An Opinion Piece By David Kopp
Division has become more of an accent than an anomaly in modern-day affairs. It seems the days of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s beloved vision of a society that views itself as a “quilt” have been eclipsed, and with them a new age of tribalism has dawned. This change in direction has primed many to search for an enemy to blame–after all, it is natural. Since the beginning of time, societies have often united not by a common cause but by a common enemy; a scapegoat upon whom the pain in our lives can be cast, often to preserve the unity of the collective. The fact of the matter is a significant number of the problems we face are difficult to explain, and when we try to make logical sense of this pain, we can find ourselves gravitating towards a tribe that validates our experiences. If we are being honest with ourselves, all of us have engaged in this kind of behavior. The aberration consists of those who do not! Nevertheless, we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for giving in to our natural instincts; we should look to wisdom from those who transcended their nature and challenged the status quo.
In 1821, the United States was debating whether to support the independence movements unfolding across Latin America. Many citizens had found common cause with their cries for freedom from Spain, seeing it as a mirror image to what the country had endured under Great Britain. This made it only a matter of time before the war drums began to thump. Full of conviction, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams delivered a speech as Americans debated whether military involvement was the best path forward. Toward the end of his speech, referring to what the disposition of the United States ought to be, he said:
“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example”.
John Quincy Adams said this because he understood the power of self-restraint. If the United States were to engage in conflict abroad under common banners, it would tarnish its status as the bastion of liberty. He viewed the two conditions as mutually exclusive. To engage in conflict, one must suspend their instincts for peace, love, and compassion in order to wield hatred, resentment, and intolerance–a duality most of us struggle with to this day. When we engage in discourse regarding “hot-button” issues or even in disagreements across the dinner table from our partner, we mustn’t give in to the urge of confrontation; rather, we ought to seek common ground and solutions we can reach together. This does not mean we do not have a boat in the race; instead it demonstrates a philosophical understanding that when we seek to make the opposition our enemy, the process diminishes us more than it diminishes our adversary.
Going back to John Quincy Adams’s speech, he said:
“She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign Independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of Freedom and Independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an Imperial Diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”
When we seek the dismantlement of our enemy rather than their enlightenment, our role subsequently shifts from liberator to tyrant. We become the monster we set out to destroy. As Friedrich Nietzsche later warned, when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
Considering the heightened tensions of today, if you seek out an enemy you are certain to find one. However, if we want to heal the division that has plagued our societies, we must adopt a disposition of grafting people in through enlightenment rather than excommunicating them through estrangement. Otherwise we are no better than those upon whom we cast our stones. We all share in this experience called humanity and to take that away from even our worst enemy is to take it away from ourselves.
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
-John Donne