The New Uncivil War

A new civil war?

In the aftermath of an FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-A-Largo estate, calls for extremism are sounding.

There have been threats of violence toward the government intelligence officers, threats to those who participated in issuing warrants, and attacks on individuals and organizations. There is even more than one appeal, notably from Majorie Taylor Greene, to defund the FBI.

Prior to this, it was an everyday occurrence to see dueling sides of media heavyweights and news channels, and especially political pundits, to rally the troops for the new civil war.

Why do we keep hearing the drumbeats of “the new civil war?”

The problem is that there is energy in discord. There is energy, ratings, and sales to be made by fear-mongering, exaggerating, and lobbying for one side against another.

This feeds politics, and it keeps people engaged.

Toil and trouble-makers

We are a tribal species. We want belonging, but one would think that inclusion is the opposite of what people are fighting for. No one wants to be lumped together with those dangerous hotheads who are causing all the trouble.

Some people will say the terrorists are Black Lives Matter or Antifa, some will say they are the domestic terrorists who are anti-government ideologues. But they are both, and usually, neither.

Although antiracists are not a real threat, they are a perceived threat. Although domestic terrorists do kill every day, it’s usually their own wives and families.

For our democracy and civilization, the threats themselves are very real.

Who is causing all the trouble? Depending on which side — which army — you are drafted into, it’s the racists, the sexists, the radical left, Antifa, the Marxists, the Boomers, the Zoomers, the Doomers, Wombers, the “biology” defenders, and your every day, basic offenders.

Anyone who needs to be canceled, or who is calling for canceling, makes a good soldier for the cause.

The trouble is that no one is all these things. No person, no group, represents a monolith. No one person is all one way or another. Almost no one is attacking you with guns and knives at your local grocery store or dog park. For the most part, it must be emphasized that we do cooperate on a daily basis. We need to obtain food, water, and shelter, so we have to cooperate to some degree.

This is true even in places that are in the throes of costly civil war.

Volume adjustment

In the name of real social justice, we have to turn our attention to turning down the anger volume on these calls for extreme nationalism, or so-called Christian values. But, we also have to contain hateful rhetoric and extremism on any and all extremism that calls for violence.

This is not a false equivalence. It is rash and violent calls that are a common enemy. It is an exploitation of human fears and appeals to emotional irrationality that must be contained.

At the same time, we have to allow emotion and figure out what our feelings are trying to tell us because when we sense something is not right, we are easily ensnared into “sides” pitted against one another.

There is definitely such a thing as righteous anger, but it has to be channeled well — and not indiscriminately, to be effective.

As a planet, we have huge tasks to attend to with the climate crisis, the injustice of poverty, and inequality. These struggles are all of one piece — a human need to see balance. Yet, we have a tendency toward exclusion and finger-pointing, that we must look for in every bit of news we receive.

History tells many a tale about what could happen when we allow demagogues and populists to manipulate mobs toward their own means.

The last thing we need right now is another energy-sucking war.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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