United we stand. Divided we fall. Beat the promise USA 2 America's Divisiveness is a National Security Issue

America’s Divisiveness is a National Security Issue

America is more divided than any time since the civil war. Everyone’s heard this fact lobbied about, or intuited it from the world they see around them. According to Pew Research yesterday, there is currently a 36 percentage point gap in political values between the right and the left.  While people argue the micro-level political issues (which, by the way, we’ll never move in either direction because our political system moves with the pace of a thousand year old turtle), they miss the macro-level problem: the divisiveness itself.

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We’re repeatedly seeing violent clashes at political rallies that can only lead to further division. The dangers of this are obvious and there are two key problems. One, there’s a danger of militarization on the political spectrum, which is already taking place.  Taken to its natural conclusion, this means the probability of violent clashes with people from an opposing political ideology will increase.  Right now this is Antifa vs the Alt Right.  If we continue going down the path we’re on, it will be the left vs. the right.

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You vs. your countrymen, coming to a theater (of war) near you

Second, there’s the danger of outside state and non-state actors taking advantage of the situation.  As we can see taking place in Syria where the U.S. and Russia are both trying to exert influence in the future of the country, a big part of the consequences of a civil war is mommy and daddy fighting over custody rights.  In 2010, a Russian analyst named Igor Panaran theorized exactly what that would look like in the case of an American civil war:

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Given the stakes of this divisiveness, it’s important to ask ourselves two key questions: 1) What’s causing this? and 2) How can we reverse it?

What’s causing this?

From my point of view, there are a variety of factors contributing to the unraveling of American civil society: the personality types of the active body politic, the lack of integration in American culture,  and the system of political marketing

Personalities of the Active Body Politic

Foremost among these is the fact that political discussion is increasingly influenced by a vocal minority of bomb-throwers.  Pseudo-psychologists have tried for years to categorize people based on personality types, but let me add a theory of my own, based on no science whatsoever but my intuitive viewpoint: there are types of people who are naturally contrarian, there are types of people who are naturally combative instigators, there are types of people who are naturally understanding bridge-builders.

Do Gooders The Bomb Thrower America's Divisiveness is a National Security Issue

Put two combative people in a room and you’ll get a fight.  They may not change each other’s minds, but you’re guaranteed a negative emotional experience that lends itself to further conflict.  Put two empathetic, emotionally intelligent bridge-builders in a room and you’ll get a conversation.  They may not change each other’s minds, but you’re guaranteed a positive emotional experience that lends itself to lowered hostility.

What America needs is not a conversation run by bomb throwers.  It needs bridge-builders to take a more active role in the body politic.  Which brings me to the second cause of divisiveness, which is the lack of integration among the various cultures in the United States.

The Lack of Integration of American Cultures

I did an article on why the melting pot matters, and that’s relevant here.  In his book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America,” Colin Woodard points out 11 different cultures that exist in the U.S. Looking through the lens of this worldview, it’s easy to see where the divisiveness in American society comes from.  Conflicts we colloquially refer to like rural vs. coastal elites are represented right here on this map.

this map shows the us really has 11 separate nations with entirely different cultures America's Divisiveness is a National Security Issue

It’s my belief that when you encounter someone from another cultural group, you’re either encountering someone who’s irrationally full of hate and blame, like the political bomb throwers of today on either side, or someone who’s a cultural ambassador ala Anthony Bourdain or Mike Rowe, or somehow you’ve stumbled upon the other 98% of the group, which is made up people who just live their life and rarely venture outside of their typical routine — which takes place entirely within their own cultural setting.

This 98% group relies on the edge-groups to make its determinations about which cultural groups are their allies and which are their enemies.  When the ambassador goes out and returns, then spreads the news that the members of the cultures they encountered were hostile, the impression diffuses throughout the population.  That’s what’s happening right now.  So many people who are actively engaging other cultures are instigators that it’s inevitable for anyone, bridge builder or not, to venture outside their comfortable territory and return with a horror story.

Even the people from political circles who go try to give their position in an opposing territory, while brave and well-intentioned, may be serving the same role as an instigator, as politics itself is an instigation.  This is why I specifically bring up people like Mike Rowe, who are not political figures — this ambassadorship avoids politics almost entirely and engages the culture in a much more amicable ‘let’s have a beer’ kind of way.

