As a reminder: This is part 2 of a series based on my recent illness ramblings. Start with #1 for the context.

Note #2: The Sides of the Divide in our Culture are “Amping” up the Volume

The divide caused by the centrifugal forces ripping our post-culture apart (see part 1) are rushing apart and are shouting at each as they fly apart. This can be seen in all parts of life, but it is easiest to see in the contrast between the politics of Fox News and MSNBC. Our country gets stoked up by these two channels and their two worldviews. The talking heads on each of these channels preach different gospels and proclaim the others infidels. (This, of course, does not mean that these two are equally correct. My point is just that language volume is peaking.) To steal a line from Wendell Berry, “at the highest levels of our society political debate has effectively ended.” The two sides yell sound bites back and forth. Their choirs are stirred. They cover the sins of their side. They amplify the sins of the other. There is a diminishing amount of common ground between them. Their rhetoric is sophistry for many of the talking heads, I fear. They would sing the tune of whoever played and paid. This is not true for their adherents. They are too often stirred to a frenzy. Too often they start to wear down and begin to forget the humanity of the other side. Politics in America has always been savage—it is no more savage today. The number of people involved in this arena mentally is growing. The ties that bind them together are fewer and flimsier. The commonality between them is at an all time low. I can hardly imagine what another 10 years of this trajectory will bring. I see it leading to violence and destruction. But this is not the worst news… .