Divisions, divisions...

For the last several years I've noticed that, as a society, we seem to be growing more and more polarized in several different areas.  Gun control, abortion, education, silly-seeming lawsuits, tobacco, alcohol, health care, size of government, immigration, religion, even driving habits.  They all seem to be bugging us, sometimes to the point of violence, and rather than moving towards any sort of consensus we're moving further and further apart, frequently to the point of demonizing those who don't agree with our own positions.  Worse, I don't see much chance for any reversal of this trend anytime in the near future.

I believe it has to do with power, the power to compel others to behave in certain ways or face dire, possibly life altering consequences...and the reactions of those so compelled.

For example:  Seatbelt use in cars and motorcycle helmets.  We all "know" that using your seatbelt is just "the intelligent thing to do".  Gods know we've been hearing about it for a couple of generations now, and the newsies are always quick to point out how some poor jerk who got nailed on the road wasn't wearing his seatbelt. The implication is always that the idiot would have been just fine if he'd only had 
sense enough to buckle up. Ditto for bike riders and helmets.

Does nobody know about the studies showing that seatbelts actually enhance damage and risk of death in certain types of impacts? (Granted, there are few such studies...because nobody has any interest in flouting the powers-that-be by funding them.) Has nobody ever examined the arguments of many very experienced riders about the dangers of helmet use in many common riding scenarios? Does anybody care? After all, some "expert" somewhere has determined that seatbelts and helmets are "smart", and those who refuse to use them are "not smart", and that's the end of it. No room for argument, and no tolerance for other points of view, and we'll just make sure everybody acts "smart" by encoding the expert's view as law. "Do it our way or we'll give you a ticket". We went that route with the universal use of airbags, making it an official crime to mess with the factory installation in any way...until, decades later, it was noted that airbags were fairly reliable in killing certain types of people whenever they went off, regardless of their probable utility in general. Now, finally, you get some kind of choice for passenger airbags in the newer cars. If you're 78 years old, suffering from serious osteoporosis and still behind the wheel of a late model Cadillac however, you don't want to be hitting anything at all. The driver's airbag popping out of the steering wheel shaft is going to trigger your obituary regardless of who's fault the accident is.

The point here is that, in far too many cases, an avoidable risk is forced on an individual by the powers-that-be in complete disregard of any objection that individual may have. Conversely, risks that may be just fine with the person willing to assume them are forbidden because the powers aren't willing to allow them. "If it's not compulsory, it's forbidden."

What a crock!!

What is the result of this sort of nonsense for the general public? Those whose views are made law, and those who agree with them, feel righteously vindicated and attempt to increase their influence by making "their" laws more strict and passing more of them. Those who disagree feel victimised and, in many cases, do their best to avoid discovery while ignoring the laws they disagree with. Respect for "the Law" in general is diminished, and contempt for those who pass and/or enforce these laws runs rampant.

It's imortant to note that we've been here before...and it wasn't pretty. Once before, our society was seriously rent by laws of this nature, carried to the point where those who disagreed felt that their backs were against the wall and they had no choice but to resist outside of the legal system because they had no hope of obtaining any relief within it. The resulting brouhaha lasted for years and cost more lives than any other catastrophe in our history to date. It was called "The Civil War".

I am appalled and frightened by our current disagreements and the vehemence and venom with which both sides feel compelled to respond to each other. I see far too many similarities and congruencies with the historical record circa 1855. I truly fear that my children and grandchildren are going to have to go thru another such catastrophe...and this one will be worse, by far, than what happened in our past.

It was Erwin Rommel I believe who said, "The American soldier is the most frightening man on the battlefield...because he learns so quickly!!" Recently, in Viet Nam, we proved that all over again. We took boys from the cornfields of Kansas, the barrios of Los Angeles, the bayous of Lousianna and the mountains of Kentucky and sent them to a jungle the like of which simply doesn't exist on this continent. A large majority of them handily survived their first six months there...at which time they were quite able to out-jungle their opponents who'd been born there.

The top soldiers, the ones responsible for that actual strategies and tactics we fight wars with, have also displayed a remarkable ability to learn. In Iraq, we took on what was called the best and most capable army in the area...and took only three weeks(?) to break it utterly with a truly startling lack of "collateral damage" and mortality to non-fighting civilians. In WWII we used a bigger hammer than the Axis powers were able to wield. In Iraq we used a scalpel with even greater effect.

If our divisions and disagreements continue to polarize us with greater and greater affect, what is going to happen when we pit this super soldier against himself in his own home?

Make no mistake, that is what we're headed for. Too many people are feeling too victimised, forced, ignored, put upon and backed against a wall for the situation to gain any sort of stability. Those with the power to compel are more and more determined that everyone will do things their way, and those who are being compelled in directions they don't want to go are becoming more and more determined not to go in those directions. In the absence of some source of relief on both sides, this will inevitably lead to the worst sort of confrontation with no impulse to relent on either side. We've seen where that leads, and it ain't pretty.