because when I am there I am the minority, outnumbered and overwhelmed. But, imagine such an interaction one on one. Imagine actually sitting down to have a conversation with someone who disagrees with you, someone who grew up differently from you, someone who looks different from you. Two human beings connecting. Too much of the modern world--social media and the internet in particular--disallows such an interaction. We are forced (or force ourselves) into a public space where anyone can join the conversation and there is little room for civility except among those who are already likeminded.
I do not know how to fix that, and I wish that I did.
Instead, I participate. I lash out. I lament. I weep for a world in which we have essentially endorsed the practice of lying and insulting your way to the top... or maybe that's just what politics is and Donald Trump is just particularly good at it. But, I digress. My point here is that my impulse is to be angry, to be sad, to be disappointed. And, I saw another tweet tonight about remembering how we feel losing tonight so we can take everything back next time and that sounded to me like exactly the same sentiment Trump and his supporters have been expressing for years. We've gotten to this point--or we were always at this point and I'm merely paying closer attention--where we have this rather unhealthy proprietary possessiveness about the country and then when someone else gets to be in charge for a while it is not something civil and... I don't know. It should be something to almost welcome--the market of ideas expanding to include others and making ideaspace and democracy stronger. Instead we have this constant battle, a Cold war of political parties when we should be treating it like taking turns in a board game. The (relatively) peaceful transition of power in this country is one of those things that makes it great--
And, there's a loaded term. Great=/=good. Greatness does not necessarily come from goodness. This country may have (past tense) been great, may (present tense) be great, but that does not mean it has not had and does not continue to have numerous flaws, some of them fundamental to its very soul (I'm looking at you, slavery). A Donald Trump presidency might make America great, but at what cost? And, at what greater cost when we continue to quite deliberately and systematically divide ourselves and hate one another to do it? I mean, nevermind the immigrants for a moment, nevermind the minorities. How about all of us first, embracing antagonism like it is our dearest friend and our need to be right is all that matters. Of course we will turn away homosexuals and people with darker skin; we turn away our brothers and sisters when they express viewpoints we don't like. If we can so easily turn from those similar to us, it should be no surprise that we would turn away from, and even fear, those who are different.
So, channeling my inner hippie right now, I have got to say, fuck that. Turn toward instead of away. Embrace difference rather than sameness. Talk to those who are not like you. Work to understand rather than back away in disgust and fear. Love one another and stop all of this partisan bullshit...
What we need, as well, is many political parties. Not this bipartisan, third-party-is-a-wasted-vote nonsense we have now. Two parties dividing too evenly means monolithic beasts battling it out forever. More options means the fight cannot be so clearly drawn or incessant.
But, I do not know how we get there from here.
I do not know how we love one another.
I do not even know how we talk to one another or listen to one another.
Part of me thinks we have gone too far down the partisan rabbithole and just burning the mother fucker down is the way to go. Then again, I have always embraced the ideas of scoundrels and revolutionaries. We need a revolution of ideas. What we have, though, is inherently (rhetorically) violent even when not literally violent. Sowing hatred and pain and fear when my bleeding heart liberal core just wants everyone to get along.
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My cynical side, though--he figures we're just doomed.
Go figure.
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