Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Just a Thought

Why might someone divide the country into "pro-America" and "anti-America" areas? Why might someone divide our people into those who are "real Americans" and those who are not?

Is it possible that the sorting isn't the point of this hateful little exercise? What if the goal is the division itself?

Why would someone want to tear us apart? Who benefits from this manufactured culture war, delivered every four years like clockwork? Who has benefited in the past?

Rhetorical Rob

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eh, I'll stick with my favorite line of thought: never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. I mean, who can argue that "pro-America" and "the real [insert state name here]" comments are incredibly, incredibly stupid? :)

Halka said...

I used to live in a small town, and now I live in NYC. I guess that means a communist who used to love America?

All I know is -- I am definitely pro-cheesesteak.

Rob S. said...

I salute you and your valiant arteries.

But be careful of cheesesteak places -- they're a hotbed of "gotcha" journalism.

Mike Parnell said...

It sounds to me like we are not too far off from the Sunni and the Shia. It like we are trying to separate the true believers and the heathens, which is something I know a thing or two about.

Rob S. said...

It could be, Mike -- but I think we're being driven there deliberately and cynically. I don't know enough about the Sunni and Shia to say, but it seems like they have deep-seated (or at least extremely long-standing) differences, whereas our differences seem to have really come to a head only in the last 40-some years. I *don't* think they're real at all. I think I--as a suburban Philly-born New Jerseyite working in New York City--have more in common with someone from Kentucky than the people who stir this garbage up want either of us to believe.

And I find myself really, really conflicted between wanting not to get riled up by this swill and wanting to deck someone.

Which just goes to show how good the pot-stirrers are at their jobs.