I have been thinking a lot about the culture battles that are raging around the world. The recent failed car bomb attacks in the UK are but the latest reminder that we are truly in a global conflict with a variety of enemies spread around the world, who are organized into small groups and integrated into the civilian populations of their countries. It is hard to comprehend why anyone would use tactics designed to inflict as much damage as possible to innocent civilians, whether in London, Baghdad or Tel-Aviv, unless one appreciates that what these terrorists – criminals – truly want is to destroy the way of life of those they are attacking in order to impose their own.
Not long ago I read a New York Times op-ed by Tom Friedman, – "The Quiet Americans," – which I found personally useful in thinking about these culture wars. Having just recently participated in three different college graduation commencements, including that of his own daughter, Tom was reflecting on the young people who were now going out into the world, and how "quietly determined [they are] not to let this age of terrorism curtail their lives, take away their hopes or steal the America they are about to inherit."
Tom very nicely captured what might be the essence of these culture battles when he said: "If the dominant clash of my generation was between communism and capitalism, the dominant clash of this generation is between nihilism – as represented by suicide bombers who try to blow up hope from New York to Baghdad - and optimism that a better social and political order can be created."
You need hope and optimism, not only to go out there and plan the next steps in your life and work, but to help address some of the really tough problems facing us in society. Especially when you are young, it is good to be somewhat naive and idealistic, to have the feeling that the world is your oyster and that there is little you cannot accomplish if you just try hard enough. Even as we get older and have been chastened by encounters with real life, it is very important to retain some measures of hope and optimism in the future as the energy that keeps us going.
By contrast, all those individuals that think nothing of killing young people in Baghdad outdoor markets and Tel-Aviv and London nightclubs seem to have discarded all hope in the world. Human existence to them no longer has any meaning or purpose beyond killing those they hate because they live different kinds of lives, as well as wrecking havoc in a society from which they feel alienated.
Closer to home, we have our own culture wars. Thankfully, they are quite different in nature, – with loud, angry words as the weapons of choice, – but they are playing out on many fronts with surprising ferocity.
Immigration is among the most prominent such battles, as we saw in the recent vote in which the Senate killed a comprehensive immigration bill that enjoyed bipartisan and administration support. The opponents of the bill mounted a massive attack against it on television and talk radio shows that many believe contributed greatly to its defeat.
I am not sure if nihilism is quite the word I would use to characterize those who take such extreme positions against immigration reform and similar initiatives in the US, but they surely seem to lack any optimism that a better future can be achieved. Their stock-in-trade is their negativity. They are characterized by all the things they are against, not what they are for.
What they seem to have aplenty is anger bordering on rage. When you hear them on TV or radio, their anger is what comes through loudest. And that is likely their key appeal to those kindred spirits out there with similar feelings of rage.
One could be cynical and say that this is all an act for the greater purpose of achieving high ratings and a comfortable livelihood. I honestly don’t think so. I think their rage is real – it is what makes them so good at what they do. It is what helps them focus sharply on just one aspect of a complex issue – defining a comprehensive immigration bill as just an amnesty program for illegal immigrants, for example – and lets them ignore all the shades of gray, other points of view, and the need to come up with a solution to a very real societal problem.
In the end, in order to truly achieve a better society, – both in our individual nations and in the world at large, – we need to take on problems as they are. Perhaps counter-intuitively, one of the hallmarks of an optimistic world view is the ability to accept and tackle complexities and shades of gray. We need to get past ideology and rage and work on solutions that reasonable people can agree on and that have a good chance of success.
That is, I hope, the attitude of the majority of our young people. We all need their optimism, as well as their creativity, energy, hard work and faith that a better social and political order can be created.
