Version of Versus
So even in Shanghai, Election Day was just as painful for me as it probably was for all my compadres back in San Francisco. I carried my laptop to all my meetings and paid attention to nary a word. Every few minutes, npr.org would color up one state red or blue, and each new state that turned red was like a new massive paper-cut on my left thumb. By then end of the evening, I was so mentally exhausted from staring at a purple Ohio that for the first time at Intel Shanghai, I fell asleep on the way to my bus (where I usually do the sleeping).
Now that most people have come to grips with reality and have either accepted the election results or have fled to Canada, I’ve been immersing myself in all the Monday morning quarterbacking that goes on both on TV and the Web, where I gather most of my news and gab. There seem to be a dozen different explanations for why Kerry lost, most of them not having to do with Kerry at all, but at the state of our country and the electorate. I think that people on my side of the fence were a little blown away at how NOT CLOSE the election was when all was said and done, and this surprise led them to look at all the different nooks and crannies of the election sphere that they might have previously neglected. Since so much scrutiny was given to Kerry during most of the past year, I guess it was time for all of us to look ourselves and to really decipher what all the red and blue talk really meant.
I guess my personal opinion is that no matter which way you look at, the most effective platform to read into the polarization of America is pretty basic high school history stuff: Rousseau and the noble savage vs. Hobbes and the Leviathan that is man’s passions. If you’re with Rousseau and believe that we are all inherently good, then isn’t it likely that you think Bush has squandered all the goodness out there in the world for the specific aim of narrow-minded interests and at the expense of realizing our global potential as a beacon for peace and hope? And if you’re with Hobbes, isn’t it likely that you think that the country is plunging into a greater well of valueless depravity and that the Church (everyone is born a sinner) and the Family need to regain their roles as the guideposts to our lives, and that without a strong hand overseas the civil strife proceeding from human passions would continue to spread to untainted parts of the world?
Nothing is ever that simple, and I don’t want to get into a nature vs. nurture argument here, but the red state vs. blue state is just another “version of versus” that essentially describes my personal (and let me highlight the world “personal”) belief that liberals are the optimists and conservatives are, well…conservatives. I think humankind has the potential to build great societies that are founded on peace and respect and trust…which is exactly what we didn’t get by invading Iraq. At the same time, to many others, it’s just as likely that I’m wrong, and that humankind, if left unchecked, is apt to run amuck amongst a buffet of crazy ideologies, barbaric religions, sexual degeneracy, and whatever else can act as a black hole for our basest desires. I don’t know much, but I know that I have faith in what I believe, which is why I slammed my head to the ground when purple Ohio turned red.
It’s not that I’m bitter so much as just sad that I'm even more in the minority than I thought. If the next four years are going to be like the first, then I’ll be glad that I’m so far away. But if Bush does what he says he’s going to do and reaches out to people on THIS side of the fence…well, then, perhaps humankind may not be that bad after all. Either way, I have a feeling that we’ll be looking at a system of “versus” for quite a long time to come.
Now that most people have come to grips with reality and have either accepted the election results or have fled to Canada, I’ve been immersing myself in all the Monday morning quarterbacking that goes on both on TV and the Web, where I gather most of my news and gab. There seem to be a dozen different explanations for why Kerry lost, most of them not having to do with Kerry at all, but at the state of our country and the electorate. I think that people on my side of the fence were a little blown away at how NOT CLOSE the election was when all was said and done, and this surprise led them to look at all the different nooks and crannies of the election sphere that they might have previously neglected. Since so much scrutiny was given to Kerry during most of the past year, I guess it was time for all of us to look ourselves and to really decipher what all the red and blue talk really meant.
I guess my personal opinion is that no matter which way you look at, the most effective platform to read into the polarization of America is pretty basic high school history stuff: Rousseau and the noble savage vs. Hobbes and the Leviathan that is man’s passions. If you’re with Rousseau and believe that we are all inherently good, then isn’t it likely that you think Bush has squandered all the goodness out there in the world for the specific aim of narrow-minded interests and at the expense of realizing our global potential as a beacon for peace and hope? And if you’re with Hobbes, isn’t it likely that you think that the country is plunging into a greater well of valueless depravity and that the Church (everyone is born a sinner) and the Family need to regain their roles as the guideposts to our lives, and that without a strong hand overseas the civil strife proceeding from human passions would continue to spread to untainted parts of the world?
Nothing is ever that simple, and I don’t want to get into a nature vs. nurture argument here, but the red state vs. blue state is just another “version of versus” that essentially describes my personal (and let me highlight the world “personal”) belief that liberals are the optimists and conservatives are, well…conservatives. I think humankind has the potential to build great societies that are founded on peace and respect and trust…which is exactly what we didn’t get by invading Iraq. At the same time, to many others, it’s just as likely that I’m wrong, and that humankind, if left unchecked, is apt to run amuck amongst a buffet of crazy ideologies, barbaric religions, sexual degeneracy, and whatever else can act as a black hole for our basest desires. I don’t know much, but I know that I have faith in what I believe, which is why I slammed my head to the ground when purple Ohio turned red.
It’s not that I’m bitter so much as just sad that I'm even more in the minority than I thought. If the next four years are going to be like the first, then I’ll be glad that I’m so far away. But if Bush does what he says he’s going to do and reaches out to people on THIS side of the fence…well, then, perhaps humankind may not be that bad after all. Either way, I have a feeling that we’ll be looking at a system of “versus” for quite a long time to come.