Some Thoughts on Racial Conflict in the US

People can live together in peace only in communities that value and practice justice. Communities of justice can only form, however, when the power of that community is constrained and directed toward the benefit of all members of the community.

One of the sources for my view of community or society comes from a college American History course where we studied from "The Power Elite", by C. Wright Mills. A key concept is that "power" is more important than wealth, and is more addictive than any known drug. Mills took off from the statement by Lord Acton, ("Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely"), and filled chapters with illustrations. Some recent publications display some of the same thoughts. The Robert P. Jones book "The End of White Christian America" and the  analysis of the support for Donald Trump in the current presidential campaign show that the issue of power or, more precisely, the loss of power by white men is leading to a mental "gated community" among them.

The other source of my thoughts on this comes from the work of philosopher John Rawls in "A Theory of Justice". His "veil of ignorance" thought experiment is a method for examining the structures and systems of our world, for the purpose of minimizing misery without eliminating moderate wealth. Imagine that you are designing a collection of life situations out in the world. After you have built your various life-styles, you will then be placed in one of them. However, you have no clue as to which particular life you will inhabit. It should be pretty clear that "slavery" will not be an attribute that you would build into your world, since there is a chance you would land in that situation. A more recent description of this approach to understanding justice is called the "ovarian lottery" (Warren Buffett). The main point is that "justice" does not require that we all live completely equal life-styles. It DOES require that the riches of society not be so skewed toward the high end that the low end cannot live a decent life.

Here's where I'm going with this: The aims of POWER and of JUSTICE in America today are diametrically opposed. Since we have the clear teaching from every major strain of spirituality that justice is the first step on the path of peace, we must identify the points of failure in our society that allow power to overwhelm justice.

Wisconsin: A Proving Ground for Divisiveness

A letter to the editor of the Green Bay press Gazette complains that Scott Walker is "the most divisive" governor. Meanwhile, on the national level it is quite common to see the same complaint leveled against President Obama.

Here's a thought: Maybe it's not Walker OR Obama who are divisive. Maybe it's US.

This election year has shown that we, the American people, have hardened our political positions further than any time in living memory. The animosity between people on the left and on the right is higher than the animosity between people of multiple races or religions. Polls are clearly showing a shrinkage in the number of "Independents", the people who are not committed to either party or ideology. 

When half of America hates the other half (and I don't think I'm overstating that), it will always look like our leaders are "divisive". If we, the people, continue down this path, we will lose our ability to govern ourselves. There are really only two forms of government: authoritarian and democratic. When the majority of the people does not trust "the people", democracy fails.