Polarization

How will history books — American history as well as global history, or history of world events — remember this chapter in our American story? How do other societies around the world view what is happening here?

Through a time of great economic upheaval — tracking our economic growth since the Industrial Revolution to our current time — there is evidence of enormous wealth in the form of more and more billionaires, while the majority of Americans are struggling in their daily obligations of life. Is it this grind, arising mostly from inescapable financial straits, that propels this country into greater and more bitter polarization?

This is a word used a lot in our public and private conversations. Polarized. Holding positions in opposition, forming identities and communities around those positions, finding reasons to demean and distrust “the other side”, encountering “the other” with suspicion, anger, and derision.

When will it stop? And how can we make it stop?

Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz portray a way to be American that sincerely desires that everyone be able to “get ahead” in the specific race that they are running. They are not interested in passing Americans through a cookie-cutter so that everyone believes the same thing, wants the same thing, looks the same way, or shares the same likes and dislikes.

Pluralism is one of the ways that we can begin to understand how diversity can settle into a harmonious way of being. Why not have Jews and Muslims, Christians and atheists, animists and humanists all allowed to pursue their understanding of this great marvel of human life in their own way, side by side? What about “Heinz 57” white Americans at ease to share the benefits — as well as the normal struggles — of our society with the surviving indigenous peoples of this continent, along with African Americans as well as Kenyans, Ethiopians, and Moroccans, Mexicans and Brazilians, Palestinians and Israelis, Tibetans and Chinese?

Pluralism doesn’t even expect or require that “everybody be friends”, but it recognizes that anyone can befriend another, regardless of the categories of self-identification that match or widely diverge.

It allows a multiplicity of possibilities — because we widen our fundamental framework to “plural” rather than “singular”.

Think about it. It means that there legitimately are multiple ways to interpret things, to behave, to practice, to live — all affirmed and allowed when harmony is the goal, not uniformity.

We have so very much to learn in this regard.

I do wonder how this period of American history will be recorded for future generations.

In my opinion, the current state of affairs is teetering toward a new way, but with entrenched stubbornness and a bizarre mental domination operating over a large swath of the American public as well as public servants.

I am hopeful that we can find our way out of this stranglehold toward a future of cooperation, mutual care, understanding, collaboration and yes, joy. The variegated threads of this American tapestry have been unraveling a bit, but we can weave them back together.

Let’s dare to dream together!

Editor’s Note

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