The State of the Union speech last night could’ve been very
short. We are deeply, deeply divided. And it’s fair to ask whether the level of
division at this point doesn’t trump (no pun or allusion intended, honest) our
military strength and GDP, if such are really the measures of national strength.
It’s tempting to focus on political rhetoric and the actions
of specific politicians and public personalities but this is to look in the
wrong place. A far better place to start is President Obama’s statement “that
government is the word we give to those things we do together.”
Add the word “compelled” and the statement is essentially
correct (it leaves out that the burdens quite frequently are not shared). But
it cuts in a way the President and his followers don’t acknowledge. America is
a vast nation comprised of a highly diverse people. It has been argued that
fragmentation is one of, maybe THE, defining characteristic of the modern
world. And yet onward we go finding new and more encompassing activities and it
is fair to say beliefs that we must all do together.
We are who and what we are, in and through society. The
notion of the solitary individual, even extended to the family, is a dubious
abstraction. But like porcupines forced to huddle too close together,
continually pricked by the quills of our fellow citizens, it shouldn’t surprise
that tempers have gotten rather short.
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