Can We Go On Together with Suspicious Minds?
The political compass is a lie.
For all the booming popularity of the quizzes and memes, the accounting of virtues and principles is neither effective nor necessary. The sort of governance that people support — and, perhaps even more importantly, the sort they oppose — boils down to one essential question:
Who don’t you trust?
Do you not trust the government to effectively check the economic power of individuals and free enterprise? Then you might logically conclude that society’s focus should be on ensuring the personal responsibility and character of its members. Do you not trust the members of society to maintain that character in the face of violent video games, rap music, and pornography? Congratulations, you’re a traditional conservative.
The deeper the distrust goes, the more extreme the solutions become. If one believes that government is truly evil, an existential threat to the prosperity of civilization, then they will favor most any alternative to solve society’s ills. Conversely, if one sees a great evil elsewhere is society, be it the unencumbered pursuit of wealth, the prejudice of individuals, or anything else, then greater government reach and power is justified. As this justification is hardened by zealous self-certainty and the positive feedback loops of our ideological bubbles, its solution of a bigger government becomes more and more absolute, creating a neat little horseshoe atop the political spectrum.
It should surprise no one that current levels of distrust among the American populace are rather high, and this goes beyond our notions of political theory. The Left doesn’t trust the president, the Right doesn’t trust the media, confidence in our institutions is at a low, and we can’t even seem to trust each other. The conclusions of each manifestation of distrust — the president is plotting something, the media is trying to fool us, some grand conspiracy is afoot — follow logically, but seem baffling to those outside of each wary tribe. And as these conclusions are interpreted by other tribes to be insanity, our faith is the other is ever lessened, and our deep distrust and divisions grow.
In such a society, effective discourse is almost impossible, and we can look upon the question of mail-in voting as a current example. The American Right, by and large, is convinced that moves toward universal mail-in voting will inevitably lead to rampant fraud, error, and chaos. The American Left, in turn, seems convinced that mail-in is the way of the future, and that Trump and co. are just trying to hold the people down. Earlier questions of voter ID and fraud fell into a similar stalemate — the Left simply could not trust that strict voter ID requirements would not lead to massive voter suppression, and the Right simply could not trust that more lenient laws would lead anywhere but rampant fraud.
The danger is far greater than unproductive debates, however. Consider, after all, the logical conclusion when one determines that, not only is there an incredible evil at work demanding immediate action, but that government and society at large are too corrupt to do anything about it. Or if one becomes certain that the Deep State and mass media are colluding against the people, and that no one else is able to stop them. The civil strife and national disaster of which we fear ourselves on the precipice seem all too clear a next step.
Perhaps it is not too late to turn back. Perhaps, if we realize the failure to communicate at the heart of our escalating troubles, we might see the folly of our predicament. Perhaps, if we work at rebuilding our common ground through conversation, we may begin to better see the humanity in one another, and may wear away at the animus that has formed. Perhaps, if all this sounds reasonable, you should consider signing the Articles of Unity, but I digress.
All this is not to say that the distrust we have towards our systems, our institutions, or even our people, is unfounded. Some wariness is inevitable, and in fact it is essential to a healthy, functioning society. We should be questioning and challenging, rather than placing blind faith is some government solution or in the free market just working itself out. And this is precisely why we need each other, and why we need to be listening to one another and having a common discourse.
But alas, we find ourselves here. We’re caught in a trap, and we can’t walk out. It’s a predicament that a great musician warned us about, just a few years before he allegedly died. And if we want to build our dreams of what this country can be, if we want to don’t let a good thing die, then it behooves us to heed his words.
