“I Think, Therefore I’m Liberal” reads a bumpersticker on a Volkswagen Jetta in leafy Mount Washington, an enclave of gentrified $2M houses atop a hill in Northeast Los Angeles (“NELA” the gentrifiers call it). “I Think, Therefore I Vote Democrat” reads another bumpersticker, this time on something old and American, in the driveway of a beautiful house overlooking the crystal blue-green Coastal San Pedro Pacific Ocean, probably belonging to someone who works in the Union at the Port. I’m sure if I rode my bicycle around Ohio there would be less expensive real estate and more bumperstickers angry at Democrats than praising them. But on my bike ride this week, I heard a voice of hope, from one of our age’s greatest humanistic philosophers; Dave Chappelle. On Episode 1647 of the Joe Rogan Experience, Chappelle implored people to try something crazy; be kind to each other.
Ask left-leaning Matt Taibbi or right-leaning Thomas Sowell, and both will tell you the World is an incredibly complicated place. There are no mono-causal explanations; there are more causes for everything than you could imagine. Team Red is not all bad and Team Blue is not all good. Nowhere today is there humility, a voice that says, “Maybe I’m wrong.”
This is an era where words trump deeds, where what I say I think about politics is more important than the actions I take in my day-to-day life. Social media has programmed literally all of humanity’s worst characteristics into a death-spiral for Democracy. I got dinner with a friend this week who said his family has ceased to have holiday gatherings due to inter-family Facebook squabbles. I see custom yard signs, both hand-written and professionally produced, strewn across lawns, proclaiming on one side, “Thank you Capitol Hill Police 4 Saving Our Democracy 1-6-21,” and on the other side, “BIDEN wants unity, so we will give them exactly the same unity they gave TRUMP.” Is the country coming apart at the seams? Or are people just really, really bored?
“But they’re wrong!” (The other side). How are you so sure? Because I am the oracle, and I am right. I know absolutely everything there is to know about everything, one way or the other, about how to alleviate all poverty, approach the climate, create enough jobs for everyone, grease the wheels of the economy, make sure we don’t all die from a killer virus, and continue to save the World from terrorists, the woke, and the hedonists. My one-way interpretations of everything are completely without nuance and void of fault.
Tolstoy said, “Man's mind cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but the desire to find those causes is implanted in man's soul. And without considering the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions any one of which taken separately may seem to be the cause, he snatches at the first approximation to a cause that seems to him intelligible and says: ‘This is the cause!’”
Nothing is so complicated as politics (the politicians know this). The best part for them is that the consequences are all five, ten, twenty, fifty years into the future. So, both sides can play Santa Claus, preaching pieties to whichever Orthodoxy Team Blue or Team Red insists, and they can keep passing the buck. If there is ever an area where we as citizens should practice a bit of humility, it is with our political opinions. Massive changes to how a massive country is administered are not cut and dry.
So, here’s a thought for the week. Take a leaf out of the book of Dave Chappelle, and practice a little kindness. You might be wondering, how can I accomplish this, when everything is just, so, awful? Shut down Facebook for a week, and Instagram, and Twitter. Stop watching Rachel Maddow and Tucker Carlson, and even give Sean Hannity and NPR a rest. Stop all of it for one week; you can resume your neurosis the following week (don’t worry, the World’s awfulness won’t go anywhere).
What will you do with your new free time? How about going outside for a walk, or a jog, or a bike ride. And, when you see someone outside, say hello, like you mean it. Stranger across the street? Wave hi to them! Because we are all in it together, and we agree to disagree. This is not socialism! It’s a suggestion to just, you know, be nice; practicing kindness to our neighbors is not a call for economic redistribution. And do you know what you’ll find, if you do these things? People will be nice back to you, 90% of the time… or more! And if someone isn’t nice back to you, you can shrug your shoulders and move along, because they are probably not having a very good day. Alfred Adler, contemporary of Freud and Jung, said, “Someone has to start. Other people might not be cooperative, but that is not connected to you. My advice is this: You should start.”
What is politics for if it’s not for community (hint: it’s a hobby). Community starts at the local level. Dave Chappelle sees the many things you can do that make a difference to someone. Not everything has to be a Twitter slam dunk, and not all good deeds need to exist to sound a trumpet for your vanity. The government can’t fix everything, just take a look around. Christ implored us to, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” And whether you are a Christian or not, these are wise words. Hateful slam-dunk bumper stickers and Food-truck entreaties pleading, “Don’t Eat Here If You Support Trump” show the failure that can result from “Brotherly Love” gone wrong. Michelle Obama invited us to take the high road, “When they go low, we go high.” Try taking the high road for a week.