The Feedback Loop of Distrust Is Endangering Our Country
Project Federalism: Paper 5: The Case for Our Constitutional Government Summarized With a Modern Perspective
“The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence” by John Jay
Look at Great Britain, one island once divided into three parts that constantly fought amongst themselves. If America were to be divided, wouldn’t the same thing happen?
Should one separate part of our country rise in power over the others, conflict would naturally arise due to fear and jealousy from the less powerful parts which would then confirm to the more powerful part the necessity of being more powerful. “Distrust naturally creates distrust.”
Being close to each other, it is also more likely than forming alliances together against foreign threats that these parts would view each other as more of a threat and form alliances with foreign nations against each other. Remember that it is far easier to admit foreign armies to our country than to expel them after.
This one’s quite short because it’s finally the end of “The Same Subject Continued,” but it’s got quite a smart point in it that I’d like to discuss.
“Distrust naturally creates distrust.” This has been proven true in a number of modern conflicts between nations. Look at Israel vs the Arab states. America vs Russia in the Cold War.
One nation’s distrust of another prompts the second nation to question why the first is being distrustful, thereby making them distrustful, thereby confirming the original distrust from the first nation. It’s a feedback loop of distrust that leads to violence and war.
Now, we did choose to form a Union, like Jay advocates for, but this law still applies to our foreign relations and informs our internal unity. Look at the growing division between the Right and Left-leaning citizens of our country; both sides slander each other and use strawman attacks and generalizations, I think, because of this feedback loop of distrust.
Once one side distrusts the motives of the other, this cycle begins and drags everyone down with it. Moderates, the group who’s vote matters most by the design of our two-party system, are now criticized for not picking sides, even though the obsession with sides is the whole problem anyway.
As I wrote about in the last Project Federalism paper, this internal division is paving the way for external weakness. Let’s heed Jay’s advice and strive for a more unified country, to protect from threats both internal and external.
