A Lawn Sign You Don’t See…
Across America, anywhere you drive, there are signs of hope and fear. From giant “T”s lit up like crosses, to giant, spray painted, BLMs. Pick. A. Side. There is no middle. The extremity of social media, or political discourse has banished what in a stronger America would have been a sensible and common lawn sign…
So imagine driving along and seeing four humble cardboard hand-painted signs, on the same lawn: “We Support Our Police.” Then, “And” Next sign: “BLM” Finally: “We are Stronger as One.”
Most people are decent and trying to do the right thing. They may have been brought up differently, have views you disagree with on many issues. But most, with a few current, very notable, exceptions, are not evil. Nations and civilizations remain strong in the measure they respect the diversity within.
But that is not the way we are regarding, treating, speaking, about each other. We have banned one word from all political and social discourse: HUMILITY. Political and social media induced polarization has so infected us that most are terrified of uttering the wrong phrase, pronoun, statement, and being exiled by their chosen tribe. Professors cannot utter a word in a foreign language that may sound vaguely like a banned word. Authors long dead are banished for using discourse acceptable in their time but brutal in today’s context. Meanwhile, those wishing to go back to the “good ‘ol days” do not recognize the country, the world has moved on. Those days, those practices, are gone. Norms and practices that hurt so many are no longer defensible.
Playwright Jean Lee summarized America’s fundamental problem perfectly: “I feel like compassion is very out right now. Curiosity is out. What’s in is condemnation and punishment.”
Too many are hurting today. They are hungry, jobless, scared, sick. Too many feel disrespected and unheard. Too many are white hot angry. It is easy to tear nations apart. Three quarters of the flags and anthems surrounding the United Nations did not exist a few decades ago.
We need each other. We are buried in debt. We have to fix healthcare and prepare for the employment earthquakes and opportunities coming from AI, robots, creaking trade systems, fragmenting financial and internet connections. But we have increasingly lost the ability to talk to those we even slightly disagree with. We are quick to condemn. We are no longer E Pluribus Unum. Without a little more humility, and more creative lawn signs, we may not survive as one.
Juan Enriquez wrote The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future (2005) and is just publishing RIGHT/ WRONG: How Technology Changes Ethics (MIT:2020)
