Polarizing politics

Unlike many of the people who read this fine newspaper, I actually live outside Indiana. I currently reside in Naperville, Ill., which is about 45 minutes away
from Chicago.

Usually, this little piece of information about myself goes almost completely unnoticed, as it should. It’s not really an interesting fact. However, a few weeks ago people absolutely bombarded me with questions about where I live. 

The culprit behind this change? Of course, it was the NATO summit in Chicago subsequently followed by (at this point) the guaranteed protests.

I don’t live anywhere near the center of all of this in Chicago, so I didn’t feel the brunt of this massive amount of people streaming into the city. But I have heard some horror stories of having to wade through oceans of people, or planning a seven- or eight-hour trip that should have lasted two.

It was absolutely insane down there, but not just because of the NATO protesters. There were actually anti-protesters — people taking the time out of their days to protest the protesters who were protesting NATO. A little confusing, I know, but stick with me.

Now, one of the main ideas the original protesters in Chicago were trying to get across was “Healthcare over Warfare.” Basically, this is the idea that NATO, as well as America, should cut back on defense funding in favor of putting that money toward medical care.

Of course, this sparked a pretty hot debate within the crowd.

The way I saw it, a majority of the original protesters seemed to think America’s military is always a bad force in the world and should be stopped, while a majority of the anti-protesters seemed to think America could never be wrong and should be allowed to do whatever it pleases. To be honest, both views repel me.

Perhaps it’s my personality, but I’ve never understood completely polarizing views like these. I just can’t seem to convince myself that one country could be either the source of all good or all evil in the universe.

To an extent, the original NATO protesters are completely right. America does get away with a lot of aggression and it definitely spends too much on defense and too little developing a better healthcare system.

But I also agree with the anti-protesters in that the idea that America should completely gut its military is ludicrous. I would love to live in a world where such things were unnecessary, but I don’t live in the world of
my choosing.

This is the real world, where the guy with the biggest stick and the largest
wallet wins.

Sadly, neither side could see this, and the protest raged on. And although it’s all done now, I still think this idea of extreme polarization is an important one.

Progress cannot be made when people have already made up their minds in such an extreme way. As I said before, this is the real world that we live in. And in the real world, compromises are a part of everyday life.

I wanted pancakes and orange juice for breakfast this morning, but I had stale Cheerios with something that might or might not have been milk. That’s life.
Now, I’m not saying we should drop all our dearly held beliefs. I’m not saying we should acquiesce to whatever the group wants — there are very few times in history where that turned out well.

But maybe listening to each other and working to find an agreeable compromise is better than what’s going on now. Cheerios and gross milk are better
than nothing.

­— kevsjack@indiana.edu