Safe for Diversity
By Albert B. Kelly
Recently I was listening to the radio as I was driving and happened upon the program “Freakonomics”. The topic had to do with our seeming addiction to contempt; the sense that we have a “contempt crisis” happening in our politics and even in our daily lives. This sounded right to me as I listened and thought about how nasty and brutal our national discourse has become over the last several years.
If I had to guess, there are probably many factors that have brought us to this point. One factor no doubt involves what’s left of the news media while another factor is how social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter feed us content that aligns with whatever their algorithms discern we’re comfortable hearing and seeing. In both cases, these outlets serve as echo chambers, reinforcing and justifying whatever position is being advocated. It makes sense if the goal is to grow an audience, but it comes at a steep price.
Today there is little that remains of the moderate middle, meaning conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans. Currently everything is being funneled either to the very left or the very right, the very liberal or the very conservative. This in and of itself is not necessarily a new thing, but what is new is our unwillingness to be challenged with new information and facts or to consider anything that might suggest that we were wrong, incorrect, hypocritical, biased, ill-informed, or deficient in some way.
When presented (not confronted) with new information or facts that challenge what I think, rather than entertain the idea that I might be wrong, hypocritical, biased, or ill-informed, I dismiss the information itself as “fake news” or “spin” or “propaganda” and I hold the source of that information in contempt. Once that happens, meaning once we assign motive, that someone or some group is deliberately trying to deceive or mislead or lie, then naturally they become the enemy.
This is where contempt hardens because at that point, we’ve largely eliminated the possibility that someone expressing an opposing view or opinion is simply doing so because they’ve lived a different set of life experiences or they’ve been shaped by things far different then the things that have shaped us. In recent years, we’ve decided that we no longer need to listen or compromise or concede anything.
Yet, most people I encounter on a daily basis are tired of all the yelling, hatred, division, and contempt that seem to be all the rage these days. The hard part is deciding how best to move forward and the answer is not obvious or easy. I suspect that part of what would help is deciding to take a more charitable and nuanced view of those who disagree with us or hold different opinions then ours.
Not that long ago, I was reading a blurb about JFK’s American University speech given in June 1963. At the time, it did not get much attention in the U.S, but it did have an impact around the globe and in the years since, the speech has taken on greater weight in the context of the cold war as it advocated a lessening of hostilities with the Soviet Union and suspension of nuclear testing.
What caught my attention was what JFK said about the Russians at a time when they were thought of as evil. On that hot Monday morning in June of 1963 he said “No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue… let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. “
This was a radical idea in 1963, in some circles this was seen blasphemy. But more than simply tolerating the Russians, JFK suggested something much more when he said “As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements--in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.”
In our current moment, we’re talking about our neighbors and fellow citizens. Let’s make our nation safe for diversity of thought and action and perhaps hail the accomplishments of our fellow citizens. It’s a start.