What I Don't Want
A doctor in Kansas who performed late-term abortions was murdered outside his church on Sunday. Doesn't matter which side of the abortion debate you defend; this is as bad as it gets.
No matter your politics, no reasonable person could say there is any justification to this murder.
This country seems placed to be polarized on fundamental issues. When I say fundamental, I mean fundamentally not worth killing over. Gay marriage, abortion. The responses on either side are so visceral, so firmly held. It's one American version of Israel-Palestine.
I don't want to fight in a culture war. "Culture war" seems like an oxymoron. I don't know if it even means anything, except in terms of the us versus them paradigm that is so easy to fall into in the aftermath of the State Supreme Court ruling in favor of Prop. 8.
If culture war does mean something, I don't know if there is one going on. But the vitriol is there, and the media sells it. It gets the attention, stirs the blood. I don't like myself sometimes when my blood is stirred in this regard.
Don't get me wrong. I feel that I know what is right. But I don't want to demonize the other side. Even that term, the other side, is really rather nebulous, and at the same time, very simplistic. I don't want to adopt those thought patterns, because that is what breeds actions like the tragedy in Kansas. Think of the killer: if he has a family, if he has parents, they must feel like their life is over. Is that sort of pain worth inflicting for anything?
I deleted a blog entry the other day about the Supreme Court ruling because I realized that it was not helpful, that it was the exact sort of vitriol I have deplored for years from fringe groups. I don't want to be fringe, at least not in a reactionary sort of way. I want to be mainstream, to be thoughtful, to be empathetic. That's the way to progress as a culture, and more importantly, it will be the way to be happier with my own life. A culture war is way too big for one person to fight. The notion makes no sense.
What is it about the narrative of living that makes it so easy for us to write everything in terms of conflict and us versus them? Why do we say that a good story has to have conflict? It may be true, but why? Or is the problem that people don't have a good understanding anymore that conflict doesn't have to be violent to be interesting?
No matter your politics, no reasonable person could say there is any justification to this murder.
This country seems placed to be polarized on fundamental issues. When I say fundamental, I mean fundamentally not worth killing over. Gay marriage, abortion. The responses on either side are so visceral, so firmly held. It's one American version of Israel-Palestine.
I don't want to fight in a culture war. "Culture war" seems like an oxymoron. I don't know if it even means anything, except in terms of the us versus them paradigm that is so easy to fall into in the aftermath of the State Supreme Court ruling in favor of Prop. 8.
If culture war does mean something, I don't know if there is one going on. But the vitriol is there, and the media sells it. It gets the attention, stirs the blood. I don't like myself sometimes when my blood is stirred in this regard.
Don't get me wrong. I feel that I know what is right. But I don't want to demonize the other side. Even that term, the other side, is really rather nebulous, and at the same time, very simplistic. I don't want to adopt those thought patterns, because that is what breeds actions like the tragedy in Kansas. Think of the killer: if he has a family, if he has parents, they must feel like their life is over. Is that sort of pain worth inflicting for anything?
I deleted a blog entry the other day about the Supreme Court ruling because I realized that it was not helpful, that it was the exact sort of vitriol I have deplored for years from fringe groups. I don't want to be fringe, at least not in a reactionary sort of way. I want to be mainstream, to be thoughtful, to be empathetic. That's the way to progress as a culture, and more importantly, it will be the way to be happier with my own life. A culture war is way too big for one person to fight. The notion makes no sense.
What is it about the narrative of living that makes it so easy for us to write everything in terms of conflict and us versus them? Why do we say that a good story has to have conflict? It may be true, but why? Or is the problem that people don't have a good understanding anymore that conflict doesn't have to be violent to be interesting?
Labels: politics, right versus wrong, us versus them, useless rhetoric
posted by Devin at 11:05 PM
1 Comments:
My brother-in-law, Benjamin, has this quote at the bottom of all his e-mails, and your post made me think of it.
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each person's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Thanks for the words and the thoughts, Devin.
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