November 7, 2004

9:58 AM

Balkanization. Here in the US we're so busy yelling about our disbelief that the "other side" could be so stupid, we can't get our heads around the idea that we simply disagree and we're as plural as ever. (more inside)
posted by alumshubby (3 comments total)

When I first read William Gibson's Virtual Light, I was struck by how he'd tapped into a sense I'd had for a while that the United States is fracturing along social and cultural lines. That's resonated with me; I read Joel Garreau's The Nine Nations of North America, which offers a social and cultural alternative geography that almost captures the flavor of what I've been feeling, but leaves out the political divisions -- which we've been discussing since Election Day in terms of red and blue states.

I' don't think we're cleanly that separated geographically, but we're growing apart pychologically, and the elections are just the most recent example of this. We get so exercised about our divisions that we've gotten to where we can't have a decent discussion on MeFi without it devolving into a feces-fling-fest. (Like this one.)

Back before politics turned into a blood sport, it was helpful to understand differences of political opinion as stemming from disagreements over the relative importance of the issues underlying the various viewpoints. For example, I've often thought that the whole gun-control conundrum boils down into whether you think it's more important to have free access to firearms or to restrict that access to try to stem violence. But the pro-gun and gun-control folks wind up screaming at each other that they're idiots/pod people/control freaks etc. rather than recognizing that they're disagreeing over what's more important to them -- having guns if they want them or keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. You could make the same comparison of what's more important on a lot of issues: abortion, the war on drugs, Iraq, gay marriage, and the rest of the usual suspects. But the bottom line is, we've been getting more polarized as time goes on.
posted by alumshubby at 9:58 AM on November 7, 2004

If ever there has been a civil time and tone in politics, it existed only because the party in power was not as partisan, mean-spirited and exclusionary as seems to be the norm. I suppose you could define it as the difference between a politician and a statesman. So long as there are Atwaters, Roves, Gingrichs, Reeds and DeLays there will be rancor.
posted by nofundy at 10:50 AM on November 7, 2004

Back before politics turned into a blood sport

wow, that must have been way back when metafilter only posted best of the web links!
posted by quonsar at 11:13 AM on November 7, 2004