By Alliance President Terry Gips
I had a dream yesterday morning and it wasn’t the dream of standing on the mountain top. It was a dream of how dark forces lurked in every corner willing to take out anyone who came forward seeking a solution to the political and personal violence, anyone who dared to actually effectuate true sustainability.
Try as I might in the dream, I saw these agents come after those who saw a different future and sought to collaborate with others to avert the clear disaster for people and planet that lay ahead.
So I awoke. Perhaps that, too, is no longer acceptable because we are in wars over words as well, even the most basic of ones that we somehow twist into ways of judging each other both between the left and right and even within the left and possibly with different terminology on the right.
And meanwhile, the vast middle is left in disbelief as the uncivil wars escalate with every word choice about nearly everything, along with every proposed policy.
There is a multi-tiered chessboard of war beyond my and most people’s comprehension that is only escalating with increasing speed in response to the murders of children in school, Charlie Kirk in a public debate and the cancel culture of Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel as the owners of their networks bow down to threats to their lucrative deals by an administration seeking to silence critics.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the uncivil war taking place. It literally involves every aspect of our existence, from what is taught in our schools and our congregations to whether vaccines harm or save lives and claims climate change is a hoax or a brilliant solution.
We are being confronted with a multi-level war in which to say anything is to be castigated. That’s some democracy. It’s a world in which everyone and everything is demonized and too many of those in control of various forms of media stoke the fires for profit.
That’s some creation and we all have the privilege of participating in some form or another in what we used to call a democracy, a fragile, brilliant concept in which people could actually discuss, even debate ideas, hopefully in a civil manner.
Today we stand far from it, lost in a world of attacks back and forth in which truth no longer exists and anyone seeking to be a “leader” will be literally shot down by bullets or words. That’s some modeling and a wonderful legacy to pass on to our children. If we as adults can’t somehow hold all of this, how do they even begin to make sense of what’s unfolding as their dismal future inheritance?
The truth is that they aren’t. Studies show 85% of them feel hopelessness and eco-anxiety. It’s affecting the daily life of roughly 40% of them. And 30% of adolescent girls are actively considering suicide. It’s the talk of their generation. The big question is how to do it. That’s some accomplishment.
So here I am, along with most people, somehow stuck in the middle. As former TX Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture Jim Hightower famously said, “Roadkill”. That’s how it feels.
Last week, at a belated birth day party for my dear therapist friend Ann Scott Dumas (Andi to me), I bemoaned the attacks underway in every aspect of our society and world. She was a good listener and agreed with each of my assessments.
But that wasn’t good enough for me. I had to find more to throw at her. And I did. Finally, it got to the point she said she was feeling it in her body and was starting to shut down. That’s some birth day present!
But it was exactly what I guess I needed to hear. I needed to have a partner who feels the same darkness, the same hopelessness.
Andi patiently explained that the discomfort, overwhelm and out-of-controlness we were feeling is actually a state of dysregulation. While it may be important to experience that darkness, it leaves one with no possibility except more of the same. It’s a perfect place for depression.
So, how do we not have more of the same? Sorry to leave you hanging but I’ll address that in Part Two: How Do We Get Out of this Place and End the Uncivil Wars.