On Silos
Stuff you already know, but I gotta work out somewhere.
TL/DR: Our politics have estranged us both ideologically and geographically from ourselves.
My son sleeps. He is still recovering from an illness that has kept him out of school for almost a week. We’re hopeful that he will return tomorrow. I’m not worried about his missed assignments, but I probably should be. He’s in fourth grade now and it’s starting to get real. There are projects and everything.
I am drinking my third cup of coffee. I have taken my meds. I am also drinking water because I am drinking my third cup of coffee. I will be rearranging my visit schedule today to stay home for at least part of the day today. My wife is doing the same. And we have my step-mother pitching in for a few hours this morning. It takes a village, y’all…or at least a family.
In my humble opinion, the smallest economic unit should not be the individual. It should be the community. But I am no economist. So, do with that what you will.
The heat just came on. Interesting.
This morning I am thinking about silos…communal and political silos. It is no secret that our ideological differences are manifesting geographically as well. Cities poll one way. Rural areas poll another. Suburbs poll yet another. California votes one way. Tennessee votes another. You know the drill.
I am one of the people that worries about this reality.
Not that I want to see support for Trump, but almost all the signs in my neighborhood are Harris/Walz signs. There are a couple for the Libertarian candidate, too. But we are a white liberal enclave in the midst of a mostly liberal city surrounded by conservative-leaning counties. This voting pattern also breaks down by race here in the former capital of the Confederacy.
I get the logic. And I think that minority communities need to protect themselves in certain ways that I cannot relate to. That said, my Trump-voting family is surrounded by other Trump voters and the media they consume supports Trump. Sometimes they are even surprised and confused by the negative press Trump receives. The same can be said for those of us who live in progressive communities. We live in ideological silos. How is it possible that someone thinks differently about life the world and everything? Egads!
The holidays approach as do all those meals where I get to be the Crazy Liberal Uncle.
This creates a kind of ignorance that does not serve us as a nation. It does not serve us as communities. It does not serve us as families. We are estranged from one another in a particular and important way by both the information we consume and by the ideas we profess. We don’t share common values. We don’t share a common little-f faith. We are, essentially, not the same people. The acrimony, for example, between the City of Richmond and the surrounding suburbs is palpable and has economic and spiritual ramifications. We are not in solidarity with one another.
And that’s where my worry comes to the fore.
We are no longer the same people. How does one person govern such a nation? Is it even possible? I’m not advocating for a kind of separation in response, however. Instead, I am suggesting the opposite. We need to do whatever it takes to come together, to reconcile or heal what is broken. It begins with those of us who have the privilege of the relative safety to do so. I am not suggesting, for example, that my LBGTQ+ friends move to Lynchburg and its surrounding communities. No. I’m simply wondering if I should.
I am writing you from the comfort of a neighborhood where I can fly my Pride flag without fear of reprisal. That would end if I were to move to Huddleston, VA. We would be isolated in significant ways. And yet…
…and yet.
The holidays approach as do all those meals where I get to be the Crazy Liberal Uncle. I will be gently teased, but we won’t talk about anything of substance. It’s too hard. But maybe it’s supposed to be hard. Maybe such work should not be all sunshine and roses if we desire real and lasting healing.
I have both the Tower of Babel story and Body of Christ ecclesiology rolling around in my head.
And this:
…that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (Jn. 17:21-23)
It’s a decidedly Christian vision of a pluralistic society. We can be one “in the Spirit” while disagreeing with each other. We can be “one in the Lord” without injuring one another. But we have to want it and work for it.
What I fear is that our silos are indications that we don’t want this reality. Instead, what we want is separation and communities of sameness.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Y’all be excellent to each other.
I don't live in the USA. I don't follow a religion. I have faith in my fellow man. The vast majority of us are decent caring human beings. Most of us follow the law of reciprocity, doing unto others as we would do unto ourselves. There is no deep individual desire to heap harm onto others. That is antithetical to our nature. Division is fostered by those who seek power. They're very good at it. They have managed to reach deep into the roots of our families and communities to sow that division. They continue to do so. We have fallen for it. I don't believe it goes much deeper than that. Hatred fueled by anger that is sown with lies embedded with a grain of truth is a powerful drug of division. The powerful, our "leaders", use that drug to great affect. I will not swallow it. I will not be moved from the path of living my life with boundless friendliness towards all as my guiding intention.
Thanks for sharing your experience and opinion. I appreciate what you have to say.
I live in Huntsville Alabama. It’s sort of blue. Ish. My neighborhood has way more Trump signs than Harris Walz signs. There are people here who drive by in trucks with Trump flags. We eat and shop and work with people who I know would support bloody deportations, the end of gay marriage, and Trump’s punishment of his enemies. I know this because these people say these things on social media and IRL to me. We’ve talked with them gently about what Christianity does or has meant to us. We’ve talked about where they get their facts. We’ve talked to them about our friends who are gay or in some cases introduced them if that felt safe. The nurses among us described how Covid looked on the frontlines. In one case, a nurse I knew, a Southern Baptist woman, went to an encampment of kids taken from their parents at the border and came back saying it was WORSE than the news portrayed it. She left the church after no one budged at the news. We’ve tried facts, we’ve tried emotions. And these people still act confused when someone tells them so they don’t want to hear. I’m not in a silo but I’m beginning to think there are some cult like aspects to all this. We’re tired bordering on despair. We are afraid of what will happen on election day and afterwards. I sometimes long for a “safe place.” I wish I had an answer.