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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: November 8, 2004
Latest Update: November 8, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
A Nation Divided: Do We Believe It? Why?
United States Presidential Election Results Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Use the dialog box to see the nation-state divisions for the general election and the state dialog box to see the map for California or for Wisconsin. Then let's think about how we're being told to interpret this data, and by whom.
Janet Carlos wrote in Message # 891 on November 8, 2004:
Wow! It still amazes me to see a map that depicts how many people voted for Bush. With such a divide, with such differing mind sets how can we come together and agree on what's right for the people. I know there is no "right" answer, but is there an answer that pleases and benefits us all?Janet Carlos
Jeanne responded in Message # 891 on November 8, 2004:
Well, who knows what the answer is, Janet, but I've got a theory. If the divide was created and recreated and socially constructed and then deemed by pollsters and persuasive opinion spinners to tell us there was a divide, then maybe there really is no divide - it's just hype to get an election won. Let's face it, whoever wins has more to gain.So I'm going to ask you to consider if we really are a nation divided, or if we're being led by some fairly greedy unscrupulous people on both sides of the divide to think there is a great divide. We're pretty sure we're all for respect, for academic integrity, for non-exploitation, for non-torture, for not killing our fellow creatures if it is avoidable (it's the avoidability we're disagreeing on), for providing all humans with enough to eat and with shelter and health care. We're just arguing about who's the best party (and unfortunately we only recognize two, Rep and Dem) to guide is in the direction of our values.
I believe it was Lisa Garr on KPFK who said the other day that somehow she got caught up in the us/them Bush/Kerry battle. She reflected that there is no such simple bifurcation. She knew better. Yet she fell for it and got depressed. Me, too. Dualistic thinking has been around for a long, long time. We get suckered in. Let's try to get unsuckered and keep the discussions on this group more complex than that. I think that might be a good first step toward redefining our nation-state and defining the divide right out of it.
jeanne
When there are a few unscrupulous and unethical people, as there almost always are, in all countries in all times, who discover that they can get away with lots of greed by harming lots of people (think Leopold of Belgium and the Congo), there are always others who figure that if they can get something out of it, why not? after all, they aren't the instigators, they're just following along with the program. Germany has dealt with that issue ever since World War II. Why would good people, people who really aren't so different from us, go along with the program, a program that tortured and maimed and killed, just like Leopold's in Belgium? Because they could.
We as nation-states have never seriously questioned the means and methods and madness of our governments. Belgium managed not to know about the Congo. Indeed. Germans managed not to know about the egregious harms inflicted by Nazism. Indeed. Those Germans and Belgius people weren't so different from us. We're managing not to know about Abu Grahib, to call it an "aberration of a few bad soldiers." Beware. A willingness not to know is at the start of all war, of all oppression, of all exploitation.
Kristine said on transform_dom today, Message # 868: "I think with work and school we all get caught up in our lives that we do not follow changes that could possibly effect us directly. I will keep this in mind for the future and try to make an effort to stay more informed. I am happy that we have places like the discussion board to keep us abreast of current news/events." She's right! We get caught up in the local trivia of our lives, fairly important trivia, if you mean to survive, like whether you got enough sleep, have enough to eat, can handle the stress, stuff like that. It really matters, that stuff. So do you really matter. And yet we've never learned to keep governance discourse going, awareness of the major issues in the forefront, our eye on the ball, the better to avoid the tricksters who would make a dishonest buck off our lack of awareness. A passionate understanding of that need to know what issues are at stake and how they effect each of us in the world community is the only way I've been able to find to make a difference, a real difference, not in the vote (that's trivial by comparison), but in the minds and hearts of our countrypeople.
One important source here is Fellman's Rambo and the Dali Lama.
