It was Easter Morning and the wife and I are driving to a local brunch spot to meet our daughters and my mom. We cross a bridge and stop at a red light. In front of us is a very nice car. Black and shiny. It is a high end Tesla model and the only thing out of the ordinary is a Let’s Go Brandon sticker across the bottom of his rear window complete with a skull who has hair strikingly similar to Donald Trump. As we sit at the light my wife asks, “What possesses a person to put a sticker like that on their car?” It did seem out of place on the car, but he is just another sticker soldier fighting the ongoing culture war.
The days go by but the stories remain the same. We are embroiled in a war that is built on the left and the right feuding constantly. They have at their disposal all the firepower of the national media. They want you to pick a side. They will try every tactic to suck you into the war and many, maybe most have chosen a side. Pick an issue, choose your side. I don’t understand how so many have been swept up in this culture war, and why many volunteer themselves and forfeit their peace and tranquility to fret over problems they can never fix.
I never liked the idea of joining the status quo. Going along to get along. If all of my friends jumped off a bridge am I now supposed to jump also? Is this the demand of our culture? Yes honestly it is. The few parents or teachers who may have warned you against following the crowd and urged you to be different didn’t really mean it. They wanted you to follow the approved crowd, not become a hoodlum and degenerate. Be your own man really meant go along with the good and approved manners of life. Be good, pay your taxes and be a productive citizen for the good of God and country. In short, do what you’re told and don’t make waves.
Society needs good and orderly people to function properly. Working and living moderate lives, paying their taxes and serving their communities. We need people who can see beyond themselves and invest in the future for the good of humanity. People who have some kind of hope that propels them forward. Without this type of person we all crash and burn. But we have others who will claim things have been done wrong all along and we need to destroy the foundation most of society is built upon. So they begin to chip away and try to rebuild the world, redesigning what we have all known.
It is a clash of ideals and beliefs. We live in a day of hostility. It is a culture war and there are some who would love to turn the world upside down. Frustration is building. People are wondering where it all stops. For generations people have worked and built their lives around the hopes and dreams of American life. Getting a piece of the pie. But now the pieces have gotten smaller and harder to get. When times get tough, tough people grin and bear it. They make adjustments. They move forward. People who cannot find their way blame others for their distress. They become convinced that they suffer because of the success of others. The frustrated crowd begins to fight and blame those closest to them, even though they are not the cause or the problem. They become the personification of the problem and the blame is projected on them. So they receive the brunt of the complaints and in turn feel the need to respond to the attacks.
Do we blame all the ills and mistakes of a police department on an officer who is working his or her first shift? That seems unreasonable or irrational. Some will blame anyone they see as a representation of their point of frustration regardless of the situation. There is an epidemic of reactionary thinking all around us. Many around us are being programmed to seek out the enemy like The Terminator hunting for Sarah Connor. A one track mind bent on destroying the enemy. They need to find the cause of their pain and distress and snuff it out.
Sure most of this dirty work is done with the weapon of words and public shame. But people feel the sting of the assault nonetheless. Frustration is building on both sides. Each one wants to provoke the other to show them losing their cool. This demonstrates how foolish the opposition is, and how correct they’ve been all along. It is a circular exercise that does nothing for each side. Bickering, finger-pointing and blame laying are just making me exhausted.
Can it be the demands for fairness and diversity in our world are driving us towards divisiveness and intolerance? Extreme groups of people demanding special treatment and tolerance seem to be the least tolerant of all. If only people could be smart enough to leave the bait in the traps that are set all around. Many choose silence in this culture war. They see the foolishness in endless debates understand their opinions are just that, an opinion.
The thought police demand you expose your thoughts and feelings about any given subject on demand. They want to know how you feel about life, politics, love, guns, abortion, climate change, race relations, and whatever the hot topic of the moment is. The truth is you are not required to expose yourself to the inquisition of any group. Whether you agree or not. The notion and attitude that we all need to agree on every issue of life is short-sighted and not realistic. Disagreement does not mean we are enemies. But why give these crazies and more ammunition than they already have. The best path out of this maybe to keep our thoughts to ourselves.
I have customers who I serve regularly who are not privy to my thoughts and beliefs. I have customers who are friends and I can speak openly with. I know who I can be honest with most of the time. I have a circle of friends and family I can be honest with and hash out thoughts in front of. I have an intimate circle where I can say whatever I want with no judgement. I have no concern for the opinions of others I do not know or what strangers think. We can assume what others are thinking or judge their lives all day, but could there be a bigger waste of time in this day we live in. How can we see clearly with the plank in our own eye?