Deadlock, Honor Flight, Braver Angels

Renaissance Humans, #31

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”  —Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

Welcome to the Renaissance Humans Newsletter, where I focus on sense-making and story-telling in the turbulent twenties. The Renaissance (“rebirth,” in French) spanned from the 14th to the 17th century and marked a period of cultural, artistic, and intellectual renewal in Europe. A Renaissance Human fosters curiosity, critical thinking, and character in a journey of never-ending learning. They cultivate Mind, Body, and Spirit, in service of Community, and oriented to the Transcendentals.

---

I knew that America used to have these sorts of televised ethical roundtables back in the day, but I thought we’d given up on them. I learned they were called Fred Friendly Seminars, after their creator.

Imagine my surprise when I flipped to my local PBS on a Friday night¹ and found this show, featuring an introduction by two supreme court justices and a bipartisan group of individuals working through some thorny issues together— figures like Jeh C. Johnson, the former secretary of Homeland Security; Kris Kobach, the attorney general of Kansas; Scott Pelley, the "60 Minutes" correspondent; Elise Jordan, a political analyst for NBC News; and Mick Mulvaney, the former Trump White House official and South Carolina Congressman.

In a flash, I realized, THIS IS A DECISION-FORCING CASE FOR CIVILIANS! The military employs the Case Method to train its people to navigate complex environments.

Could this be part of the solution America needs to slash the Gordian Knot of entrenched political ideology?

From the show description:

It’s Election Day in the fictional state of Middlevania. You’re a poll worker, excited to do your civic duty, when suddenly you’re confronted with a series of challenges that will lead you to wrestle with what is legal… and what is right. This election dilemma unfolds in DEADLOCK: an election story, where UC Davis School of Law professor Aaron Tang guides a panel of influential figures from legal, political, media and cultural spheres through complex ethical dilemmas based on a real-life scenario. The special encourages civil dialogue and critical thinking in an era dominated by polarizing debates.

Last week, I had the opportunity to serve as the keynote for Honor Flight Rochester, an organization dedicated to providing veterans a trip to Washington, DC, to view the monuments and other historic sites.

I spoke about service to the country after military service— in particular, about the group Braver Angels and its efforts to foster dialogue among citizens, neighbors, and families. I begin speaking at the three minute mark:

Thanks for that introduction, Maureen. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be with all of you this morning. I would like to begin by thanking Rich Steward and Honor Flight Rochester for inviting me to speak. Thanks as well to the flight crews and other volunteers who make this very special process a success.

I understand that we have veterans of Korean, the Cold War, and Vietnam here today. I grew up reading of your exploits, and dreamed of being like you when I grew up. The nation just passed the 23^rd anniversary of the attacks on September 11^th, 2001, a somber milestone in our history. My military cohort is the GWOT one—what we have termed the Global War On Terror. The reception I received as a veteran and military member from society is light years away from the one most of you had during and following your service. I am the beneficiary of the public learning to do better by its veterans—and I am sad for the negativity you had to endure during your time.

I went to college in Washington D.C., and our Navy ROTC Physical Readiness Test running route, or PRT, was around the Mall, giving us a nice tour of the Lincoln, World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam Memorials. Those are beautiful monuments, linking us in a long line back to the founding of the Republic. I’m sure you spent some time reflecting on your own service, and on those friends and teammates who gave their lives in service of the nation. That’s the topic I want to talk about today. Service to the nation, and what that can mean to us out of uniform.  

The dictionary definition of service is: to contribute to the welfare of others, a helpful act. The Latin root, servare, means to watch; to keep safe; to protect; to maintain; to preserve. Like you, I was fortunate to be able to serve—that I was blessed with a body and mind capable of military service.

Right now, it is a hard time in America. This period has been called many different things—Metacrisis, Polycrisis, Great Weirding, Permaweird, the Turbulent Twenties. We face challenges on a variety of fronts, to include socio-economic, political, environmental, individual meaning, the rise of a new communication medium—smart phone enabled social media, that rivals the Gutenberg press in its revolutionary capabilities. And I haven’t even mentioned the disruptive influence of Artificial Intelligence yet. Too many others to list. They’re all crashing together this decade.

The world has always been full of complexity and chaos, but what is different today is the pace of change, the tempo, the interconnectedness of it all. We’ve created an incredibly toxic media ecosystem.  The twenty-four-hour cable news cycle is optimized for fear, anger, and division—that’s what pays their bills.  On social media, the metric of “time on site”— how long your eyeballs are glued to it, is the driving factor in the business model.  Negative emotions transmit at much higher levels through a social ecosystem than positive ones, and it fractures our ability to pay attention at the same time.

The psychology term affective polarization (affect with an A) refers to the growing emotional division between political groups, where members of one group increasingly dislike or distrust members of the other, not just because of policy disagreements but because of an emotional and social distance. This concept highlights how people are becoming more polarized in their feelings, often characterized by strong negative emotions, such as hostility or contempt, toward those who belong to opposing political parties or ideologies. We’re at a place where we don’t want our children to marry someone from the opposite political tribe. It’s not a healthy place to be for our Republic.

I serve as an Ambassador for the group Braver Angels.  You can check them out at Braver Angels dot org. There is a local chapter as well. Their goal isn’t to change anyone’s mind about a particular issue—it’s to help citizens learn to talk to one another again. It is a national movement to bridge the partisan divide in an effort to strengthen our democratic republic.

Launched in 2016, they seek to bring liberals, conservatives and independents together at the grassroots level–not to find some centrist compromise, but to relate to one another as citizens and humans. Through workshops, debates, campus engagement, and more, Braver Angels helps Americans understand each other beyond stereotypes, form community alliances, and reduce the vitriol that poisons our civic culture. They teach seminars on bridging the political divide—within families, communities, and workspaces.

It’s election season, and there ARE differences between Red and Blue, between Republicans and Democrats. There are definite differences in moral judgements and policy desires. But we must make a choice. What do we care about more—our Tribe, or our Republic?

We have to remember that we are neighbors, and we have much more that unites us than divides. 

In the 1990’s, Robert Putnam wrote a classic book called Bowling Alone, about Americans’ declining participation in civic organizations, what he termed the loss of our “social capital.” He has a new documentary out now, called Join or Die, which continues this line of analysis. Various thinkers give this problem names—things like “The Friendship Recession” or the “Connection Crisis.” We MUST rebuild the connective tissue in our communities—to make deposits in the social capital bank. We are losing intergenerational and communal connectivity to the dislocating abstractions of the virtual world.

What does service mean to me, today? It means working to keep the dream of our country alive, for the generations to come. To leave this place better than we found it. Our Republic is under strain right now—our bonds of civic connection are pressed to the breaking point. As service members, we went into harm’s way to defend this nation. I’m asking you to keep serving, to hold our nation together, amidst the systemic forces which are pulling it apart. Reach out to your friends across the political divide. Do your best to pass on the hard-earned wisdom you carry to your family and community. And strive to see past partisanship, to our common citizenship as Americans.

Thank you for your time, and welcome home!

---

Currere Certamen Tuum

1. My Friday nights are full of such thrills, like watching my son play Fortnite and shuttling a sullen teen to and fro to various engagements. And yes, sullen is an unecessary modifier on teen— like Navy in Navy NCIS.