Understanding and Healing Our Country’s Divide
Ben Lytle
The infamous event of Saturday, July 13, 2024, should dismay every person with a heart and soul. A former U.S. President and 2024 presidential candidate barely survived an assassination attempt. A bystander died shielding his family, and two other attendees were seriously wounded. This tragedy comes as people in the U.S. and almost every country worldwide are troubled by division and violence. Few can understand it, and even fewer know what to do. I want to share my prayers, hopes, and dreams for what might come of this horrific event if we each reach inside ourselves for our best and push aside savage tribal instincts.
Division and tension are not bad things in themselves. Moderate tension between opposing polarities is essential to our psychology and social structure. Healthy tension respecting both polarities gives birth to creative, wise solutions, innovations, and compromises. This forgotten principle is known as the Tension of the Opposites or The Natural Law of Polarity. It is the foundation for virtually every political and legal system in the developed world. Mature, wise people appreciate the virtue of differences and patiently hold the tension to allow wise decisions and the best path forward to emerge. That’s how well-functioning representative democracies and legal systems operate. The Law of Polarity has been understood for millennia but largely forgotten in contemporary life. Carefully consider the quotes below.
“If you want the truth to stand before you, never be for or against. The Struggle between (them) is the mind’s worst disease.” —Sent Ts’an 700 C.E.
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“The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a corresponding tension of the opposites.” —Carl Jung
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“If we can stay with the tension of the opposites long enough –sustain it, be true to it– we can sometimes become vessels within which the divine opposites come together and give birth to a new reality.” —Marie-Louise von Franz
The severe divisions that we experience today are not new, nor are they the end of times, as extremists claim to manipulate the uninformed. In countries evenly divided as so many are today, neither side can have their way unfettered. Each side narrowly wins an election and puts policies in place repugnant to the opposition, only to have them overturned when the other side wins by a narrow margin. This policy pendulum heightens tensions, inflames egos, prevents effective planning, and unnerves the populace. But take heart: divisive times are forerunners of a coming elevation of humanity, as has occurred many times in history, including the Renaissance and The Enlightenment. Everyone’s task, without exception, is to step back from extremism, hatred, and violence and let the Law of Polarity do its work.
Compromise requires appreciating the hidden virtues in our neighbor’s intentions and principles. Leadership requires serving the vast middle instead of pandering to noisy extremes or big-money donors. I pray that Saturday, July 13, 2024, will be a turning point in U.S. political discourse when it will become once again civil, respectful, and worthy of those who sacrificed their lives so that we can have discourse at all. I pray that each political party, their candidates, mass media allies, and talk show megaphones wake up as if from a bad hangover and pledge, “Never again.”
But our elected officials cannot do it alone. They reflect our attitudes as voters and financial contributors. So, I pray that in every home, workplace, place of worship, and social event, we become our best selves to respect and honor those with whom we differ instead of demonizing them. I pray we become tolerant and patient with compromise, remembering that its application by wise people created the prosperity and peace we enjoy.
As voters, our standard should be to elect the wisest people instead of the most partisan or loudest, those who make us proud and trust that we will reward them with our votes. We need elected and appointed officials with the courage to represent the broad, open-minded middle of the American electorate. President Biden and former President Trump can only serve one more term. In the 9th inning of their lives, neither should be indebted to their parties’ extremes, special interests, or donors. Both can become the president that history will remember as “The Great Healer.” I pray for that most of all. I hope you will join me in these prayers.
God bless America.
Ben Lytle
