- 23 May 2018 06:00
#14917238
Today America is divided into groups. The 2 main ones are the Trumpsters and the Anti-Trumpsters. There are others, like the “I don't pay any attention-sters”.
The problem I see is that America has no way to get those 2 main groups to ever again be one group.
I will use 2 historical examples.
1] In the 1850s America was divided into slaveholders (with their hanger-oners) and the free labor group (and their hanger-oners). There was the Civil War, but it didn't end the split. In fact, the split is still around 150 years later.
2] I was pointed to a book some years ago. “They Thought They Were Free” is/was about how lower level Nazis felt about the war and things in 1940-1950. The author was an American history Prof. who decided to research how Nazis felt by going to Germany disguised as a visiting Prof. And get to know well 10 low ranking Nazis. Befriend them, get them to trust him, and find out what they really thought.
. . . The results are not very encouraging. Of the 10, 1 was never a real Nazi who only joined the Party to avoid being exposed as an anti-Nazi. He, of course, saw that what the Nazis did to the Jews, in the war, etc. was very evil. The other 9 were real Nazis. Everyone of them did not see what the Nazis did as evil at all. They explained things as being the result of losing the war.
. . . So, 3 or 4 years after the war was over and the magnitude of Nazi evil was laid out for all to see. *Not one* of the lower level Nazis would agree that the Party they had belonged to had done anything wrong, except lose the war.
I consider myself well read. To my knowledge. historically the main methods used to create one nation out of several groups of people involved mass murder, reeducation camps, the gulag, etc.
America is not going to use any of those methods. So, how is American going to get one of those 2 main groups to give it up and accept they they were wrong and the other one was right, and change their mindset to reflect that acceptance? If neither side accepts this change then is it likely that 150 years from now, America will still be divided into what can be seen as decedents of Trumpsters and Anti-Trumpsters?
The problem I see is that America has no way to get those 2 main groups to ever again be one group.
I will use 2 historical examples.
1] In the 1850s America was divided into slaveholders (with their hanger-oners) and the free labor group (and their hanger-oners). There was the Civil War, but it didn't end the split. In fact, the split is still around 150 years later.
2] I was pointed to a book some years ago. “They Thought They Were Free” is/was about how lower level Nazis felt about the war and things in 1940-1950. The author was an American history Prof. who decided to research how Nazis felt by going to Germany disguised as a visiting Prof. And get to know well 10 low ranking Nazis. Befriend them, get them to trust him, and find out what they really thought.
. . . The results are not very encouraging. Of the 10, 1 was never a real Nazi who only joined the Party to avoid being exposed as an anti-Nazi. He, of course, saw that what the Nazis did to the Jews, in the war, etc. was very evil. The other 9 were real Nazis. Everyone of them did not see what the Nazis did as evil at all. They explained things as being the result of losing the war.
. . . So, 3 or 4 years after the war was over and the magnitude of Nazi evil was laid out for all to see. *Not one* of the lower level Nazis would agree that the Party they had belonged to had done anything wrong, except lose the war.
I consider myself well read. To my knowledge. historically the main methods used to create one nation out of several groups of people involved mass murder, reeducation camps, the gulag, etc.
America is not going to use any of those methods. So, how is American going to get one of those 2 main groups to give it up and accept they they were wrong and the other one was right, and change their mindset to reflect that acceptance? If neither side accepts this change then is it likely that 150 years from now, America will still be divided into what can be seen as decedents of Trumpsters and Anti-Trumpsters?