A World View

I had hoped to avoid political posts, but I felt like this was necessary.

The more I hear about the history of the Republican party and their goals, the more I am disheartened. The distinction between Democrats and Republicans used to be about policy. It used to be about political means to achieve the same ends.

Sadly, that is not the case anymore. What I increasingly see in the Republican party is a need to paint themselves as the beset upon minority, crying for attention and justice when no injustice has occurred. Much of this might have to do with the cultural shift in this country that has taken place over the last 40 years. In that time...

• The issue of abortion was decided in Roe v. Wade.
• The Vietnam War left a lasting scar on the American psyche about extended wars overseas and the meaning of American Empire.
• It's been a period of larger than usual ups and downs in the American Economy coupled with regulation and then deregulation of various industries.
• There's been a rise in the vocal wants of Christian religious groups in response to (what they see as) the deterioration of American morality.

What's really going on is that America is changing in a way that hasn't been seen since the turn to the 20th century. The values of new immigrants and the changing values from the religiously disaffected make certain groups feel like their way of life is waning and that a new, less-moral, less WASP way of life is taking its place.

You know what? They're right. But the goal should not be to defeat this change. Their goal should not be to say that X is responsible for all our problems and all the affronts I feel from society. Change is scary to people. For many, it represents an unknown quantity forcing it's way into their comfortable equations about life, family, society, and the world. Change is not always necessary, but in this case it is unavoidable.

So what do you do? Scream louder? Lay the blame at more feet? Take the other guy to task for ruining your life just because of his existence?

It's not his fault, but at the same time it's not their fault. Certainly some in American society can be blamed for continuing old traditions while not adapting to a world that changes around them, but the change is not always their doing.

America can not make the world change to the way it wants it to be, so everyone better learn to find that part of a peaceful life amongst the world community that they need in order to progress.

I feel like it's God's version of tough love. "O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you" (Quran 49:13)

People better start learning to love thy neighbor, or we won't have any neighbors left.