A Cup of Conversation – February 2019

Someone once told me no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Think about it. Successful politicians mastered the counterfeit of empathy by kissing babies and patiently listening to hard luck stories from potential voters but they can’t fake the real thing for long. Eventually, the fruit is either on the tree or not. That is how we know.

In the meantime, giant clashing populations in America are convinced they know more about pretty much everything than those who do not agree with them. Nothing new here but once upon a time there was a middle to balance everything out. Where-oh-where has the middle gone? Identity politics by design has all but devoured the last of middle.

Imagine the whole of life without a middle. In physics, the fulcrum wouldn’t exist and we’d still be living on the ground floor. Without a hub, the wheel doesn’t work and we’d be walking everywhere. In literature, without a middle, books would be ridiculously short, we’d never know anything about anybody and nothing would rhyme. Physiologically speaking, without soft tissue middling hard, insanity pain would be our short existence. In society, without a political middle, we’d be at each other’s throats with tribal viciousness. We’re there now.

What a perfect recipe to end the pursuit of happiness. If you’re standing on polar ends of the middle, ask yourself what’s the objective? To conquer, subjugate, destroy or rule? Those political and religious tyrants are never satiated with submission or annihilation. Totalitarian intent will always find criterion to divide and oppress; by appearance, speech, thought and countless other colored threads in the tapestry of life. With a healthy middle, however, most extremes feel comfortable enough occupying a room down the hall without the pressing need to bring the whole house down.

In negotiation, pursuit of a sustainable middle is the goal. No middle ground has predictable results; violence, force, and ultimately war. Remember this next time free speech is shut down at institutions of learning and digital platforms of communication.

When extremes rule, bad things happen. It’s been proven over and over throughout recorded history. Problems begin when parts of the middle use the fringe to manipulate the rest of the middle. Middles never fully buy into what the fringe is selling but can find themselves swept away by riptides of party before country, fascism and division. At that point, extremes no longer need a middle and seek tyrannical rule over the middle. Turn on your television and ask yourself what America would be like if ruled by the disenfranchised fringe masked in black, rioting unfettered in the streets while parents pay their rent? Someone in a middle position of power and influence allows them to do this without consequence because it serves an agenda.

Be very careful showing tolerance to actions otherwise abhorrent but make allowance because it serves a brand of politics. The end never justifies the means. Disaster is always at the end of that road. What do the killing fields of Pol Pot, Siberian gulags of Stalinism, Hitlerian despotism, famines of steel-fisted Maoism or runaway inflation in oil-rich, socialist Venezuela all have in common? No middle where there once was one. Were we thinking it could never happen here?

We’re embarking on a new year, a powerful symbol of a fresh start. Let the middle and extreme reading this take note. IN THIS REPUBLIC, unless your ideological alter-ego sees fruit of authentic empathy acknowledging unique pain, struggle, pursuit of happiness and inherent God-given, constitutional rights to live free, then what you espouse must ultimately fail. If not, firewalls of freedom are breached and we’ll soon find ourselves in bondage, each and every one of us.

The fruit-bearing tree is a symbol of man’s character. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree, even with the greenest of leaves, cannot produce good fruit. An honest assessment of the trees in our national and cultural gardens of influence will always keep a path to the middle. This is where life is best lived.