Thread by @HeatherEHeying

A vote is not a valentine.

It seems that we differ, more publicly and more virulently, in our politics, than we ever have before. We are imagining the worst in each other. Fueled by anger and tribalism, we conflate disagreement with an idea, with dislike for a person. [1/11]

https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1323303101525336069

I didn’t vote for Trump, although to my surprise, I did consider it this year. I also didn’t vote for Biden. Both have disastrous potential. Many on the left see imminent threats from our own side. For having this opinion, we are called blind, racist, traitors, fascists, more. 2/

In 1992, riots erupted in Los Angeles, after Rodney King was beaten on camera by police officers, and a jury then acquitted the officers of assault. In the midst of those riots, Rodney King famously asked, “Can we all get along?” 3/

It seemed laughable to me at the time, Rodney King’s appeal to peace and calm. Of course we can’t all get along. We’re barbarous apes after all. 4/

But I’ve changed my tune. Yes, we’re competitive and territorial, and these qualities have the capacity to derange us. But we are also collaborative and loving, and these qualities have the capacity to enhance us. 5/

In 1651, Hobbes wrote that the lives of humans without a central government are “nasty, brutish and short.” He was right, to a point. The state helps keep our worst parts in check. We seek the equilibrium wherein it can step back, and allow us to discover our best parts. 6/

"The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with." -Joseph Brodsky, 1984. 7/

And this, from the great Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I shared this, along with the Brodsky quotation above, on #DarkHorseLive27, in the end of June 2020. 8/

Family turning against one another, some factions admonishing their adherents that they must disavow their loved ones if they do not conform—we are falling, foolishly and ravenously and exuberantly, into our worst selves. 9/
reuters.com/article/us-usa…

I have made a list of readings—history, philosophy, fiction—that explores human nature and our politics; time, memory, and resistance; emotion, manipulation, and truth. Normally it would be for my Patreon subscribers only, but this is available to all. 10/
patreon.com/posts/43467998

I will end here, once more, with the words of Rodney King. Naïve? Perhaps. Optimistic? Yes. Prescient? Let us most fervently hope.

“Can we all get along?”