We are reared in a culture bent on easy solutions to complex problems.
| “My Official Presidential Portrait”, by Tim Holmes |
We feel an ache and immediately want to swallow a palliative. We’re confronted with a horrible leader like Trump––who incites a riot against the government–– and want to do the same. But like a disease, Trump is merely a symptom of a deeper problem. We cannot cure ourselves by minimizing the symptoms. We will never recover from our horrible disease without digging down and addressing the root of the problem.
As Isabel Wilkerson points out in her marvelous book Caste, our great nation was founded on the principles of equality but constructed on those of caste. Unfortunately racism has been overlaid on top of that problem, making us believe that if we address racism the problem will be solved. But as horrid as racism is, the issue is yet deeper than that. We must cure ourselves of the temptation to believe in any separation of the worthy from the unworthy, of the “chosen” from the rest. In a true democracy based on equality, all participants are worthy. Yet we’ve never yet lived the truth that all are created equal.
This is where democracy becomes difficult for all of us! I myself would love to think of the under-educated as unworthy, or the violence-oriented, or gun rights activists, or pro lifers who advocate for the death penalty (while of course I am worthy!) It is always difficult to stand up for the rights of those with whom we vehemently disagree. But if we are to exorcise the demon in our midst we have to embrace that fundamental idea. That is democracy at work; never quite palatable and the worst form of government yet… except––as Churchill reminds us–– for all the others!
