A country of contradictions

The United States is a country of contradictions. We have amazing technological advances and people who don’t like change. We are all over the map when it comes to religion. So much of this nation was founded on the so-called Protestant work ethic. Yet that very notion goes against the very Protestant theological belief of undeserved grace. We have this belief that all people are created equal, and have a long history of withholding rights for women, people of color, and foreigners. We are a nation of immigrants that also has a long history anti-immigrant sentiment.

One of the best examples of this was the Know Nothing Party that came about in the 1840s through the 1850s. It was a party whose primary focus was strongly anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic. In those days the “threatening” immigrants were German and Irish. They even had in their party platform that those that were foreign born could not vote or hold office and they wanted a 21 year residency requirement to become a citizen. Anti-immigrant sentiments are nothing new to the United States. And these beliefs have a stubborn tendency to persist. The only thing that seems to change is which group of immigrants Americans feel threatened by and decide to “other.”

Five years ago the COVID-19 pandemic was just getting started. Remember that? Remember being locked in your own house for weeks and months at a time? We have short memories. I remember that there were a whole lot of people saying “we’re in this together.” How long did that last? Before we knew it we were back to “othering” people. What is it about humanity that prefers to have enemies and scapegoats rather than figuring out that we literally need each other to survive, let alone thrive.

Recently there have been people going to town hall meeting of their elected Members of Congress. The same people who voted for these Representatives are now yelling at them. These are people that loved the abstract idea of cutting the federal government. And as long as it remained abstract, they were all for it. In fact, they seemed to be ok with actual cuts to the federal government too – so long as it was affecting “other” people, preferably “others” that are nameless, faceless, and as far removed from being real as possible. But all of sudden, the government cuts became real for these same people – they lost their government jobs and benefits. Now they were mad. Living with abstract ideas is one thing, but we find out how complex and messy reality is. We love the abstract because it doesn’t seem to hurt anyone. But we complain when we turn the abstract into reality and it then has a direct impact on us.

Elon Musk was quoted as saying that “the weakness of Western Civilization is empathy.” Sure Elon, because anti-immigrant sentiments, “othering” people, and only caring about things when they personally affect you seems to be working really well, doesn’t it? If anything, we could use more empathy.

We are nation of contradictions – a Statue of Liberty that welcomes people from all over co-existing with laws and orders and policies that attempt to turn people away. A nation that claims that all people are equal co-existing with a history of injustice to various groups of people. A nation that believes in the rule of law who has repeatedly violated agreements. A secular nation that has a distinct Christian imprint co-existing with Christian people who attempt to impose ideas and beliefs that appear in contradiction with the one they claim to follow.

We are a nation of contradictions. This can be frustrating. Why are we a nation of contradictions and are we unique among nations? I doubt we are unique in this. The only thing that might be unique would be the specific set of contradictions. Why? Because the nation is made up of people. All nations are. And people are full of contradictions. People are complex and messy. People are imperfect. People are made up of good things and not so good things. There are the aspirations that we claim to believe in. And there are the actions that we do, which unfortunately often conflict with those aspirations.

We are a nation of contradictions. We are a people of contradictions.