Yes, day-by-day the minutes cancel the hours. The days the months and the months the years.
The setting might be a restaurant or a dog park or just walking. Or sitting around a table with friends as each check their phones every minute or so.
My introduction was in Helsinki, Finland, “back in the day” as it is said. The Finnish economy was dominated by their flagship company, Nokia. Nokia led the world at the time in production of the most advanced cell phones. Everywhere I looked, walking or taking the Metro or well everywhere, cell phones were at the ready. Now Finland has banned them in schools except for learning purposes.
America, often prizing itself as the first mover, was a follower. The cell phone had become God and before long America was also at the altar.
Politics, of course, lagged. Political thinking almost always follows. Did we learn anything from Finland or elsewhere that made us better followers?
The beginnings were defined by chit chat and games. Now politics with its unwelcome brew of bitterness has caught on. I try to block the politicians, but their techies have become quite good at workarounds.
Relatedly, it is widely noted that our President is transactional. Even his allies agree. Daily if not more frequently he begins a negotiation on Truth Social with a long post often vilifying someone or thing. Currently shutting down the government is the provocation. The other side: well they are portrayed as barely human.
But this is just the most current episode of a transactional script. And at times it seems that his enemies (as he portrays them) serve up softballs. For example, the President says he is going to use the military to fight crime in the cities and his opposition screams back that he is violating the Constitution. Most people welcome a reduction in crime no matter how extra-legal the maneuver. The daily episodes are part of a script called “Make America Great Again”. Its author has yet to say which America he is talking about.
Jonathan Haidt’s caution as we Americans vent on social media: “We are getting dumber while machines are getting smarter.” We are caught up in the episodic, time spans need to be short, the long game is boring. Tactics over strategy—win the day.
But then we are shaken. Weekly shootings include the name Charlie Kirk. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, leader of Turning Point, got everybody’s attention and the questions seemed to eclipse all the hourly episodes. After all, the President, Vice President and most of his cabinet flew to Phoenix for the Memorial Service in Glendale.
For tens of thousands in attendance at the service it was a cathartic experience. For several dozen the whole event was useful—a political tool.
There was, most dramatically, the divide between Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, and President Trump; both speaking from the podium. A divide that put a spotlight on us—yes each one of us.
There are all sorts of divides in organized religion. But, the principal divide, as we might define it today, collides with civilization. The divide: Love or Hate!
The bible, which provided the raw material for civilization, collides with civilization as it unfolds in the politics of the day. The bible is clear on the hierarchy: Love as a value is uncontested. Hate certainly makes frequent appearances, but foundational love is the answer.
Erika Kirk, fighting for emotional control only days after her soulmate was gunned down, was also clear. She forgave the shooter. She knew that God had some things to say about civilization and she chose her words from transcendent stories.
Trump too talked about civilization’s hierarchy. After acknowledging Erika and her husband’s love of enemies, Trump said, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.”
Pick your side of the divide. Don’t do it quickly, as your choice will inform the rest of your life, and our collective choice will define America. Love or hate? Friends or enemies?
Everyday life tends to work against thought—the weighing of alternatives, a measured response to the really important questions facing us. Us as more than players in a game. We as Americans living in what we call the “United States”. United!
Let me wrap up by going beyond transactions and episodes. Are we comfortable with perpetual contention? Are we comfortable with an assault on “united”? The answers should inform our role in the daily dramas. If we lose the basics, we will lose our country.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
James Nick says
Erika Kirk was not playing the role of some sort of transcendental yin to trump’s yang at her husband’s memorial. Her “forgiveness” of her husband’s shooter was purely performative since she then went on to say that she would continue her husband’s legacy. That legacy is a message of pure hatred and bigotry. And, as Mr Sikes so notes, trump and his minnie-me’s reinforced that message in their speeches at the same memorial with their own hate-filled and vengeful rhetoric.
To be clear, Kirk’s legacy includes statements and posts where he:
Stated that highly successful, educated, prominent Black women did not “have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously” and had to “go steal a white person’s slot.”
Argued that “Black America is poorer, more murderous, more dangerous” than when Black people were living under Jim Crow.
Espoused the racist Great Replacement Theory that “true” Americans are being systematically replaced by brown and black immigrants.
Continuously claimed that there’s a war on white people in this country, that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to target white people”.
Asserted that Black people commit more crime than white people and that the blame lies in a Black culture that accepts that Black men “impregnate women and they don’t stay around”.
Referred to a transgender athlete as an “abomination” and called “the transgender thing” a “throbbing middle finger to God”.
Said “The pride and trans movements have always been about grooming kids.” And he pointed to a passage in the Bible that said men who lay with other men “shall be stoned to death,” saying it “affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”
Declared that Islam, the world’s second-largest religion, “is not compatible with Western civilization” and that it is a sword being used “to slit the throat of America.”
Endorsed of “some” gun deaths as a “reasonable price to pay” for unfettered gun rights.
Meanwhile, trump continues to ratchet up his hateful rhetoric aimed at anyone who dares oppose his autocratic takeover of this country. Democrats are now routinely referred to as radical left lunatics, scum, gnats, traitors, and the “enemy from within”. And he is currently at work systematically trying to incite a backlash over his military occupation of “Blue” cities in order to declare martial law.
These people have made it quite clear what side of the Love-Hate divide they have picked.
Lastly, I can’t help but to take note of Mr Sike’s incredibly naive, parochial, and chauvinistic assertion that the Bible provided the raw material for civilization. Today, Christians make up approximately 30% of the world’s population – and much, much less when the raw material of civilization was actually being created well before the Christian era. I will venture a guess that the other 70% of the globe might have a problem with Mr Sikes’s assertion. It is a tell that shows just how limited, narrow, and religiocentric the Christian worldview can be. It completely fails to recognize or credit the contributions made by the world’s non-Christian cultures, histories, technologies, and literature.