Red vs Blue was a series of computer-generated video episodes based on the popular Halo game of a science fiction military conflict between two sides. Primarily comedy. Primarily silly stuff. But people liked it. I personally see it as an analogy for our day. Today in America we live in a "Red vs Blue" environment where everyone is "Red" -- leftist lunatics -- or "Blue" -- rightwing whackos -- depending on your particular leaning. It is interesting, actually, to observe. If you are a liberal, carefully fed by CNN or some of the other prevalent media, you see the primary problem in America as "the Right". They are intolerant, ignorant, unreasoning beasts willing to go to extremes to accomplish their subjugation of our nation to their whims. If you are a conservative, religiously imbibing the Rush Limbaugh/Tucker Carlson style of the media stream, you see the primary problem in America as "the Left". They're out to eliminate capitalism and democracy, to take everything the rich have and line their pockets with it, and to subjugate the nation to their whims.
I've been surprised at this sharp and very blind divide. Think about it. I'm a registered Republican. "SEE!? You're one of those Proud Boys types!" Not at all. "You're a crazy Trump lover!!" Absolutely not. In fact, my views fall amazingly close to center rather than left or right. But it doesn't matter, does it? You'll still classify me as "one of those" and warn people away from "his way of thinking" ... even when it coincides with yours. We tend to categorize people into extremely narrow pidgeon holes that could not possibly contain all that they are being forced to contain. And that's the end of it. We cannot talk about it. We cannot examine it. We cannot possibly be wrong. End of discussion.
You can see, I hope, that this is neither reasonable nor helpful. In fact, it leads to all sorts of problems. I saw a bumper sticker that declared "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Got it. Red vs Blue. The true enemies of America are patriotism and Christianity. Rash and overreaching generalizations that make the conversation pointless. We cannot examine the real issues. We cannot learn what we as individuals really think. We can't figure out what the real problems are or the real solutions might be. But what we do know is that we are not the problem; they are. Which gets us nowhere.
2 comments:
It's so much easier to talk against, about, and for generalizations, so we do that. We want the easy way. I forget what topic it was but I heard someone say that we need to enact this particular law because of those few cases that would make not having this law more difficult to navigate. For the sake of ease, we're willing to ignore the particulars. Same thing happens when generalizing theological positions. Oh, you're a TULIP Calvinist, so you must believe this way, even though you don't believe what they say you believe, while still identifying as a Calvinist.
I think that part of this problem is that our society is very accepting of categorizing people based on how someone else categorizes them, not how they categorize themselves. I've been abundantly clear that I am ambiguous about Trump at best. Yet I'm frequently categorized as someone who is 100% on the Trump train. Like you, I'm probably more to the center (or at least the center as of 50 years ago) on most issues, and lean slightly left on a couple. But if I let others define me, you'd think I was some sort of right wing fanatic.
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