A Nation Divided: Can We Agree On Anything?

Yes, we can. If we get over the fun of fake-outraged partisanship and actually start working on solutions, rather than pointing fingers and assigning blame.

A Nation Divided: Can We Agree On Anything?
by Linton Weeks
February 28, 2012

Americans cannot agree on: When life begins and whether extreme criminals should be executed. The roles of the government and the responsibilities of the individual. The best places to live, the worst places to work, historical accuracy, futuristic predictions, who deserves better, who deserves worse and on and on.

How will we ever resolve our differences?

"People tend to agree based on perceived self-interest," explains Rhonda Hilyer, president of Agreement Dynamics, a conflict resolution company in Seattle. "When I work with divergent parties I help them embrace the concept of enlightened self-interest, which means that to maximize the achievement of one's self-interest, it is usually necessary to recognize the self-interest of others and to seek solutions that support all parties' interests to some extent."

Interestingly:

God, globalism, troop support and math — these are things all Americans can agree on.

LadyJazzer wrote:

Science Chic wrote: Interestingly:

God, globalism, troop support and math — these are things all Americans can agree on.

This is from "The Onion", right?

God? Globalism? I think not.

Troop support? (I support troops, and thank them for their service.... I don't support war, or the trillions spent on military toys and finding more and better ways to bounce the rubble and kill people that the politicians disagree with, when it could be better spent on raising the quality-of-life for our own citizens.)

Math... That's the only one that makes sense.

Nope, NPR. Atheists, and agnostics like me, are in the minority, although I don't think their poll numbers of 90% are accurate.

Globalism: I'd say that we're already there.

More than 90 percent of Americans believe that future generations should be prepared for the ramifications of living in a global society, according to a 2007 report by NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

I absolutely agree with you on troop support, but not support for war and the millions/billions that's wasted due to lack of oversight (subcontractors stealing from us) and us having bases in places we don't need to be. Toys? Maybe some - definitely our troops need the latest personal weapons and protection, but do we really need tanks anymore? New multi-billion dollar fighter jets? I certainly am in no position to make those decisions, but it seems to me that there is a strong keep-the-status-quo of money flowing to subcontractors who build the big ticket items when we need to be critically evaluating how we really fight wars these days (money spent on intelligence gathering and internet surveillance seems smarter to me) and funneling the money those directions instead.

deltamrey wrote: Being a "child of the 60s" - the cultural divide is rooted in the 60s and 70s.......this is the root cause of our polarization now. Cultures take a looonnnggg time to change. Pain can expedite the changes - are we in enough pain YET ??

Interesting. I would've thought that the divide had happened much earlier and that the things that happened in the 60s and 70s was just the most visible expression of that divide.

I agree that pain can expedite changes. We haven't seen the worst of it yet. It will bring us together, but I worry that it will be too late by then.