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Rage About the Transfer of Power
Why are people so angry and belligerent, and so willing to express their anger publicly?
Why has our civil discourse become so uncivil? What does this public anger
say about our private faith? What should we do about it?
We are witnessing in our nation a dramatic shift in power. Such a shift always means that those who have in the past possessed power are seeing that power weakened and those who were formerly the powerless ones are becoming empowered. Rage always accompanies the transfer of power.
Power in the United States has traditionally rested comfortably in the hands of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who are primarily male and heterosexual. That power has, however, been eroded over the years. Eastern and Southern European immigrants came to this country in such numbers in the latter part of the 19th century that the Roman Catholic Church is today the single largest Christian body in this nation. The Roman Catholic development of a system of parochial school was a survival technique since at that time the public schools were in effect Protestant evangelical parochial schools. WASP power shrank when the Supreme Court said both prayer and Bible reading in public schools were unconstitutional. Then the schools in the heart of the Bible belt were desegregated and were thus no longer the fiefdom of the white majority.
Next, women began to crack the male bastions of power, gaining access to higher learning, usually in teachers' colleges, during the early years of the 20th Century, securing the right to vote in national elections by constitutional amendment in 1920, entering most "male only" universities after World War II, and crashing the ranks of Fortune 500 CEOs and top positions in theological and ecclesiastical institutions in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Toward the end of the 19th Century working people began to organize into unions and to win both increased salaries and benefits to say nothing of safety and humane practices in the work place. Collective bargaining saw industrial power beginning to be shared between management and labor more equitably.
The civil rights movement broke the back of segregation and brought about the emancipation and education of a whole new generation of black Americans. Then following the Korean and Vietnam wars and with the return of Hong Kong to China increased Asian migration began to give a new and more expanded definition to what it means to be an American.
Gay and lesbian people began to strike back against their oppressors in the Stonewall revolt and subsequently won new freedoms that will soon make the institution of marriage with all its benefits universally available to gay and lesbian people. Homophobia has retreated today into conservative Christian Churches where it is making its last stand before disappearing as other irrational prejudices have done before it.
These forces of change, long bubbling beneath the surface of public awareness, broke fully into the consciousness of this nation in the election of 2008. It was in that election that we noted consciously that these transitional forces have changed America to such a degree that candidates who could never have dreamed of running 25-50 years ago emerged as viable candidates and an African American actually became the victorious candidate. In that election, however, we also had a viable female candidate, a viable Hispanic candidate, a viable Mormon candidate and even a viable candidate who had been twice divorced and three times married. There appeared to be no handicap barring any of these people from the citadels of power, where once these had been formidable barriers.
What we are seeing today in the drumbeat of hostility and fear across this nation seems to me to arise from those who feel that their power is slipping away. The levels of hostility are incredibly high and wild charges are being made in the media and even by some heretofore responsible public servants in the political arena. "Health care reform will euthanize the elderly;" "the government is taking over business" (which not coincidentally it rescued with massive infusions of taxpayer dollars when the whole economy teetered on the edge of depression); "the nation is becoming socialist, communist;" "the President was born in Kenya - he is not legitimate." "You lie," spoken in the heart of our government to our president. These are the frantic and yet pitiful expressions of fear expressing itself in anger that verges on violence.
Periods of social upheaval are risky times for a democracy. Anger can be directed by unscrupulous leaders toward those identified as the cause of the current distress. Hitler rose to power in a time of economic upheaval by articulating the fears of the people, pointing to Jews as the cause of the problem and allowing anti-Semitic hatred to flow freely.
It would be a remarkable achievement if our first African American President could lead this nation safely through this time of fear and transition. If he is not able to stem the hostile tide and to lower the levels of rage and anger our democracy is at risk. People of good will, who possess a clear vision into the future on both sides of the political aisles need to see today's anger and loss of civility as a symptom of a far deeper sickness and put their shoulders to the wheel to guide this nation into its future.
The stakes are high, the time is short. A new tomorrow awaits us. Yesterday is passing away. We must even get beyond even the traditional concerns of religion for religious anger is just one more, perhaps even a major, part of the problem. To work for human wholeness is our goal. To call our people to a deeper sense of what it means to be human is the battle cry of our day.
