Friday, July 8, 2016

Us versus ...

It is far past time for people of conscience to stand up. Not against another people, not against a group or organization, not against any other human being -- but against an idea.

The idea of "us versus them."

It's an attractive idea with insidious allure and horrific staying power. But it's the wrong idea.

If we're going to fix these problems we face, if we're going to put an end to the violence and the hatred, we need to come to grips with the central issue, which is the deeply mistaken notion that there is a "them."

There is no "them." There is only an us.

And we need to convince ourselves and our fellows that every one of us is one of us. Even the deluded. Even the demented. Even the unsalvageable.

Because until we remove from our thinking this conviction that "they" are a "them," we will continue to treat "them" with a lesser standard of decency than we demand for ourselves. And so long as we treat some of us less decently, the response will be a return in kind.

Tribalism begets tribalism. It can never be defeated by more tribalism.

We live in a world of us versus us. It's time we wake up to that reality and bring an end to its misbegotten evil.