Three cheers for moderation!

[Image: us battleflag]I just finished reading the book Empire, by Orson Scott Card. The book itself is good fiction and entertaining, well written and fairly political. If that’s up your alley, then I saw drop the $25 immediately and get yourself a copy.

But what really grabbed me was the Afterword. The book itself is based around a fictional near-future American civil war. It’s creepy in its plausibility, and Card knows it. This is not State of Fear.

Although his argument presumes some information not presented, and his analogies are not always the best he could have chosen, Card absolutely nails the biggest problem in modern America: political divisiveness. He makes the claim—and here is an instance where I would be interested to see evidence—that this is the most politically nasty our country has been since the 1850s.

As I grow older and find myself more discouraged with politics in general, I’ve become less of an idealist. I’m realizing that my political views fall all over the map - I agree with libertarians here, democrats there, and republicans somewhere else. But, like your job, your political leanings put you in a category, they brand you one way or another. And it’s all or nothing - you’re one of the team or you’re an imbecile.

I’m guilty of this too. I can’t count the number of times I’ve called someone an idiot—mostly in private—for disagreeing with me. It’s human nature to think you’re right and the other guy is wrong.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of people, dare I even say the majority of people in the United States have pretty rational reasons for their beliefs. And before you ask, yes, I’m counting religious belief as a “rational reason.” Because like it or not, people are religious. We’re like that. And in terms of human psychology and actions, a religious belief is just as compelling (or more so) than cold hard unemotional petri dishes.

It just so happens (and Card says this too) that the most successful civilizations in history have been ones that allowed some freedom to a persons individual beliefs. Hell, the United States is supposed to be founded on tolerance. But I’ll be the first to say that none of use are really that tolerant. Tolerant people (that’s me) are usually just intolerant of intolerant people.

In short, the whole thing’s a mess because everyone is too busy blaming “the other side” for things that everyone is equally guilty of: being idiots.

Card is far more eloquent than I am, but I suggest you pick up the book in the store and read the whole essay:

Because we haven’t had a civil war in the past fourteen decades, people think we can’t have one now. where is the geographic clarity of the Mason-Dixon line? When you look at the red-state blue-sate division in the past few elections, you get a false impression. The real division is urban, academic, and high-tech counties versus suburban, rural, and conservative Christian counties. How could such widely scattered “blue” centers and such centerless “red” populations ever act in concert?

But any rational observer has to see that the Left and Right in America are screaming the most vile accusations at each other all the time. We are fully polarized—if you accept one idea that sounds like it belongs to either the blue or the red, you are assumed—nay, required—to espouse the entire rest of the package, even though there is no reason why supporting the war against terrorism should imply you’re in favor of banning all abortions and against restricting the availability of firearms; no reason why being in favor of keeping government-imposed limits on the free market should imply you are also in favor if giving legal status to homosexual couples and against building nuclear reactors.

Card’s essay is about how we are all doing this. I remember some statistic a while back about how there are actually more “independent” voters now than there ever have been before, so I’m tempted to disagree with Card’s assertion that “we live in a time when moderates are treated worse than extremists” may not be quite the truth. It may just be that the most vocal proponents of either cause seem to over-represent the division.

But regardless, it’s important to remember that everyone, even your political opponent, is a person. And just because they might disagree with you doesn’t mean they don’t deserve your respect and friendship.

And just for the record, I don’t expect people to get all warm and fuzzy and hold everyone else’s hand. It’s really impossible for everyone to share one opinion, and I’d be damn worried if that happened. I just think it’s time we all stopped stereotyping and pointing fingers and started respecting each others opinions and beliefs. We can live together.