By
John Shelby Spong
|
September 17, 2009; 1:43 PM ET
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Posted by: Counterww | September 21, 2009 12:32 AM
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Dr. Spong's ability to view issues from a higher global perspective is most helpful in lifting the despair I feel when sickeningly ignorant and hateful statements are aired and presented as "truth". This country has been a welcoming open door to immigrants for hundreds of years. Former immigrants who changed the fabric of the U.S, now long-established residents, are refusing to tolerate the influences ushered in by the new diverse crops of immigrants. The world is interconnected and interdependent and none of us are lone rangers anymore. We can't go back to what once was and we need each other in order to survive the future.
Posted by: Asfarwest | September 20, 2009 6:17 PM
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If the people are really for it, the public opinion polls don't show it
THe Dems have screwed this thing up, and have become full of themselves just as many on this forum have.
It is a great thing to be in power?
How quickly you forget the left's incivility when Dems come into power and people on the right get up in arms. Difference is, its the independents that the left politicians are losing
Posted by: Counterww | September 20, 2009 5:15 PM
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Money quote: "Periods of social upheaval are risky times for a democracy. Anger can be directed by unscrupulous leaders toward those identified as the cause of the current distress. Hitler rose to power in a time of economic upheaval by articulating the fears of the people, pointing to Jews as the cause of the problem and allowing anti-Semitic hatred to flow freely."
According to a recent Southern Poverty Law Center report, "A remarkable aspect of the current antigovernment movement is the extent to which it has gained support from elected officials ..."
That's a huge concern with regard to my own representative in Congress, Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn.)
History has shown that freedom is most jeopardized in times of economic uncertainty and social upheaval, when people search for scapegoats and are willing to subjugate their civil liberties in favor of submission to an authoritarian leader.
The warning signs are all around us. We see it with the Teabaggers, the Birthers, and the incivility at town hall meetings dealing with President Obama's health care proposals.
In the information age, public rhetoric like Bachmann's is dangerous when legitimized by individuals entrusted with the power of high public office.
Bachmann's political position amplifies her voice and incites a large and growing national audience.
Her demagoguery, fear-mongering, and incendiary rhetoric energizes and mobilizes political extremists, some of whom may lack the clarity of judgment and self-restraint on which we rely for a civil society and a nation of laws.
Posted by: Immelman | September 19, 2009 8:54 PM
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As usual Bishop Spong has it right. We need for people of good will to realize that the lack of civility is a dangerous trend and gives rise to a climate of hate and possible violence. All of us need to take a step back. Each person deserves respect whether we agree with him or her or not. It is ideas that count.
Posted by: mitchc2 | September 19, 2009 11:53 AM
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Rob-Roy:
Please cite your sources for your statistics. Every accepted polling group puts majorities of the population and of medical practitioners in favor of either public option, or even better, single payer (ie, Medicare for all) health care reform.
Pr Chris
Posted by: CalSailor | September 19, 2009 1:44 AM
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Did not take long for Dr Spong to be proved correct, did it ROB-ROY
Posted by: aussiebarry | September 19, 2009 12:46 AM
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Of course, Spong strikes out, yet again. (One wonders why people even listen to a guy who caused such a catastrophe in his diocese of Newark - near 50% decline in membership).
The incivility is a function of marginalization of the majority of the American people by a minority. The majority of Americans oppose Obama's attempt to increase government's role in health care. Medicare, medicaid both are broke, yet Obama wants to impose more entitlement programs. And what is the response to the majority's negative reaction? Obama and the sycophantic liberal media (whose public trust is at a all time low) condescendingly states disagreement is due to racism! Of course, the people are angry and showing it.
Posted by: Rob-Roy | September 18, 2009 11:14 PM
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Spong wrote: "To call our people to a deeper sense of what it means to be human is the battle cry of our day."__________________________________ Speaking as a red-blooded, all-American atheist: I concur.
Posted by: tojby_2000 | September 18, 2009 9:56 AM
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Once again, Dr. Spong hits the nail right on the head. This current incivility is the death rattle of the old order, in which everything is viewed as a zero-sum game.
Posted by: Athena4 | September 17, 2009 2:20 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
Previous poster- yes, we are a nation of immigrants and we should be tolerant to more immigrants. LEGAL ones. The masses that come to our country now are uneducated, don't contribute as much as they take, and send much of their money to Mexico to support their families. The news flash is- we should support immigration, but it should be measured, controlled, and be LEGAL. Unemployment is at its highest in 2 and a half decades, and we need the people here that are legal citizens and residents to get those jobs. So I am in agreement to a point, but it is something to vet very carefully.