The Ethical Dogmatist
We The People Making US Loupey — US versus Them
Sophia: Gentlemen, I observe a peculiar illness afflicting the body politic today: a deep, self-inflicted polarization. Walls are being erected, but they are built not of brick, but of mutually assured misunderstanding. Where do you find the fracture beginning?
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Thomas: The fundamental mistake is the failure of imagination. We are citizens of the world, first and foremost. If people truly embraced that our deepest faith should be in acts of universal kindness and that our only borders are those of decency, then the petty quarrels over nationality or party would simply dissolve. We forget that we are all kin.
Sophia: A noble blueprint, Thomas. Yet, Charles, you described the psychological lock that prevents us from realizing that bond.
We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.
— Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)
Charles: Indeed. The division is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. We first harbor ill will toward those we haven't bothered to learn about. But once that animosity takes root, we then refuse to seek knowledge of them, specifically so the initial hatred remains justified. The unwillingness to look is the source of the persistent blindness.
Sophia: The stubborn maintenance of prejudice... And José, you saw this impulse amplified, taking on a collective, national form.
The attitude of insolent haughtiness is characteristic of the relationships Americans form with what is alien to them, with others.
— José Saramago (1922-2010)
José: When a powerful nation looks out at the world, that refusal to understand becomes something much worse: arrogance. The belief that one's own culture is the singular measure of civilization creates a haughty detachment from anything foreign. This national hubris prevents true exchange, turning every interaction with the "other" into an assertion of superiority. The "us" becomes defined by looking down on "them."
Sophia: A powerful indictment of exceptionalism. And Bill, you observe a strange contradiction in the rules they choose to follow to enforce this superiority.
I have a problem with people who take the Constitution loosely and the Bible literally.
— Bill Maher (1956-present)
Bill: My patience wears thin when I see their priorities. They treat the document that founded their system of inclusive, adaptable governance—the one meant to unite everyone—with a casual, convenient disregard, interpreting it however suits the moment. Yet, they cling to the most absolute, literal readings of ancient religious texts to justify their current social and moral judgments, regardless of whom those judgments exclude. The flexibility is applied where there should be rigor, and the rigidity is applied where there needs to be grace.
Sophia: So the fracture begins with forgetting our universal kinship, is deepened by a willful ignorance of the unfamiliar, manifests as a cultural superiority, and is maintained by a selective, self-serving morality. To mend the society, then, requires not just bridges, but honesty about the books we choose to live by.
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Heraclitus
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