Thread by @sometimesalight

I think about this quote from Dorothy L. Sayers a lot. It's from the essay "Why Work?" published in 1942 in the middle of WW2.

This bit from Sayers gets me every time: "The root causes of conflict are usually to be found in some wrong way of life in which all parties have acquiesced,
and for which everybody must, to some extent, bear the blame."

Sayers was writing in context of a literal war, but the principle applies to the ideological wars that often precede physical violence. The principle applies to how we engage in culture wars.

At root, we've all bought into certain categories & ways of life that have resulted in the conflict. It appears we're on dif sides & we likely feel a rush of righteous justification on being on the "right" side. But deep down, most of us are holding the same categories & values.

This is what makes it impossible to move forward--few people are willing to rethink underlying values. Few people in modern west, e.g., are willing to question how tightly we hold to self-creation, personal rights, & lifestyles of consumption.

But often, it's these very categories that are the root of our cultural tensions. That they express themselves differently on right & left is beside the point. Until we excavate these flawed paradigms, we'll be stuck.

If you want to break out of dead-end of culture wars, you'll need to learn to ask, "Why now? Why this way?" You'll need to look past the symptoms to the systems.

And if your answer comes back exclusively "they" or "them," I'm afraid you've missed the point entirely.

This doesn't mean that we ignore culture wars--these are real pragmatic issues that need in real time solutions. It does mean that your answer to the culture wars can't be to simply point the finger & batten down the hatches.

Solutions to our cultural questions require that we use the language of "we." How did "we" get here? What have "we" all acquiesced to that has brought about this current conflict? How are "we" going to move forward?

And when you do this work, you often find that a whole slew of cultural tensions have the same basic source. A particular flaw or categorical error that has become endemic in a society producing a wide-variety of symptoms.

All that to say, I really don't trust folks whose approach to cultural issues amounts to doubling down on certain positions, reinforcing the barricades, & lobbing invectives at those on the other side. This is only a play at being courageous.

I'm also not advocating for something as neutered as dialogue or conversation. I'm talking about the courage to question the deeper assumptions that we've all acquiesced to.

I'm talking about the courage to think redemptively & imaginatively. To allow repentance & the categories of the gospel to completely upend all our paradigms.

Folks leading in this way have my utmost respect b/c such folks will likely anger both right & left--not b/c they're obstreperous but b/c they're pointing out the gods that we all worship. They're calling all of us to a better way.

For reference "Why Work?" by Dorothy L. Sayers

tnl.org/wp-content/upl…

TL;DR:
Don't come to me w/ your self-satisfied takes on trending issues if you haven't taken time to reflect on how you & yours have embraced the *exact* same flawed paradigms in other ways.

One more thought: This approach is different from finding resolution or synthesis from the interplay of thesis & anti-thesis.

It's also not simply about becoming comfortable with paradox (altho paradox might explain why errors take certain forms). Instead, I'm advocating an approach of repentance & redemption, rooted in imagination.

It's not that tools like debate & dialogue aren't part of that process, but Christianity teaches that mankind needs divine intervention & a creative, revelatory force outside ourselves. This must apply to the way we approach culture as well.