Savages

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Human beings are complicated creatures, capable of both great good and great evil. Many times throughout our collective history we have seen examples where our better nature won out, and just as often our worse nature prevailed.

Listening to the voices I hear talking about how civil war seems unavoidable, I had in my mind a song from the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas. The full lyrics are available here. I listened to the song, and was filled with a sense of dread and sadness, along with a few realizations. It’s been a while since I watched the film, and I’ll probably do so over the weekend just to refresh myself to the lessons that were being offered.

But I couldn’t avoid comparing it to today’s world, and the two sides that have seemed to have formed over the last decade. And it is interesting to hear how the lyrics resonate within today’s discourse, and how ripe our society is for another civil war.

Seemingly what we have are two sides that view the other as inherently evil, irredeemable, and woefully unable to see reason or be trusted. Instead of focusing on the similarities and finding common ground, these two groups spend all of their effort and energy magnifying the differences between themselves and the “other.” And these collective set of differences become the identifying marks of tribal identity. We are nearly at a point that will determine if those identity markers become immutable and therefore no common ground will ever be found. And the worst part is that these fears are being stoked by a small, vocal group of people who are really after power and control.

Ratcliffe uses the capture of John Smith in the movie as the crisis necessary to go to war with the native populations in order to acquire the gold he believes to exist. He exploits the fears of the English settlers, whipping them into a frenzy and turning their fear into anger, leading them to battle.

Chief Powhatan, wary and afraid of the outsiders after the death of Kocoum at the hands of John Smith, engages in similar rhetoric to rally his warriors and prepare for war. While their motives are different than Ratcliffe’s, the effect is still the same. Both sides are pushed to the brink, driven to a frenzy by the words of a few.

They’re not like you and me
Which means they must be evil…
They’re savages! Savages!
Dirty shrieking devils…
The only thing they feel at all is greed…
There’s emptiness inside…
Barely even human…
Savages! Savages!
Killers at the core…
They’re different from us,
Which means they can’t be trusted
Demon!
Devil!
Kill them!

Various lyrics: Savages (Pocahontas 1995)

This kind of rhetoric inflames the fear and anger, lighting the fires of hatred and violence that dwell in the hearts of all men. I had hoped that this kind of sentiment in our country was long dead. I know that was the naïve hope of a child, and that the truth is that we’re in a constant battle between our desire to do good, and our propensity to give in to evil. The question is what do we do about it?

I am hopeful that we can have a moment where we come back from the brink, and that a moment of love and acceptance can douse the rising heat and fervor that is so prevalent in our discourse today. I live with the optimism that people will find the line they are not willing to cross, and that they will see the people on the other side not as some monster to be destroyed, but as a fellow human and fellow citizen. I pray that we can wake up and see that the people pushing us into this frenzy are exposed for their root greed and corruption, and that we can learn to find more things that bring us together than drive us apart.

I just hope that what I write means something to someone. The other side in this country is not a group of uncaring and unfeeling savages. People have their own experiences and bases of information, and no two people operate off the same set of facts in the same way. That is why we must talk to each other, and talk to people who are different from us. That is why we need more voices and not fewer. That is why I rail against censorship of any kind. The more we shut each other out, the more likely it will be that we end up killing each other, and that not only has long term implications here, but globally.

If the US dissolves into a civil war, other countries will act on their impulses without the check and balance that the US provides on a global stage, and this will cause more death and destruction, bringing about that dystopian future we have only ever imagined in movies and science fiction.

But it starts with us recognizing that our opponents are not savages.