“‘Up in our country we are human!' said the hunter.” “‘And
since we are human we help each other. We
don't like to hear anybody say thanks for that. What I get today you may get tomorrow. Up here we say that by gifts one makes slaves
and by whips one makes dogs.’” ~Peter Freuchen
As we approach a critical national election, every time I
turn on a media device and every time I empty the mailbox, I am bombarded with
political advertisements. Some tell me
what the prospective candidate is going to do, but most tell me what the other
candidate did or what they will do in the most negative light. It has gotten to the point where I just blank
it all out and hope that it does not bias my decision-making. It seems to get worse every election cycle –
the hatred, anger, scorn, and ridicule; the polarization that marks this
country. It seems over the last 30 years
that we have lost our way, that we have forgotten that we are one people.
In past years, when faced with crisis, people would set
aside their differences and band together to overcome it. Today, we face a financial crisis in the
United States. The United States is
adding enormous amounts of debt that will have profound effects on the
livelihoods of our future generations.
We are printing currency at rates never seen before to keep the interest
rates on government debt near 0%, threatening inflation as well as the means of
those living on a fixed income. As the
country goes more deeply into debt and the dollar loses value, we run the risk
of a large country like China calling in our debt, potentially damaging our
economy or even our freedom. Today, jobs
are scarce and millions of people are out of work. This squeezes the middle class - those who
used to have professional or skilled manufacturing jobs that were lost in the
latest recession have joined the ranks of the new poor. They as a result are forced to compete with
numerous others for low-paying jobs in the service industry, and often become
chronically unemployed.
In response to this crisis, the average person in this
country has entrenched in their polarized camps. In one view, the Republican Party represents
the top 1% who want to hoard what is theirs whereas the Democratic Party wants the
rich to pay their fair share to continue to fund the necessary social programs
to ensure our old, poor, sick, and young disadvantaged have food, clothing,
shelter, a good education, and a chance for gainful employment. In the other view, the Democrats squander
money on pork-barrel projects and support deadbeats who feel entitled to have
what others have without working for it, whereas the Republicans support low
taxes and job growth by keeping government out of the way of growing businesses
and allowing hard work to pave the way to The American Dream. And that is just the economic question. There are many other questions on social
issues that add to the polarization.
What scares me the most is the fact that both parties and most of the
candidates running for office have forgotten that in order to successfully face
a crisis, everyone must make the sacrifices necessary and work together to face
the crisis head-on.
Some cultures, for instance the Innuits and Eskimos, have
not forgotten the essence of our humanity, which is to help each other unconditionally,
raise each other up, and become collectively something much more powerful than
a group of individuals. Quoting David
Graeber:
“Rather than seeing himself as
human because he could make economic calculations, the hunter insisted that
being truly human meant refusing to make such calculations, refusing to measure
or remember who had given what to whom, for the precise reason that doing so
would inevitably create a world where we began comparing power with power,
measuring, calculating and reducing each other to slaves or dogs through debt.”
[1]
I hope that as a people, we can all remember our basic
humanity and when we enter the voting booth, we make our decision based on
humanitarian reasons, not power, greed, and hate. And once our decision is made, those whom we
elect make their decisions in the same fashion.
More importantly, we need to remember our humanity on a daily basis,
give without expectation of receiving, uplift those around us, and make the
world a little better. This will be one
little step in the direction to dealing with the current crisis of confidence
in this country.
[1] David
Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Melville House Publishing (2011)
