Why do Americans so quickly line up into opposing sides on topics that gather consensus without controversy in most other societies? Social media and cable news don’t help us unify, but other nations have similar media landscapes. Most other cultures don’t go at it hammer and tongs like we do.
Nobody wasn’t outraged or at least saddened if they watched George Floyd’s final words wept into Minneapolis pavement. Yet our polarization took hold almost immediately. “Defund the police” called for better budgets for social services and community outreach. Others insisted more order could come only from more law enforcement.
On a topic as anodyne as face coverings to limit the spread of the coronavirus, we have a culture war. (Again, our leaders fuel this controversy. But other countries have misguided leaders without the same effect.) Like it or not, we’re living inside Dr. Suess’s fable about star-bellied sneetches shunning those without a green star, and vice versa.
The current Black Lives Matter movement and our ridiculous face-mask face-off have more in common than you might think. It’s past time for America to confront its original original sin. The moniker itself should give away the ending.
For almost four centuries, our nation has struggled to come to terms with its history with slavery and genocide. Racism came to be known as America’s Original Sin. The first slave ship arrived in America in 1619, but something worse was already here.
Puritans had already settled Jamestown, without grand ambitions except for religious freedom. They wanted mostly to be left alone to live how they believed they should. Native Americans were already here, and not eager to be converted to an ultra-orthodox version of Christianity.
Some Indigenous were slaughtered. Others were shunned. All were disdained. When African slaves arrived later, Puritans usually demurred. Those who bought slaves prided themselves for treating theirs better than their secular neighbors. Slavery was only the first example of Americans’ sneetch-like reflex to separate into “us” and “them.”
The slavery was bad. The sanctimony was — and is — worse.
Everyone in America is holier than thou. It’s just that everyone looks askance at a different “thou” they consider themselves holier than. It’s not just police funding and public health strategies. It’s everything. Did you bring your own shopping bag or not, and did the person ahead of you in the grocery lane do the same? We can’t help but notice.
Does your neighbor drive an electric car or do they insist it’s more important to buy American? Or do they justify their SUV around safety for their children? Or is driving itself proof that they lack the moral fiber interwoven with your carbon fiber bicycle frame?
Are you an Amazon shopper to save money or to reduce vehicle trips? Or is supporting local merchants more important than convenience and selection? Are the eggs in your refrigerator white or brown? I’ll bet you buy the same color every time — because you somehow consider them (and yourself) better.
We’re constantly watching for those we deem lesser. The habit of sanctimony has enslaved us all.
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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) writes a column each Friday for The Register-Guard and blogs at www.dksez.com.
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I think you exaggerate the number of people who act on this “holier than thou” basis. I agree that people do things for their reasons and often are surprised that other people see things differently. But I still think the dominant attitude among most people is “I’ll do it my way and you can do it your way” rather than “My way is better than yours and therefore I am better than you!” Maybe your experience is different from mine.