{"id":4140,"date":"2018-10-16T16:08:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T16:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/10\/16\/is-it-politically-sane-to-want-both-to-crush-and-to-tolerate-opposing-tribes\/"},"modified":"2018-10-16T16:08:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T16:08:40","slug":"is-it-politically-sane-to-want-both-to-crush-and-to-tolerate-opposing-tribes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/10\/16\/is-it-politically-sane-to-want-both-to-crush-and-to-tolerate-opposing-tribes\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it politically sane to want both to crush and to tolerate opposing tribes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Packer in The New Yorker<\/em> on tribalism<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I hear myself say this and think, A<\/em> solid analysis<\/em>. At the same time, I hear a Republican reply, Pure tribalism. You\u2019re just proving your own point.<\/em> I want part of my brain, even a small part, to be always attuned to the frequency of other tribes, ready to pose the essential questions: How would this sound coming from them? How do they see you?<\/em> I try to keep two thoughts in my head at the same time: the other tribe needs to be crushed, and I have to talk and listen to them. The first thrives on rage, the second on tolerance.<\/strong> These are contradictory states of being, and extremely difficult to maintain in tension, but a sane politics requires both. The alternative isn\u2019t victory but self-destruction. After all, we have to live together.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Surely the above is incoherent. I cannot both tolerate you and seek to crush you.  Toleration does not imply approval, but it does imply a willingness to put up with you, your beliefs, your expressions of your beliefs, and at least some of  the actions flowing from them.  If I tolerate you, then I let you be, which is obviously incompatible with crushing you either physically or politically.<\/span><\/p>\n

Packer tells us that a sane politics requires both rage and tolerance.  On the contrary such a politics would be insane.<\/span><\/p>\n

Packer tells us we have to live together. True. But he offers no proposal as to how to do so peacefully.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secession is out of the question. If so, we are just going to have to battle it out in this age of post-consensus politics. It won't be pretty. Let's hope that political means suffice to beat back the Democrats.  If we can beat some sense into them, then perhaps we can keep the Republic together.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Packer in The New Yorker on tribalism: I hear myself say this and think, A solid analysis. At the same time, I hear a Republican reply, Pure tribalism. You\u2019re just proving your own point. I want part of my brain, even a small part, to be always attuned to the frequency of other tribes, ready to pose the essential … Continue reading “Is it politically sane to want both to crush and to tolerate opposing tribes?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-tribalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}