When the pundits marvel about the hapless war in Afghanistan, they tend to point to a history based on tribal structures and warfare in that region. Accordingly, what we witness today, the stubborn resistance to outside ideas, whether introduced with method or might, is at least in part a manifestation of that history.
I wonder if one might apply a similar analysis to the ongoing trouble in the US. The surprisingly hotheaded approach to basic principles of the common good originated in the minds of people who ventured out into the unknown to find greater freedom.
Whether gun control, freedom of religion, or health care, the issue is not as important as the fact that no one is supposed to mess with it.
At this point, the conservative fraction is reaching a point of hysteria for fear that some of these rights may have to be mitigated for the benefit of the community. So now they point crosshairs in every direction.
The question to ask is how one can turn a country’s historical baggage into potential? How can one introduce a sense of security in a nation that is still fighting the ghosts of the past?
Obviously not just by using rhetoric along the lines of “God bless America!”
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