Why are we so divided: why are our friends posting stuff on Facebook and Twitter that makes us mad?
Why are republicans so far to the right? Why are democrats so far to the left? Why are so many married people fighting with each other? Why are preachers, avowed Christians, Catholics and other Christian denominations as well as Jews, Muslims, Hindu’s, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons and assorted smaller denominations, of which there are literally thousands, all becoming so much more divided? Many are preaching (on behalf of) politics and are dividing even many of their own congregation(s). And my question, is a plain and simple why? Why are so many human beings becoming hostile towards one another?
I just got through watching 60 Minutes and saw a segment on A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and came away dismayed that the prediction(s) for the development of this (artificial) intelligence is first of all predicted to replace 40% (or more) of menial, as well as some higher-up trade-skilled, jobs. That’s a lot of jobs to lose to (a) machine(s).
To go back in time what have caused the majority of the wars in this world? Disallowing any way-back wars, the primary reasons for WWI were militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. If that last term sounds familiar it’s because Donald Trump and many of his followers as well as some political constituents use the term as a badge of honor, Trump claiming he always puts America first and thereby is a Nationalist; disallowing, I guess history, as he so often does. For an example, David Duke, a former leader in the Ku Klux Klan was narrowly defeated in a run for governor of Louisiana in 1991 and Steve Scalise, the 3rd ranking House Republican leader, gave a speech in 2002, for David Duke. Why? Anyone remember Barry Goldwater, a senator from Arizona who was going to blow Vietnam off the planet by dropping an atomic bomb on them?
So, back to wars and what role nationalism plays in them: everything. Call it nationalism or ethnic, civic, expansionist, romantic, cultural or even Revolutionary nationalism it is still nationalism and, by any name, it causes wars because it is more accurately defined as a group of people, like the Ku Klux Klan, who use lies, racist language, bigotry and extremism to build up a large group of people who ‘follow the leader’ as if hypnotized by him (in this case Trump) to divide and conqueror. In other words to disallow all other ‘groups’ but theirs, thereby almost always ending in an argument, leading to a fight, leading to a movement, leading to a cause, leading to an elected (Trump) official declaring a national emergency to remove this group and then that group and then leading to a war, where many millions of people are killed, or in this case, annihilated.
Donald Trump has already made it known that he ‘respects’ leaders like Vladimir Putin, of Russia, Kim Jung-Un, of North Korea, Rodrigo Duterte, of the Phillipines, a man who called former President Barak Obama a “son of a whore,” and now claims he “likes” Trump, while other world leader’s like Recel Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Kazakhstan’s “president for life” Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, and Marine Le Pen, of France all have two things in common: they are all authoritarian’s dictators or wanna be’s and they, also, all have a “love affair” with Donald Trump, a wanna be himself.
How this ever became true in the avowed “freest” of all free countries, has many political experts,
lawyers, law professors, legal scholars, military experts, writers, etc. scratching their heads and, hopefully, someone can provide an answer that could have Trump impeached before a war that could end life on this planet, breaks out.
And, oh yeah, my original question stands: why, oh why, are we, human beings all, arguing so much?
Keith's Corner 