Opinion: The annihilation factor: The culture of contemporary America

President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speak during the debate in Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 22, 2020.

President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speak during the debate in Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 22, 2020. Patrick Semansky

By JOHN BUTTRICK

Published: 01-05-2025 6:00 AM

John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com

Once upon a time, I was invited to a family dinner to welcome in the New Year. I was to be introduced to the extended family of the woman I was dating: grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

However, I was cautioned by my date to refrain from any conversation about politics or religion. It seemed that any hint that my beliefs were different from theirs would be extremely uncomfortable. Yet, the rest of the story is that we all knew our beliefs were very different and, if spoken aloud, would be a stress on tolerance for each other. Thus, the unspoken agreement was to consider introducing only safe topics around the dinner table.

This experience of many years ago may have been a foreshadowing of today’s polarization expressed in contemporary politics, societal norms, religion, and United States border crossings. The difference today may be more aggressive outspokenness in defense of one’s identity and affinity group, by completely discrediting other perceived fractious groups.

The result is a power struggle between factions, each seeking to preserve their own identity at the expense of the opposition. If the identity of the individual or the group loses its power and influence in the competition, it is feared that they will go out of existence. Therefore, the need for self-preservation justifies the annihilation of any who threaten their identity, even to the extreme of using violence.

James Davison Hunter, writing in the Hedgehog Review article, “Culture Wars: The Endgame,” suggests that the American culture of cherished individualism has led to finding like-minded people to come together in a power block to assure the success of their identity with its particular goals and world view.

Hunter explains that this culture is perpetuated “when presidential candidates resort to demonization; one calling immigrants ‘vermin’ and another branding her rival’s supporters as ‘a basket of deplorables’.”

Of course, many of us would deny any intention to expunge, cancel, demonize, or erase another person or group of people. However, according to Hunter, present-day culture suggests an unconscious perception that we each belong to a particular “besieged, existentially threatened minority.”

This leads to the feeling that we have been injured, or maybe, by those who oppose our beliefs and practices. It then becomes possible to demonize those who may threaten us.

For example, Hunter explains, for evangelical Christians, all that is wrong with the world are “secular humanists.” There are others who believe that capitalists and racists are all that impede progress and social justice. Hunter explains that we are in a “never-ending contest over position and power.”

For some of us, this viewpoint may violate a cherished ethic of seeking equity and equality for all human beings. However, in spite of our good intentions, we are a part of the existential American culture that puts position and power as the primary measure of one’s identity. Any suggestion of an attack on that identity creates an enemy to be silenced, ending their power and control of government and societal norms.

To overcome this embedded culture of suspicion and fear of the other, it may be important to admit to the underlying influence it has on our lives, in spite of all good intentions. I’m not proud of this culture being a part of my identity. I would like to adhere to that familiar argument that it is not the person that I fault but the action or the belief.

Yet, it seems, that in today’s American culture, the person and the belief are perceived as one. The challenge, according to Hunter, to maintaining a humane political and social order in a democracy “is to refuse to see our political opponents as the enemy… undeserving of reason.”

I would add, to refuse to take opposition to an idea as an assault on my person, my identity. Instead, be guided by the idea that the primary cause of polarization is not motivated by personal differences but by defensiveness and self-preservation. The key to initiating a break from polarization is to choose to see fellow citizens as bonded together with us in a common struggle against fear and the nefarious other.

And most of all, advises Hunter, strive to discover once again our “common story about our shared identity.” It could be the first step toward a happy New Year.