Mike and Ringer America's Divisiveness is a National Security Issue
Mike Rowe, seen here accomplishing the impossible, hanging out with someone completely outside of his cultural comfort zone and they’re both having a great time instead of trying to kill each other

The System of Political Marketing

Politics itself institutionalizes and normalizes the entrenchment of people into ethnic, gender and regional groups.  This is having an immensely damaging effect on our ability to get along with one another.  It eschews individualism and codifies terms like “the black vote”, “the woman vote”, “the midwest vote”.  But it’s all relative nonsense.

For instance, when we said Hillary had ‘the woman vote’, what they meant was she had 12 points more support among women.  That piece of data, in and of itself, shows that women are not a monolithic voting bloc who all think the same way and prioritize the same issues: 56% liked Hillary (for a host of reasons), and 44% didn’t like her.  These people are all complex individuals.  Trying to tie them together by gender is as arbitrary as trying to tie them together by any other component of their cultural identity — why gender and not smokers? Why not hair color? Why not the clique you interacted with in high school?  Why not myers-briggs personality type?

Pollsters will try to double down on this inherently wrong way to demography the electorate — Hillary lost ‘young’ women and ‘white’ women, further segmenting this voting bloc.  Newsflash: white women don’t think the same things as other white women; young women don’t think the same things as other young women.  All this accomplishes is generalizing the population to give pollsters an arbitrary group to point fingers at, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy — when people are all lumped together, they start to develop a shared identity out of the experience of being attacked.  It also gives way to scapegoating and overly simplistic explanations.  Hillary lost ‘white’ women, so ‘white’ women must be racist and sexist.  She lost ‘young’ women, so ‘young’ women must be ageist.

How can we reverse this?

We need to give credence, respect and voice to bridge builders, no matter their affiliation.  This is not a political problem.  Politics is the sphere in which it manifests; it’s the kids crying to mom and dad after the problem already happened, and it’s the canary in the coalmine.  The problem is a cultural problem.  People like Mike Rowe and Anthony Bourdain, who try to build bridges need our respect.  More than that, we need to get more people like this into action, which is done by consistently applauding their endeavors.  It’s not brave to go into an enclave of enemies and emerge with more enemies.  It’s brave to go into an enclave of enemies and emerge with friends without compromising your principles.

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We need to reject the media’s attempts to divide and conquer American citizens and recognize when they’re taking place.  We need to be very wary of people who say ‘all x are racist’, ‘all y are idiots’, ‘women should believe x issue’ and every attempt to tie individual thoughts to a group trend.

Cultural groups are not made up, no one is arguing that here, but the tapestry of groups that make up your culture are deep.  They include regionality, gender, ethnicity, birthplace, the experiences of your formative years, the time you grew up in, economic access, interests, clique alliances — the list could go on for six paragraphs and even then it’s a constantly moving target.

Taken to its extreme, the likelihood that people have a venn diagram of cultural identity that perfectly aligns with anyone else’s is abysmal.  To try to decide what people are for or against based on this information is foolish.  People are individuals with individual experiences — the only way to figure out what makes them tick is to talk to them.  You can’t calculate a person’s character by their skin color, location or any other demographic trait.

We need leaders in this country — not necessarily political leaders, but leaders in the cultural sphere, who profess this message: Meet people who are not like you.  Talk to people who are not like you and create positive shared emotional experiences.  Make friends.  If politics is dicey, don’t talk about politics.  Talk about the 98% of areas in which you can agree.  Talk about your kids and your dreams and your passions, and their kids and their dreams and their passions.  The bravest of the brave will walk into a room full of enemies and walk away with friends, knowing they’re not welcome to the fanfare of a returning soldier carrying a bag of scalps.

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Author

  • Ryan Night

    Ryan Night is an ex-game industry producer with over a decade of experience writing guides for RPGs. Previously an early contributor at gamefaqs.com, Ryan has been serving the RPG community with video game guides since 2001. As the owner of Bright Rock Media, Ryan has written over 600 guides for RPGs of all kinds, from Final Fantasy Tactics to Tales of Arise.

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