When Bernard-Henri Lévy was traveling the country for his 2005 "In the Footsteps of Tocqueville" series of articles in The Atlantic, he came to Dallas, where I was then living and, at the request of The Atlantic, I spent some time taking him to see some of the city's famous shopping. (The Container Store proved of significantly more interest than Neiman Marcus, which wasn't going to impress a Parisian.) What I remember most was passing Southern Methodist University, where my Jewish atheist husband was on the faculty, along with Muslims, Hindus, etc., etc., etc. "Why would the Methodists do that?" he asked, utterly bewildered. Rather than resorting to the usual stereotypes about guns, he should have followed that question. But he didn't. He's no Tocqueville.
I really admire the arguments in this article. Freedom, pluralism, civility go together. Civic pluralism is in line with civic and constitutional patriotism, and universal values. Relations between people are important and at the local level are crucial for community creation. America is after all an idea of constant plurality, change and openness.
I sit in the backyard with my dog and play my iTunes on shuffle. As soon as I opened this essay, my iPhone started playing the theme to the Thames Television documentary, The World at War. How apropos! I see the balkanization here in my town; Richmond, Virginia. A few months ago, on my way to the allergist in the suburbs, I saw two cars. While still in the urban corridor, I saw an electric vehicle plastered with Leftist bumperstickers, one of which said, “Fear No Art!” I may be going out on a limb, but I’m pretty sure the driver who “fears no art” supported the vandalism and removal of Confederate monuments created by world-renowned sculptors in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Further along the way, after I was well into the suburbs, I saw an SUV with multiple admonitions to “Pray!,” and one sticker claiming “My Dog Bites Democrats!” I don’t really know where we go from there. When you have iconoclastic art advocates conflating mass-produced statuary installed by the Klan with true treasures by major artists, and self-identifying Christians bragging that their dogs attack folks with whom they disagree politically, we’re heading for dark times. I’m a center-right guy who appreciates what y’all are doing here at Persuasion, but at some point the center-right and center-left have to coalesce around a practical agenda with broad support amongst independents and ignore these fringe ideologues. I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Balkanization is a much better word than tribalism. This loose use of the word tribe limits a broad understanding of what tribes are and how they operate in a society. Tribes are linked through clans with families as the base. The US inability to understand tribes lead to their disastrous policies in the tribal societies of the Middle East.
One can easily see the balkanization of the US. To some extent interregional balkanization is with us today. The alarm bell is ringing. We all need to respond.
Dear God, please give us, the pious and faithful, strength to grow beyond our intolerant, destructive and dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors on the topic of sex. Please help us realize that this, more than anything, is why so many of your flock has turned away from the church and God, and why darkness and evil seem to be enveloping all of humanity. If only we conservative Christians shed our medieval sex mythology while also starting to admit that our flock is guilty of all the sins of sex that we claim to abhor. Maybe then we will see a renewed interest in the church and God, and we will see light overtake the darkness.
When Bernard-Henri Lévy was traveling the country for his 2005 "In the Footsteps of Tocqueville" series of articles in The Atlantic, he came to Dallas, where I was then living and, at the request of The Atlantic, I spent some time taking him to see some of the city's famous shopping. (The Container Store proved of significantly more interest than Neiman Marcus, which wasn't going to impress a Parisian.) What I remember most was passing Southern Methodist University, where my Jewish atheist husband was on the faculty, along with Muslims, Hindus, etc., etc., etc. "Why would the Methodists do that?" he asked, utterly bewildered. Rather than resorting to the usual stereotypes about guns, he should have followed that question. But he didn't. He's no Tocqueville.
I really admire the arguments in this article. Freedom, pluralism, civility go together. Civic pluralism is in line with civic and constitutional patriotism, and universal values. Relations between people are important and at the local level are crucial for community creation. America is after all an idea of constant plurality, change and openness.
I sit in the backyard with my dog and play my iTunes on shuffle. As soon as I opened this essay, my iPhone started playing the theme to the Thames Television documentary, The World at War. How apropos! I see the balkanization here in my town; Richmond, Virginia. A few months ago, on my way to the allergist in the suburbs, I saw two cars. While still in the urban corridor, I saw an electric vehicle plastered with Leftist bumperstickers, one of which said, “Fear No Art!” I may be going out on a limb, but I’m pretty sure the driver who “fears no art” supported the vandalism and removal of Confederate monuments created by world-renowned sculptors in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Further along the way, after I was well into the suburbs, I saw an SUV with multiple admonitions to “Pray!,” and one sticker claiming “My Dog Bites Democrats!” I don’t really know where we go from there. When you have iconoclastic art advocates conflating mass-produced statuary installed by the Klan with true treasures by major artists, and self-identifying Christians bragging that their dogs attack folks with whom they disagree politically, we’re heading for dark times. I’m a center-right guy who appreciates what y’all are doing here at Persuasion, but at some point the center-right and center-left have to coalesce around a practical agenda with broad support amongst independents and ignore these fringe ideologues. I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Balkanization is a much better word than tribalism. This loose use of the word tribe limits a broad understanding of what tribes are and how they operate in a society. Tribes are linked through clans with families as the base. The US inability to understand tribes lead to their disastrous policies in the tribal societies of the Middle East.
One can easily see the balkanization of the US. To some extent interregional balkanization is with us today. The alarm bell is ringing. We all need to respond.
Reference to Bosnia is very touching for me because I have a similar experience from there. https://vladanlausevic.medium.com/whose-bosnia-75207e4ca727
Dear God, please give us, the pious and faithful, strength to grow beyond our intolerant, destructive and dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors on the topic of sex. Please help us realize that this, more than anything, is why so many of your flock has turned away from the church and God, and why darkness and evil seem to be enveloping all of humanity. If only we conservative Christians shed our medieval sex mythology while also starting to admit that our flock is guilty of all the sins of sex that we claim to abhor. Maybe then we will see a renewed interest in the church and God, and we will see light overtake the darkness.