Words of wisdom | number 2: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

If you asked me what I thought was the biggest problem with our country, and the politics and civility that govern it is, I would probably say it’s tribalism. It’s the mentality of “Me and my group are good, and people not in our group are against us so they are bad“. It’s an evolutionary remnant from our pre-homo sapien ancestors, when early humans needed the protection and security gained from belonging to a tribe just in order to survive. Humans are, by nature, competitive beings, and aspects of tribalism are present everywhere in modern society; need I mention, for instance, the rivalries between Bears & Packers fans, between diehard Star Wars & Star Trek geeks, or between The Beatles & The Rolling Stones faithful? Most of the time, victory and loss is inconsequential, the rivalries are friendly, and it’s all in good fun. But that’s not the case in a binary system of electoral politics, where the stakes are real, and a bare majority often means total domination.

In politics, tribalism breeds partisanship. And the partisanship and incivility that’ve been developing in America over the last few decades have gone from bad to worse… to say the least. It’s gotten to a point where we no longer merely disagree with each other; now we are disgusted by each other. I’ll admit, I’m a little bit guilty of that myself – there are views held by people of totally legitimate yet differing political persuasions than my own, which I find to be morally reprehensible. And as much as I would love to regale you on the specifics of those positions right now, this is not the time to do so (although this must be the place, because this my blog and I will write whatever the hell I want). The point is, I have one hundred percent certainty that there are people on the opposite end of the political spectrum who feel the same way about some of my views. And I don’t think I’m a monster; I’d like the think I’m a pretty stand-up guy. So if we’re not as bad as our political enemies think we are, can they be as bad as we think they are? Or here’s a better question: why is it that we consider people who have different ideas than we do on how to make our country better to be our enemies? I believe seeing the world in those terms more accurately reflects the shortcomings of your own thinking than it does theirs.

No matter what sort of political, theological, or whatever, ideology you follow, it’s worth taking the time to humanize the people who think differently than you. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Festivus, remind yourself that the people who aren’t part of that group aren’t necessarily the subhuman saboteurs, bent on destroying your way of life, that they can sometimes seem to be…

Think about the common solider in the Confederate Army during the Civil War: Yes, they fought to secede from the Union. Yes, they took up arms and waged war against the United States of America. Yes, they were traitors to their nation (needs to be emphasized for sake of the “patriots” who proudly wave a traitor’s banner). But were they the epitome of immorality they are so easily to consigned to be? Did they stand for everything that the Confederacy represented? I think not. Most were poor, and never had and never would own a slave – in those days, poor freemen were barely better than slaves themselves (let’s just disregard, for a few minutes while I make my point, the cynical take that the preservation of slavery represented a social contract guaranteeing that they’d never be at the bottom rung of society). They were simply proud and brave young men; they didn’t own plantations, they worked for a living, and they had nothing to gain – either economically or politically – from whether it was the Union or the Confederacy that controlled the territory they lived in. They had a sense of loyalty, duty and kinship to their states, to their families, and to their fellow southerners. Aren’t those traits we’d admire, if they were on “our side” (whatever that side may be)?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not bringing this up to glorify or defend the confederacy – because they were obviously wrong – I’m doing it to highlight the fact that individuals within the confederacy may have had more nuanced and complex reasons for taking the side they did than we give them credit for. And the same is true today. So think about the proponents of whichever hot-button issue that gets your blood boiling – whether it’s the liberal atheist who supports abortion, or the conservative Christian who supports slashing public education to give a tax credit for private school vouchers – maybe your opponents aren’t the evil incarnate it’s so easy to imagine them as… Perhaps the beliefs they have lead them to take a stance every bit as legitimate as the opposing one you’re taking. Treat those people with respect, even when you disagree – especially when you disagree – and with the awareness that they’re probably thinking the same thing about you that you are about them, and will react in accordance with the way you treat them. You want to make someone into a monster? Then treat them like a monster. But it doesn’t have to be that way; fundamentally we’re all human, and we all want the same thing. So, those people who you think are “destroying your country”? It’s okay to disagree with them. It’s entirely possible that their ideas on how to make things better are totally wrong. But even still, they’re not your enemy; the hatred you hold within you is your enemy.

BCH

The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

↑(that’s a link; click it)

Virgil Caine is the name
And I served on the Danville train
‘Til Stoneman’s cavalry came
And they tore up the tracks againIn the winter of ’65
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell
It’s a time I remember, oh so well

The night they drove Old Dixie down
And all her bells were ringing
The night they drove Old Dixie down
And all the people were singin’, they went, na na na

Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
Said, “Virgil, quick, come see
There goes Robert. E. Lee”

Now, I don’t mind choppin’ wood
And I don’t care if my money’s no good
You take what you need and you leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best

The night they drove Old Dixie down
And all her bells were ringing
The night they drove Old Dixie down
And all the people were singin’, they went, na na na

Like my father before me
I will work the land
And like my brother up above me
Who took a rebels stand

He was just eighteen, proud and brave
But a Yankee laid him in his grave
And I swear by the mud below my feet
You can’t raise a Caine back up when he’s in defeat

The night they drove Old Dixie down
When all her bells were ringing
The night they drove Old Dixie down
And all the people were singin’, they went, na na na

The night they drove Old Dixie down
When all her bells were ringing
The night they drove Old Dixie down
And you could hear ’em all singin’, they went, na na na

Songwriters: Robbie Robertson

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