Why Do We Disagree?

And How Can we Reglue Society? (Part Two)

By Shlomo Maital

   It is all too easy to attribute the “visceral divisiveness” that now afflicts American society – whites against blacks, Republicans against Dems, blue collar vs. white collar, educated vs. uneducated, immigrants vs. locals — to a nasty tweeting President. But that is too facile.   Trump has used an underlying trend to get elected, but he didn’t create it.

   The trend? David Brooks (NYT, International edition, Nov. 1, op-ed) puts his finger on it, as he often does.

     He quotes a political scientist, Alex Theodoridis: “Partisanship for many Americans today takes the form of a visceral, even subconscious attachment to a party group. Our party becomes a part of our self-concept in deep and meaningful ways.”

     When politics is used as a cure for spiritual and social loneliness, it’s harder to win people over with policy or philosophical arguments. I.e., dialogue becomes impossible. We become deaf.

       Long ago, Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, described America’s social and spiritual loneliness, through the metaphor of bowling – Americans used to bowl together, now, they no longer do. (See the diagram above). Nor do they do many other social activities. And the ‘social media’ of the smartphone are really not social at all, because there is no real human contact involved.

       The fix?   Deeper communal bonds have to be repaired.  If we have strong social bonds, our political bonds need not be visceral, but even peripheral, as they used to be.

     But how?   I have absolutely no idea. I do know that personally, my wife and I have moved to a new city, and joined a new synagogue community, and take enormous pleasure and comfort in it. I truly wish this could be a result for everyone. The community we joined has a wide spectrum of political beliefs. What joins us are many other things,   prayer, study, social events, etc.  This does not cure the political divisiveness, which in Israel is if anything more fierce and visceral than in the US.