In these fraught times
Many voters from all parties in the USA might need one of these on election day, 2016.
“In these fraught times, our rhetoric must be toned down, our words more carefully weighed, even while we expose and correct the evils of the day. We cannot allow divisiveness and anger to replace e pluribus unum as America’s national theme.”
— Mortimer Zuckerman
Zuckerman’s words sound as if he was writing yesterday, don’t they? But actually, he published the article ending with that quote over two decades ago. This was an era we can hardly imagine now, before 9/11 changed the way Americans see the world, before there was a President George W. Bush, or a President Barack Obama, when many of the political controversies that currently divide us were scarcely a blip on the radar screen. Yet anger at politicians and the government and (sadly) at some of our fellow human beings was a problem then, too. It isn’t anything new.
Zuckerman’s words of warning against anger and division were timely and prophetic, but apparently little heeded. The media continue to feed upon every controversy, producing what Zuckerman refers to as “trash books, trash TV, trash newspapers, trash magazines, trash talk.” With Americans spending more and more time with various media, glued to one screen or another, perhaps it’s no coincidence that angry dissent and disagreement seem to be at an all-time high. Garbage in, garbage out? Are we becoming what we claim to despise?
On election day in November 2012, Jeff and I were told his liver tumors were almost certainly metastatic cancer, probably originating from a different site than the appendix cancer that had been removed. On that day I decided to go politically inactive permanently. In the face of devastating, life-changing news, I had a clear sense of personal priorities that left no room for what now seemed a mere diversion I had once found relevant and absorbing and important.
I could hardly have picked a better time to drop out of monitoring the political radar. This election cycle has been a great time NOT to watch or be upset by what is going on. I have paid enough attention to know there has been much in recent months to disturb anyone, on any part of the political spectrum, no matter the individual beliefs or affiliation. I certainly don’t want to add to the umbrage, so I want everyone to know that any comments here that are obviously an argument for, or against, one particular candidate, party or cause will be edited to remove apparent bias. I don’t want this to become a political forum. Everyone is welcome here, and how you vote– or don’t vote– is your business, no one else’s.
What I do want is for each of us to remind ourselves, and one another, of a few truths. For all the world’s problems, we are living in a time of unprecedented blessing and progress on many fronts. No matter what needs to be changed– and there is unquestionably much that does, and we may disagree vehemently about the answers– surely we can agree that anger and hatred are not the way forward. The worse things become, the more we need each other.
I hope you will join me in resolving to defeat despair through the turmoil of this American election cycle. This will mean less hand-wringing, less finger-pointing, less dogmatism. It will mean more gratitude, more compassion, more reason, more patience. It will also mean a happier life, at least for me. Despite my proclivity to rant against this or that (to which my close friends and family can attest) I don’t enjoy being angry, and I intend to choose joy, no matter how much I may disagree with what happens around me.
So help yourself to a clothespin on election day, if you need one, or sit home and sip tea and give thanks for all the blessings that continue despite our human failings and frenzy. If you need to speak up, take Zuckerman’s advice and tone down the rhetoric, weighing your words carefully. Let’s get through this together. We’ve been through worse.
This post was first published seven years ago today. It’s amazing how some things never change. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: 2016, acrimony, controversy, Democrat, disagreement, division, election, Green Party, Libertarian, polarization, politics, presidents, Republican, strife, unity, USA, voting
Defeat Despair 
Your post today is as relevant as it was when you wrote it in 2016. I read Mortimer Zuckerman’s 1995 article that you linked. He certainly predicted where public political sentiments were heading. I tried to find the article online so that I could copy it, but the search engines just kept leading me to your own post and its link. So thank you for publishing your original post again and the link to his insightful, interesting article.
Yes, I have drawers and drawers of such articles, and toy with the ambition to have a blog that does nothing but share such snippets that deserve a second reading, with the benefit of time to vindicate the writer’s points. I’m not sure of the copyright implications of such use, though. But if the articles are not available online in databases (and most online databases do not go back more than a few decades) I hate to see their wisdom disappear. Our current sound-bite, click-bait culture sorely needs the thoughtful discourse of only a few decades ago.
Good morning, Julia!
Even in my own job as an engineer, I have trouble garnering agreement to move a project forward with some cohesive strategy. People constantly reject each other’s proposals for one reason or another.
I can’t imagine working in a political arena, where whole groups of one’s coworkers are “from the opposition.”
But, I also can’t imagine the life of a competitive athlete.
I am such an inclusive “team player” – many of my business emails start with “Hi Team,” regardless of which subset of people I’m writing to.
It’s sad, but I think the increasing individualization of life (where everyone has abundant opportunity to choose all the little and big things that make up one’s world) has robbed us of the ability to function as a group, where there is respectful working toward consensus. Everything seems to be a power struggle or an assertion of one’s own viewpoint. Even truth itself is no longer seen as objective in any sense, even mathematical. Instead, it’s “your truth” or “my truth.” So I’m not surprised that even in engineering, agreement is hard to come by. This, as much as anything else, worries me about the future.