Why America is Divided

 America’s Division

The Supreme Court, on Friday, June 24th, 2022, officially overturned the ruling of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey which guaranteed the right of abortion on a constitutional and thereby Federal level.  The overturning of this right now hands back the legalization or illegalization of abortion to the individual states of America whereas the more conservative states will fully or mostly make abortion illegal while the more liberal states will expand and maintain the right to abortion.  

This very split between conservative and liberal states has got me wondering about the setup and drive behind the divisions of social dynamics among Americans.  It seems that the United States themselves are not so united when it comes to human social structure and customs but this very division hasn't always existed among Americans, in fact, up until the latter half of the 10th Century Americans more or less had similar social structures which were centered around community, family, and heritage.  Even when America had a multitude of ethnic groups within it such as the Irish, Germans, WASP, Polish, Italians, & Jews they all formed separate but cohesive groups and lived and worked in their own part of this great land.  But that would soon change.  

Conservative=Ignorance

After the end of World War 2, the American economy was booming as returning soldiers were given government loans to buy homes and employment opportunities were plentiful and people were living comfortably for the first time after a long decade of economic turmoil caused by the Great Depression.  This newfound prosperity among American families also meant that their children could also attend universities which were paid for by government loans as well.  

The Universities themselves have always been viewed as an institute of higher education and intelligence where all kinds of knowledge could be acquired with enough time and effort put into studying such knowledge and considering that those who were able to attend University through government student loans came from socially conservative backgrounds, exposure to this new knowledge and presumably unbias environment was like a breath of fresh air for them or like being in a new exotic place that they could only dream of one day attending.  

While the Universities themselves did offer knowledge of the most advanced kind such as Calculus & Number Theory as well as Literature that only the most advanced readers could understand there was also another form of “knowledge” that, while not being an objective form of knowledge which is meant to explain some aspect of the reality we live in, managed to frame itself as such through its instruction by said Universities.  

This new “knowledge” was Cultural Marxism.  Cultural Marxism, for those who are not familiar with it, is the idea that aspects of human social structures and social norms are products of centuries of ignorance and that the existence of human groups is the cause of human suffering and misery such as war and oppression so one must break out of this ignorant and harmful human social structure to be happy and achieve widespread human cooperation and love which will eventually bring about world peace.  The reasoning behind this very idea is that when people see themselves as individuals instead of members of a group; they are less likely to be hateful and prejudiced towards others and if other people also share this individualistic viewpoint of other people then they also will be less likely to hate and discriminate against other people.  

This very reason that was given for the idea of Cultural Marxism would soon become popular among University students who themselves are individuals who managed to break from their respective groups by attending said Universities and eventually achieving a career that would make them happy; a social situation which married and agreed with Cultural Marxism perfectly.  The University students then would begin to live more individualistically for the rest of their lives and when movements like the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay, and later LGBTQ, Rights Movement & the Feminist and Sexual Liberation Movements were happening; these very students wholeheartedly supported these movements in sheer opposition to the very group that themselves unsuccessfully pushed back against these movements.  

Hence the idea of being a conservative, or being someone who supported the group and their interests, is one of ignorance, bias, and social backwardness while the students who have embraced Cultural Marxism became known as Liberals who are viewed as being socially progressive, unbias, and universally good due to their love and acceptance or tolerance for all individuals regardless of background.  

Hence the acceptance of individual social structures is one where people are individualistic, or liberal, on one side and those who are conservative or group-oriented on the other with Liberalism being more dominant in some states and conservatism being more dominant in other states.  Such states differ demographically also with Liberal states having more people of different groups living with each other while conservative states tend to have a monocultural and uniform group background.  Either way, this social division is here to stay because individualism and group orientation are two conflicting social structures because individualism cannot thrive among groups while groups themselves can't stay together because of individualism hence why America is and will continue to be socially divided nation.  

American Unity?

But can this division be reconciled?  In a way, yes but it would require abandoning Liberalism as Liberalism, being socially divisive through individualism, will only continue to tear Americans apart by destroying any sense of national & group, pride, patriotism, and a sense of the wholeness of the American people which was the reason why so many Americans, both men, and women, were willing to fight & die as well as support their country during times of conflict and turmoil and even if we are living in an era of peace; conflict itself is always looming over nations and people who all have their own goals and interests and hence will not hesitate to destroy others peoples to get it, especially if said people are socially divided.  So group unity is and will continue to be, for as long as humans exist on this planet, an important part of our existence as highly advanced kinds of animals.