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http://cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20200830-everythingisonfire.mp3
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A poll conducted by Gallup in 1958 found that about 30% of political partisans wanted to see their daughters marry a man of the same political party, though most people didn’t have a strong preference. That same poll conducted in 2016, though expanded to sons as well, found that 60% of partisans now wanted to see their kids marry someone of their own political party. Why the radical shift? Why have political views become such a central part of our identities?
Well, obviously part of it is the divisive figure we found in Trump in the 2016 election. People on the right support Trump because they see him as a warrior who somehow wins battles against the left by agitating and offending them. But the benefit of a real war, when you win it anyway, is that the people who opposed you are now dead, and the remaining survivors have acquiesced to your demands. In contrast, Trump’s “war” against the left is not really a war that can be won. The people whom he incites to hatred and suspicion, on both sides, still live and remain as neighbors, sisters, sons, and mothers. Some of them roam the streets in cosplay armor setting buildings on fire or carrying rifles. This battle being waged by Trump and his supporters, as well as his detractors, is a battle of slogans and radical, paranoid ideologies. The winners of this battle are, and will continue to be, the radicals on both extremes. As Trump pushes moderate liberals to the extreme left and the extreme left pushes moderate conservatives to the Trump right, we get no closer to resolving our issues and making peace despite our differences, but we grow more and more suspicious of our families, our friends, and our coworkers. Trump is like Randall Flagg in Stephen King’s massive novel The Stand. He shows up and everyone wants to murder each other.
Another reason for our growing political polarization is that families have broken down and religious affiliation has weakened. In the past, identity was built on family relationships, religious convictions, and community ties, but increasingly people are building their identity on their connection to a political party, or at least to the hatred of another party—every movement needs a devil, a god is optional. So politics has become the new religion. This religionizing of politics is of course made worse by churches which are made up of people of only one political persuasion.
But another obvious answer is social media. I’ve been thinking a lot about the benefit of social media to my life and to the world around me. On the one hand, I’ve met so many interesting people and come across so many fascinating new ideas. I can also keep up with loved ones and reconnect with old friends.
On the other hand, I’ve watched people whose political views I had never even been aware of before become radicalized as fake news and uninformed opinion shifts their views out of the mainstream—a problem only exacerbated by the political polarization spurred on by Trump and his radical left wing opponents. While interesting ideas that were out of the mainstream suddenly have a voice through the democratization of social media, terrible misinformation and radical conspiracy theories are now also given an equal platform with carefully vetted news items. Imagine Walter Cronkite sharing a story about lizard people pedophiles alongside a story about the Iran Hostage Crisis as if both had an equal claim to our attention and belief. These conspiracy theories spread like wildfire because they stimulate our primitive fear of the other and our suspicion that someone is out to get us. Social media reinforces our worst instincts and our worst habits of thought.
If social media were something that borrowed only a small amount of our attention, maybe its consequences for social discourse would not be so dire. But social media is designed to work like drug addiction. Over a very short time, we become habituated to checking our feeds constantly, posting our pictures or opinions for the little shot of dopamine we get from the artificial reinforcement of “likes,” and we find that it takes time away from our families and creates distance from the real life people that we care about.
We live in an amazing time marked by incredible progress. Free markets and the Judeo-Christian value of the importance of human life have made a world our ancestors couldn’t have dreamed of. Poverty is being eradicated. Violent crime has taken a downward trajectory. Regular people have a standard of living that would make medieval kings drool. And yet we’re miserable and suspicious because we have no hope for the future and are terrified that someone is going to take our stuff.
If I had no hope in Jesus, in the resurrection of the dead, and in the restored world that the Bible promises us, I would be full of despair. I’m not, thankfully, but I am going to distance myself from the things that distract me from hope. And not just from hope, but from my family, from the time I could spend playing with my daughter or reading books collecting dust on my shelves while I argue with strangers on Facebook and become more fearful and paranoid about the people around me.
I’m going to keep sharing my videos, podcasts, and articles, but I’m going to spend a lot less time looking for a fight and finding one by spending my free time on social media. I hope you’ll consider doing the same.
Music credit:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk