The temptation to hide
The question before us is not how to isolate, but how to engage in ways that are productive, compassionate, effective, and non-violent.
Conversations with a very dear friend this week indicated he is leaning toward supporting the former president in this year’s election; despite the evidence of encouraging insurrection, assaulting women, and engaging in fraud. Despite the vile words about immigrants, LGBTQ+ folk, and incitement of violence against anyone who disagrees or challenges him. Despite the ongoing lies about, well, just about everything.
So what was the issue that might sway this friend? This friend is terrified that violent conflicts in other parts of the world will lead to “world war three,” and the U.S. will be in the middle of it. Recent attacks and responses have him (and many of us) rattled. He is growing in his conviction that U.S. isolation is the only answer. And he believes (based on a lot of inference, misinformation, disinformation, and bluster) that the former president will “protect” us by keeping us out of those conflicts.
After shaking my head in dismay, I began to realize that I share a deep skepticism about casting the U.S. in the role of world savior. Even beyond the absolute arrogance of our interactions with so many other nations throughout our history, there is room to doubt that any single country can or should take that role. We are in an era of global networks, after all, and either pole position is untenable: we cannot succeed on our own, and we cannot detach entirely.
We cannot separate the damage done at “home” by anti-democratic, authoritarian movements from the dangers of the wider world. These are all connected at the core by a willingness to dehumanize the “other” as an enemy, and by so doing, to legitimize ignoring their plight or actively harming them.
It’s far too late to give in to the temptation to hide. The world in which any country could be fully insulated from global conflict ended in the middle twentieth-century. The question before us is not how to isolate, but how to engage in ways that are productive, compassionate, effective, and non-violent.
This is a powerfully difficult challenge, one we have (and continue) to fail too often. To face it we need leaders with skill, knowledge, and humility. Look for them, support them, and if you are so called, become one of them. But do not support anyone who says they can keep you safe by keeping us isolated. It is just another lie.
Stay safe and well, and thank you for your commitment to our human family.