Us Versus Them

Essay

I find explaining the difference between conservative and liberal ideals with this thought to be succinct and accurate:

Conservatives want to keep us safe from THEM; Liberals want to keep us safe.

Apparently liberals don't see a 'them'. Are they right? Are we 'themless'? I say we try to figure it out. Conservatives want to hire more police, keep guns in their homes and put lawbreakers behind bars to protect their valuables and their loved ones from attack.

Liberals want to prevent the creation of lawbreakers in the first place, which is accomplished by using social programs to end impoverishment and other preventable sorrows. Liberals want fewer guns, cops and jails. Conservatives don't want to give their tax money away to the lazy. The two theories are polar opposites. How can we resolve this?

Well, we have done both in the last few decades-- increased social programs and decreased them; increased security and decreased it. Why don't we let the results speak for themselves? Boy oh boy would I love to, but it's very tough. The problem is spin.

Spin is not a recent addition to the passing along of information, but it's use has increased dramatically to the point that many people don't know what to believe. In most simple terms, it is a way of using the same information say two opposite things. As an example:

A lawyer asks the defendant if he/she is has ever lied.

If he says no, because by and large he is an honest person, the lawyer will challenge him, "You never lied? Ever? Not once?" making him seem like a liar.

If he says yes because we all know that everybody lies, the lawyer will label him a liar 'by his own admission' and not allow him to explain himself. Regardless of the answer, the person will be made out to be a liar.

Misinformation is another way to cloud the truth from the public, so they don't know which way to vote come election time. A statement is crafted to hide certain facts from the light, as in:

Abstinence education in teens prevents unwanted pregnancy.

One side agrees with the thought, and it seems immensely logical to agree: Don't have sex and you won't become pregnant. Simple, really.

The other side disagrees vehemently, because an important fact was left out of the statement: Teens are raging bowls of hormonal reactions, and the only way to prevent some of them from having sex is with a sledge hammer or a chastity belt. As it turns out, raging hormones wins over cool reason, in teens, every day of the week. When abstinence education became law (to the exclusion of safe sex education), the number of teen pregnancies went up dramatically. The percentage of teens who followed through with the promise of abstinence until marriage was low, and even lower once other non-vaginal sexual acts were factored in.

Okay, I don't want to side-track. The facts are simple. People who are starving or sick need help. If they don't get help, they will either help themselves or die. Survival instinct prevents the death when it can, so people, by nature, will strive to survive, even if it comes to theft.

That is a fact.

When a conservative wants a gun to kill that thief, he is in actuality depriving the family of a breadwinner. The family suffers, and children growing up in poverty and suffering do not make warm and fuzzy adults, which propels the problem into the future.

When a liberal wants everyone to share a little bit of their taxes so that a program can be established to help the least of us survive (and even flourish), it helps create one more asset to society as a whole.

I assert there is no them. When we hear the statement 'It's us or them!' we might agree, as each of us hears the statement in our own ears, and we're each thinking of all the vast unknowable others out there, some of whom must have malice in their hearts.

But then, aren't each of us hearing this? You may envision a whole buncha 'theys' out there, ready to beat down your gate, but each other person is also envisioning 'theys', and (this is important) You are one of them.

"Wait," you say, "I'm one of the good guys... I can't be one of them!"

You're right. You're not one of 'them'. Why? Because there is no them. There are only US. Some of us are doing well, and are happy. Sadly, some of us are also hurting.

I like to use the example of World Family. You love your own family-- we all do (well, mostly... but that's a topic for a whole 'nother blog). We wouldn't let a member of our family starve-- we would feed them. but, and this is a big one, we wouldn't feed our beloved family member forever, fuggedaboudit! We would see to it that they got the training necessary to be able to feed themselves... and their own family when the time comes, too. We would be responsible for helping them become self-sufficient. Perfectly logical.

I agree that it would be behaving way above and beyond duty for you to bring a hurting stranger into your home and do the same thing for them, even though that's exactly what some people do. Those people are called good Samaritans, or perhaps more accurately, angels. Thankfully, this is something you don't have to do, thanks to a program our benevolent society has created. All you have to do is contribute a small amount of your yearly salary and all the hurting strangers everywhere can become self-sufficient.

But you don't have to waste your tax dollars that way. You can be a conservative and try to end the program so you don't have to support the 'freeloaders'. Then you can buy a gun and pick them off when they come to your door for handouts. If you don't kill them with the first shot, for goodness sake don't shoot again-- you could be charged with 2nd degree murder! Nah, just call one of the cops your tax dollars pay for and send the guy to court, which your tax dollars pay for, to stand in front of a judge (whom your tax dollars pay for) who will send the guy to jail, a tax dollar project, to live out his life (which at last count, was something like 25,000 tax dollars a year, per prisoner).

This blog always references back to Perfect World Theory, and that's what it's gonna do now.

IF we made sure that every adult was self sufficient, and that every child received an adequate education to become self-sufficient, then there would be no more deadbeats. Ever.

IF, instead of punishing people for being poor, we were to test them, find their strengths and train to those abilities, that person would become suitably employed in an area that they like. Imagine that--people enjoying their jobs-- what would that accomplish?

IF we got it right with education and employment testing, and everyone were suitably and contentedly employed, we wouldn't have to shell out money for social programs like Welfare and Food Stamps anymore. We could also cut down on the tax money spent to employ cops, judges and prison guards, and the large tax expenditures of courthouses and prisons.

What is the first step to achieving this noble Perfect World goal? Swallow your fear! Be brave! Stop watching all those scary cop shows, each which hosts an ever more terrifying bad guy each week in order to garner ratings to stay on the air. Convince yourself that virtually everybody is good, and that the few people who don't seem good are actually just hurting.

Then encourage laws which reduce or eliminate jail time for nonviolent offenses. Encourage work training programs that actually measure a person's abilities and suggest specific employment routes. For the people in jail, have them work at real jobs for the outside world-- building products in prison-controlled factories, bookkeeping, even customer relations and phone help lines. Allow them to support themselves and their families on the outside with the real wages they make.

Work on our school systems. We have stripped away almost everything from the public schools that is not tested for-- music and art, sports, shop and home economics. All that's left is math and science, and reading. Public schools once produced many keen minds that contributed greatly to our social fabric, but now the minds are frustrated and aren't allowed to flourish-- how is that good for our country?

After school programs. Kids are not only our future, they are also our most salvageable terrorists. Kids left alone with other kids and no adult supervision leads to drugs, alcohol, violence and gangs. Didn't we all read Lord Of The Flies? Keep the kids positively occupied. Heck, have after school homework, then sports, then arts, then games, then bed! Kids need guidance-- be sure they have some kind of positive guidance at all times.

Remember that some things spread through the population like wildfire: the common cold, yawning, lighting a cigarette... and fear. Don't let it happen. Spread the good.

And remember... we is us, not them.

Copyright 2009 Bruce Ian Friedman