Clearly, the ideological conflict of our time is unsustainable. Call it Democratic versus Republican; call it progressive versus traditional. Whatever the names, which are so often unhelpful, we feel collectively stuck, with decreasing options at constructive resolution.
We don’t know the depth of it, for one. As an example, some say that certain problems began at America’s founding, that we were born in the hypocrisy of slavery. Some say that it extends back to the establishment of the slave trade itself - or perhaps even to Europe’s conquest of the New World in the 16th century.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Some say we’ve fully addressed those problems, whereas some strongly disagree.
The future is equally murky. Our corporations and cities are become battlegrounds for our best American virtues, social equality and capitalism. Juiced by the rise of technology, outsized companies and popular cities struggle with their obligations, how their amazing wealth should be used.
And we’ve seen the government struggle to keep pace – never has the federal power appeared more vital yet divided and paralyzed. At least the rebels identified themselves and their ambitions in the Civil War.
How does an era pass away into history?
It is not always through a great moral or wartime victory. It’s so difficult for us as Americans now, because we crave the Westward Expansion, V-E Day, the Civil Rights Act – something in line with our triumphant story. It just seems that so many of us have forgotten what our true story is. We rose above our problems by deliberately forming and improving a common enterprise – the United States has been an opportunity. We knew what the rest of the world was like and we knew we could do better.
Now, we have willful ignorance. Some people would throw away the advances in minority rights, everything Black leaders fought for, in constant agitation, forever playing the victims of decades past as their communities fall apart. Some people long for the mid-20th century stability of white towns across the land, waiting and churning in vain for their shops and jobs and health to come back.
And, our leaders, who have watched all this with a cold eye, flounder now. We are to the point where going bigger won’t solve it.
A new era is here. Sometimes I think of the millions of Hispanic people here – a more newly settled population. But are they? Some of their ancestors were here before we were. Sometimes I wonder if our pettiness will give way to the vibrancy and simplicity of those cultures, because they are different. I should know – I am married to one, and she has altered my views.
America’s raw strength remains – its virtues, though in conflict, hold it together. And, God inevitably remakes the earth and the affairs of men. Today’s crisis shall likely usher in a new time of fragmentation, a time when foundations shift and we can no longer depend on what we did before. I think of Matthew 24:34 – “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Perhaps this is how God reminds us of who He is.
Our new era might be difficult. More people could lose careers and wealth they’ve spent a lifetime building up. More people could lose their homes and go hungry. There could be more violence. Americans are not patient now – instantaneous transfer of information has made a panic of things. Our feelings don’t have time to catch up with our thoughts, and it seems like the end.
The end, of course, it is not. In the face of an impersonal, confusing enemy, we must let history take its course, resigned to use what remains of us – our common enterprise, our American belief that each one has a place. That is still why foreign people flock into this country. We must honor people again at a local level – speak kindly to the cashier and the nurse and the teacher. As we’ve now seen, we can’t function without them. We must honor our business leaders and managers who truly care about their employees. We can’t function without them either.
America is not too big to fail. But the country is also not too big to rescue.
In this new era, in this age of fragmentation, it will take the humble, helpful, everyday people to rescue and sustain us. Because that’s where we’re headed, maybe for a while – towards diminution, like it or not..
Douglas D. Ford is a commercial litigation and criminal defense attorney in metro Atlanta.
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