Loud impotent martyrs are ruining society
Is Biden infrastructure bill DOA?
I had biscuits and gravy at a food truck and built a karaoke room in our house. Texas is pretty good. Let’s get into it…
Who is the other and how do they affect you?
If you recycle and your neighbor doesn’t, is the world more clean or less clean?
If you get a vaccine and your neighbor doesn’t, are we closer to heard immunity or further away?
If you pray every night and your neighbor scorns God, are we closer to salvation or further away?
Demonization of rival tribes is as old as humanity. In many ways, our scorn defines our love. Only by identifying the “other” do we also identify “us.”
But in America we are, by definition, a tribe of tribes and tribal leaders. We live in neighborhoods (with HOAs) that make up cities (with councils) that make up counties (with commissioners) that make up states (with senates and governors) that make up a nation (with three branches of leaders). And that’s just as far as the law is concerned, socially we split on all sorts of lines including age, race, education, sports affiliation, religion and more.
My question to you is: when does tribal identity go beyond necessary and verge on toxic? Specifically, if you believe that your tribe is outgunned can these lines erode your faith in your own tribe?
These questions struck me last week as Earth Day collided with our continued vaccine effort. Climate has long been a tribal issue where the most concerned are also the most hopeless. Environmentalism is founded on the principal that the faceless other is ruining the planet while those who care do the yeoman work to save Mother Gaia.
Parallel to that, our vaccine saga has also found a clear dividing line.
This one isn’t new either. It’s just the latest coat of paint on the “mask or no mask” and “family Thanksgiving or no Thanksgiving” debate we’ve had for a year.
My issue isn’t that we divide into groups, that’s inevitable.
What gets to me is the fatalism.
The idea that because of the actions of others, our sacrifices and beliefs mean less.
This is exacerbated because the internet allows us access to unlimited representative statistics which we can rearrange to show us whatever we like. This means we are never without an overwhelming enemy to sigh in front of. It allows us to play the most useless role in modern society: the loud, impotent martyr.
Caring about a problem means trying to solve it. Nothing gets solved by declaring you are morally right and taking a nap.
I care about as many people getting vaccinated as possible and that’s why I got annoyed about the Johnson and Johnson pause. Vaccine hesitant people deserve a traditional vaccine option in addition to the mRNA versions offered by Pfizer and Moderna. Do I agree with them? No. But I want them to get the shot and anything we can do to make the happen I am for.
When it come to issues of outsized importance (and I’d include pandemic recovery and our Earthly habitat among them) we can only believe in what we believe in and do our best to achieve our goals. Scorn for the others is always going to be a part of that but it doesn’t have to affect how you live your life or view your progress.
What the hell is happening in India?
Jesus! For the fourth straight day India has set the world record for daily COVID case count with 349,691 new cases being tallied on Sunday. To give you context, that’s more than the entire population of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Granted, India’s population is 1.3 billion so the numbers from there are going to be bigger than we see in the United States. Still, it’s a stark reminder that this pernicious disease will not simply burn itself out.
It’s created yet another headache for the Biden White House as they initially signaled over the weekend that they would not make raw vaccine materials available to India before reversing course on Sunday.
And that still might not be enough as the conversation has now turned to sending India unused AstraZeneca vaccine shots which the United States purchased but has not given emergency authorization. It seems increasingly less likely that the US will need the shots even if they gain approval. We’ve leant them out to Mexico and Canada a few week ago, why not India as they’re in the middle of a true crisis?
Is Biden’s $4 trillion infrastructure bill already dead?
Joe Manchin went on television and praised the GOP version of an infrastructure bill.
Not only the price tag of $800 million but also the concept that the bill should only address physical infrastructure like bridges, tunnels and internet. This is in contrast to the Democrat plan to spend at least $2 trillion on that plus a variety of social programs.
Since the Dems are going to use reconciliation again and therefore need all 50 blue votes, Manchin’s opinion means a lot here. Unfortunately for Schumer, Pelosi and Biden infrastructure doesn’t have the same kind of urgency COVID does.
It does make you wonder if the Dems will try and sweeten the deal as we move along.
Maybe… more stimulus?
No “How To Read The News” this week because I didn’t have any particularly insightful bon mots on that subject. Feedback on Wednesday!
- Justin