Blowing on the Coals.

The enemy is not human.

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

We benefit from defining ourselves as members of a tribe different from the “other.”  It is one of the ways that we overcome the stark realization of our own existential loneliness as individuals. 

Graeber and Wengrow describe the radical differences between neighboring cultures among First Americans on the Pacific coast. (The Dawn of Everything).

Utilizing letters and diaries in early 1800s, historians make a strong case for the extent that North and South stressing their differences, fed off each other’s “wrongness,” leading up to the Civil War. 

Beliefs, customs, habits that are different from ours make us “right,” and make the “other” less human.   

Common identity may begin as a friendly warming flame that we gather around and tell the stories of our ancestors. Eighteenth century newspapers reflected, partly in fun, adversarial relationships between neighboring towns.  “They aren’t frugal and God fearing like us.”

But blow upon these coals.  Pour fuel on the fire.  Then look out. 

I hope we are conscious of the accelerants being used these days.  Listen to Fox and MSNBC.  Listen and judge the extent to which they use their airtime to demonize members of the other party. 

I hope we all recognize that they are doing more than “giving” the news.  They would lose advertisers in droves if they were that “boring.”  They are riding on the back of tigers.  And pouring accelerant on fires. I don’t see any graceful dismounts.  In fact, the tigers seem to be getting hungrier and the riders more desperate. And the fires larger and hotter.