If You Can Keep It

McHenry records the events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787, he wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-elizabeth-willing-powel-benjamin-franklin-and-the-james-mchenry-journal/

Much is being written recently about the great divide in our, current, seemingly, not so United States.  

Additionally, historians are writing about other times of comparative great divide, some write about how our country survived the Vietnam war, despite that great divide.  

Others are writing about the failures of our Constitution which was designed for 13 colonies, and not for 50 very different States.  Particularly, mentioning the domination of minority political populations due to the failures of the electoral college system of voting, but also the possibly unbalanced power of the Senate and Supreme Court.  

David French wrote a provocative book, “Divided We Fall.”  There he outlines several scenarios that might result in another succession between the States.  

And then there is the 2024 dystopian film “Civil War.”  

Thoughts about this blog started after reading a provocative thought-piece written by my friend Harvey, he titled this “Men Are Oppressed – By Men.”  My general gist of his words is that men who have been bullied and abused, can result in a syndrome of giving power to a dominating individual, and then being satisfied with the crumbs of power.  He was particularly writing about this young man who tried to assassinate Drumpf, without having a clear anti-republican philosophy, as well as Drumpf’s vice presidential candidate.   That young men “identify with and take on the power of their oppressors.”  He outlines that the real oppressors are the plutocrats and corporations, operating out of greed, that result in loss of jobs and autonomy.  I wrote back that I was reminded of the many movies depicting the evil leader and their crony subordinates.   

Harvey's full article:  

https://www.icloud.com/pages/038toXbk5s3DO_qRO_g2uK5fg#Male_Oppression

So how do we address this Great Divide?

David French, as well as others, lament the ability of social media to feed you more and more information to support your political point of view, no matter how factually wrong it might be, and that is true for both the Right and Left.  Perhaps the cure for that is to read more widely and spend time with more diverse groups.  

French posits in Chapter 15 that the way through may be within Pluralism and the Bill of Rights.  Where neither the Right nor the Left wins or loses.  That the States do not have to be uniform “let Tennessee be Tennessee, let California be California,” and let rural areas be different from big cities.  Where we can allow for different cultural backgrounds, whether based on religion and/or geography.   He argues in chapter 16 we must “Rediscover Tolerance.”  

French then writes on page 250, “Yes, there is the right/left culture war that we are long familiar with, but there’s now an even deeper struggle – between decency and indecency.”  He then argues that our “Our nation is built from the ground up to handle political disagreement.  It is not built to endure mass-scale dishonesty and vindictiveness.”  Page 256, he writes that we need to embrace “three cardinal virtues:” justice, mercy, humility.   And there does not seem to be a call for politicians that embrace these qualities.  

In my words we need more kindness and compassion.  

My wife this morning pointed out an article in the Summer 2024 Tricycle, pages 53-54 and 104, by Segall, “The Wheel Turns Slowly.”  In his Buddhist view, we must:  By individual action spend our dollars wisely, join in collective action to change public opinion, avoid arguing, and, as the title says, be realistic about how change occurs slowly, over “decades – perhaps lifetimes”.  He also quotes Churchill on liberal democracy which may “allow diverse social groups to live side-by-side (and sometimes together) without killing each other.” as “the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.”  

Sebastian Junger wrote a book “Tribe:  On Homecoming and Belonging.”  His thesis is that modern Western society is intrinsically “unappealing.”   Page 22 he writes: “human beings need three basic things in order to be content:  they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others.  These values are considered ‘intrinsic’ to human happiness and far outweigh ‘extrinsic’ values such as beauty, money, and status.”  

Much of the book is about war and PTSD, and how early childhood abuse increases risk for PTSD and how the lack of society support contributes to PTSD.   This connects to what my friend Harvey wrote.  

What I took away from Junger’s book is that we live in a society that is too large.  Many of us no longer live in manageable groups where we can feel competent, authentic, and connected to community.   

We need to elect leaders that demonstrate kindness and compassion, so that we can strive to emulate these kinds of leaders.  We need to enact laws that rein in the plutocrats and corporations that accumulate wealth without giving back to society.  

As an optimist I believe we can evolve toward these goals.  As a realist I worry that there will be much destruction before we reach these goals.  

Namaste