The tagline of Strongly Worded is, “Big Issues Deserve Better Discussions.” I thought that was decidedly true last year, so imagine my dismay with America 2020.
I started this blog because I believe nearly any problem can be solved or greatly mitigated by applying facts and sound reasoning. As big and deep as the problems we currently face are, I don’t think they’re anything we couldn’t solve if we put our minds to it, objectively analyzed the issues and put our efforts into actually solving them.
Unfortunately, I don’t see much of that at all. Instead, we seem to be rushing towards some kind of anti-enlightenment dystopia where emotion and tribalism are celebrated for their “moral clarity” while stopping to think before speaking or acting is considered evidence of a lack of commitment to the cause. After all, if you act with anything less than a 100% knee-jerk response, how committed can you actually be?
Smart People Pushing Bad Ideas
I see smart people – way smarter than me – espousing ideas that historically fail devastatingly every time they’re tried. I watch as great ideas and horrible ideas simultaneously take up residence side-by-side in people’s minds, intertwining and mixing without people ever noticing the difference.
And God forbid anyone actually acknowledge some of the situations we face are actually complicated! Nuance is anathema. I mean, could it be that some cops have absolutely no business being cops AND we simultaneously shouldn’t simply defund the police!? Maybe, but I’m sorry my friend, you say that and you are in political no-man’s-land.
I’m not fully sure how we got ourselves into this us-vs-them mentality where any political opponent is automatically either stupid, evil, or both, but it’s not true and it sure isn’t constructive. Until you can understand the strongest, most valid points of a political adversary’s positions and truly embrace that they must be part of any lasting solution, you’re basically nowhere. Unfortunately, we’re seeing a whole lot of nowhere right now.
Building through Destruction… Strangely Ineffective
When discussing social and societal improvements, I often use the analogy of building a skyscraper. A lot of the problems we face today require work to build the 36th and 37th floors of our building. And that’s critical work we can and should absolutely tackle right now. But too frequently, those pushing the work on the higher floors do so by attacking the work on the lower floors and foundation, tearing away at them with the supposed goal of building great upper floors.
But we were able to get to the 36th floor because of the quality of the lower floors. And just like a building, you can’t add to a society by tearing at its foundation. If we abandon the principles that made our society possibly the most broadly successful in human history, it will hurt everyone. I’m worried that’s what a lot of people are actually pursuing… equality through equal misery. It’s not a noble or lofty goal. I hope the people who are smart enough to know better truly wake up before it’s just too late.
We all have a part to play in steering our ship back onto course. No matter our philosophical leanings, we need to demand more generosity of spirit from ourselves as we interact with people who don’t share those leanings. Any philosophy with millions of followers has something at its root that’s not just worth understanding… it’s imperative we understand it. If we do, we can work constructively with that person towards a well-rounded solution. If we can’t, we’re headed for a long, troubled time.