American Hysteria: A Social Critique
Exploring ideas of ideological tribalism, polarization, and American identity
We live at a time when the internet has become our public square. Where sound bites drive our discourse and headlines confirm our biases. Where pundits stir the bases and scapegoats feed the mob. We are excited by hysteria and entertained by drama. The loudest town crier draws the biggest crowd.
Our beliefs are proclaimed across digital networks to be validated and scrutinized by the masses. We engrave our convictions into the stone tablets of the internet, displaying our virtues from atop our social mountains.
Our missteps are unforgivable. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the courts of the digital horde, where public humiliation is celebrated and fallacies are ignored.
Polarization: A Deterioration of Empathy
We all want family ties, financial security, meaningful work, friendships, and good health. Has the influence of divisive political tactics led to a deterioration of empathy for our fellow man? Or do we only choose to practice this principle when it’s convenient for us? Lack of empathy leads to dehumanization, which, in turn, fuels violence.
“…almost no one is standing up for an America without identity politics, for an American identity that transcends and unites all the country’s many subgroups.” — Amy Chua, How America’s identity politics went from inclusion to division
Globally, we must aim to unify under the common goal of nurturing the human race, sustaining life on our planet, and advancing cooperation among all people. Can this be accomplished solely through governance by way of identity politics? Perhaps we must unify under a set of collective principles, like the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution, instead of attempting to convince people to agree with our individual beliefs.
Polarization is a strategy employed to divide and conquer; it promotes separation. By breaking up the majority, e.g. the working-class, the minority can gain and maintain power. Indeed, the bourgeoisie|proletariat power dynamic popularized by Karl Marx is a self-imposed, perpetual dominance hierarchy. But haven’t the workers gained some ground over time?
American Hypocrisy
According to internet comment threads, we are a nation full of Nazis, libtards, racists, sexists, snowflakes, leftists, globalists, capitalists, Communists, colonists, nationalists, socialists… Can one even be Pro-American without being anti-human?
Depending on who you talk to, the U.S. is either the greatest country in the world or the world’s biggest bully, champions of democracy or Eurocentric imperialists. The world is either vastly improving or on the brink of self-destruction.
People have been killing each other over land, resources, wealth, and religious beliefs for centuries. To think that our 244-year-old country is responsible for the entire world’s problems is a symptom of so-called American exceptionalism — the notion that our power and influence is boundless and that we alone can fix the world’s problems.
While imperfect, our political and economic system has worked fairly well relative to other forms of organizing mass society throughout our human evolution. The average American lives like past royalty, a lifestyle afforded by American capitalism and democratic governance. Yet we want to hate capitalism while benefiting from it, too. Are we utterly spoiled?
It appears that our overindulgence in self-pity has made us immune to our own hypocrisy. We praise the hustle of the entrepreneur but demonize the rich. We despise higher taxes but want better services. We enjoy cheap goods but abhor low wages. We care about climate change but over consume. We want lower healthcare costs but engage in unhealthy habits. We accuse the government of foul play but want to give the government more control. We want freedom of speech but only for those who agree with us.
“Just as we need to allow maximal freedom of speech with our own circles, we need to extend this principle outside of our circles, even if it means allowing the expression of views that horrify or disgust us. Otherwise, we will not truly be sticking to our own principles, we will lose moral credibility, and we might even leave ourselves open to charges of hypocrisy. Ironically, some of the people on the left who make the most noise about not being allowed to speak or assemble freely are the same ones who might violently try to stop ideological opponents from exercising those freedoms.” — Come Hell or High Water: A Handbook on Collective Process Gone Awry
There is potential for consensus building, but there is also room for those in power to exploit and manipulate our system of governing. We are not entitled to a “perfect” democracy without working at it.
Left, Right, Or American?
American voters are either right or left, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, but we all (presumably) enjoy civil and political liberty as citizens of the United States. The personal freedoms of U.S. citizens are obligated by the nation’s founding documents.
By means of U.S. citizenship or residency, we collectively agree to uphold our end of the social contract. In return, we are offered protections such as patents and copyrights, security afforded by police, courts, and armies, and access to public roads, parks, schools, and services.
Unlike the founding fathers of the United States, Americans today are not all white men. Because the U.S. citizenry is comprised of diverse ethnic groups, it’s clear that one does not have to be white or male to be privileged to the personal liberties guaranteed by our Charters of Freedom. However, due to the violence, tribalism, racism, and oppression exhibited by humans, it’s clear we have a long way to go to creating peaceful, unsegregated, self-sustainable, and self-governing collectives of living beings.
Reaching Consensus, Despite our Differences
The majority of us want equality before the law and the right to own private property. The majority of us want civil and human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. The majority of us want liberty and for the government to stay out of our lives — for the most part.
Democracy is hard — it requires civility, resolving of disagreements, and empathy. Although it appears some of us may have given up on democratic governance, democracy in the U.S. still has a fighting chance. We must not neglect our responsibility to participate civilly in the democratic process. We cannot take our democracy for granted or squander our individual rights as citizens of the United States.
