Us v. Them

"Everyone Who Isn't Us Is An Enemy."

                  - Game of Thrones

Once upon a time in America, friends and relatives and co-workers could have differing opinions on any number of topics -- and remain friends. Philosophies and viewpoints could be discussed, analyzed, even debated, at dinner tables, civic meetings, sporting events -- whatever. People shook hands, and maybe an occasional head, and went on about their business. When did polite society devolve into a battlefield where one side might view the other as uninformed and misguided but still good people, while the other side believes those people who don't believe exactly what they do are Satan incarnate and should be reviled, even verbally and physically assaulted? "If you don't agree with me, you're the enemy." How ridiculous is that? Manners and civility have in many quarters taken a back seat to antipathy and aggression.

What is that? How did it start? How and why did it spread? The bigger question may be: how will it end? Who, precisely, is Us and who is Them? Aren't all of us part Us and part Them? All of us have surely thought positively on one subject and negatively on another. Where is it written that we must all think uniformly about any and everything? Now, if all of our thoughts and opinions don't conform to what some behind the scenes wizards think they should be, we become a Them? That is chilling in its implications.

Am I an Us or a Them? "Neither" is the correct answer. Making a choice wouldn't even be natural. Human beings are much more complex creatures than a mere either/or, always grappling with conflict and dichotomies and what ifs. We used to be able to nod and smile about our differences of opinion and move on. We need to get back there.