It's Complicated

We were warned against it.  We were told that it would be unwise to discuss political matters over Thanksgiving.  The levels of partisanship have risen to such heights that we might be unable to recover from the vicious recriminations hurled over a roasted turkey’s carcass.

Actually, when, last year, we assembled at my brother’s house for the magnificent feast he always provides, we held our tongues.  My brother and his wife were in mourning.  As die-hard liberals, they had not come to terms with Trump’s victory.  Rubbing it in would have been unkind.

This year was another matter.  The day began well enough.  At first, we were too busy admiring Joel’s new Florida home to be concerned with politics.  Then, after his in-laws arrived, we were too busy getting acquainted to deal with the news.

Only after most folks went home did the partisan fireworks flare up.  All of a sudden, Joel, his wife’s cousin Dale, my wife and I found ourselves standing in the kitchen sharing our reactions to current events.  Under most circumstances, I would have joined the battle.  This time was different.

It was Joel and Dale who traded opinions with the vigor of medieval knights swinging battle-axes.  Joel was liberal as ever, whereas Dale was more conservative than I.  Moreover, since the two were equally matched, they held their own.

As a bystander, I was impressed with how frequently they resorted to prepackaged arguments.  These were both well-educated paladins.  Joel is a successful lawyer.  Dale is a successful executive.  They were thus well read and abreast of the news.

The trouble was that in the heat of the battle they lambasted their opponent with abridged explanations of why their policies were right the other’s wrong.  There was no time for lengthy corroborations.  It was make a quick point and prepare to counter the other’s equally quick rejoinder.

As an academic who studies social change, I found these kaleidoscopic interchanges too much to bear.   They were riven through and through with over-simplified accounts of history and political theory.  The combatant’s goal was evidently to score an immediate knockout; not to engage in scholarly investigations.

Too often nowadays the need is to be clever, rather than accurate.  The talking heads we see on television and the tweets we read on our cell phones jabber past one another.  They do not stop to clarify the details of their arguments.  That would be boring.  Gentle insults are much more fun.

Nonetheless, one thing I have learned is that life and society are complicated.  If history seems simple, it is because we are largely unfamiliar with its intricacies.  Likewise, if political maneuverings appear to be clear-cut, it because we are seldom privy to what goes on behind closed doors.

Hence, when we impute straightforward motives to politicians—for example, that they are all crooks—we are usually wrong.  Or when we predict that legislation will have an unambiguous outcome, we are customarily off the mark.

The trouble is that we don’t like complicated.  We want to believe we are in control of events and this would be impossible if we recognized that we don’t always understand what is going on.  And so we pare things down to a minimum and imagine this is the whole ball of wax.

In fact, the world is so complex that no one ever grasps it in its entirety.  We are all to some extent blind.  But that does not excuse us from having to navigate uncharted shoals.  We must frequently make decisions upon which to act or suffer dreadful repercussions.  Hence, when we err, we are wise to correct our mistakes.

Fortunately, although we are not omniscient, we can be modest.  We can, when we run into unexpected headwinds, ask why.  If we are sensible, we pause to examine what we do not comprehend.

Yet that is not where Americans currently are.  It is as if we are on a runaway train that is destined to crash if we do not discover the brakes.  Our thanksgiving day fights are merely temporary diversions.  Feelings get hurt, but people recuperate.

It is on the larger social stage that we must learn to be more careful.  Ignoring critical complications in this venue could eventuate in the collapse of our civilization.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University