My heart goes out to all of our servicemen and women that have and are still serving the call in Afghanistan. I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to civilian and military personnel that have made it their mission to help make Afghanistan a safer and freer place in the world. I don’t know anyone my age or older that isn’t personally affected by 9/11 and the conflict that would ensue at home and overseas in the war on terror over the past twenty years. To me, our involvement in Afghanistan was successful if for no other reason than preventing another large-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
It was both wildly popular and unpopular as these modern “wars” tend to go with the American public. Regardless of your personal opinions on withdrawal, I believe the entire country is experiencing an ‘existential crisis’ as to our role in the world and who we as a country are and what we stand for. To be fair it was already happening but this evacuation crisis has put a fine point on the feeling for so many Americans.
IS 21st CENTURY AMERICA ON THE RISE OR DECLINE?
I’m worried about our standing in the world. I’m optimistic, but cautiously so. America’s biggest geopolitical foes are engaged in actual human rights crimes, while our national discussion seems solely aimed at painting America as the true problem with the world. It’s scary because while we are set on tearing each other apart, the true foes of human rights, enlightenment, and advancement are amassing power and hoarding resources to harm America’s economic security while also leveraging their buying power to undermine our culture of freedom and self-expression. Americans and American companies beholden to Chinese economic interests have given us more than enough examples of how they already have altered their speech so as to not upset the sleeping dragon.
And while our Congress has spent the Spring and Summer tussling over how many trillions of dollars we should spend on “infrastructure” the Chinese government is busy working to make its supply chain entirely self-sustainable, including developing semiconductors and continuing to buy up as many raw materials around the world as possible to squirrel away for a rainy day.
Why mention this? Because I truly believe we need to stop looking at our fellow citizens with suspicion. Stop assuming the worst of our domestic political opponents. And once we can come to terms with the simple fact that while we disagree on the means we often do agree on outcomes. We need to stop focusing on the areas we disagree with each other on because those trenches have been dug and there is no real persuasion campaign that can dislodge us from that. We can change the outcome of our story and it starts within our own world––our family, our colleagues at work, our neighbors, the uber delivery gal––be kind. Listen more than you preach. Don’t comment on the political post that makes you angry. Give people the benefit of the doubt and above everything else I write here remember that every bad thing you hear on the TV or read online is not an attack against you. It hardly ever is an attack against you unless your name is specially used in the story.
LOST IN TRANSLATION
I’ve been thinking about language a lot recently. What words we use to describe ourselves, how we explain the behaviors of others through grouping, and how no one sits down to agree on the definitions of terms we use for ourselves and others.
A lot of ink is spilled over getting called names that can be offensive. On all sides of the American populace.
Growing up, and my siblings and cousins can attest if you called someone a Democrat it was the ultimate insult. Cheating during a board game would get you labeled as a Democrat so fast. Nu-uh! Or giggles with glee because if you actually are cheating, well then the punishment fits the crime, you’re a Democrat.
Thirty-some-odd years later it makes me laugh, but I don’t consider ‘Democrat’ to be offensive. It’s just as benign as calling someone a ‘Republican’. It really doesn’t tell you much at all about a person in today’s political climate. I often lament during the primary elections about this labeling without defining phenomenon. For example, the claim that a candidate is the ‘most conservative’ or ‘most progressive’ and therefore will be the best champion for the constituents of that particular district is commonplace. You tell a progressive voter that you’re a conservative and they think you’re a fascist. You tell a conservative voter that you’re a progressive and they think you’re a communist. You tell a conservative you’re a conservative or a progressive that you’re a progressive and then what? Those who subscribe to a label have their own unique perspective on what that means and there are no real judges on what’s the truest version other than the electorate, and that gets messy.
As a self-described conservative the first names that come to mind for me as to who embodies conservatism and its principles are Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and James Madison. In modern politics, I would consider someone like Ben Sasse, Mike Gallagher, and Tim Scott solid conservatives. I find it offensive when people like Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Green claim the conservative mantle. It’s offensive to me because they use my label and I feel like in doing so my “correct” definition is diluted and damaged. When someone like me pushes back we get hit with another label altogether–“RINO”, “moderate”, “establishment”, it’s just how politics is in the age of social media. Performative toughness seems to be the only standard by which conservatism is defined at the moment. I find this very problematic, but that’s my opinion, and I hope I’m proved wrong come 2022.
I use that example to get you thinking about the labels you choose for yourself, how you react when someone misuses your label, and how you label others that may not be true to how they perceive it. We’re all just lost in translation.
WISHCASTING
I will leave you with this final thought. While I know the world will never rid itself of evil in all its forms you have the power to rid it from your life and fight against it in your community. It’s an exhausting fight at times––fighting corruption, abuses, and cynicism––but it’s never unnoticed by the people you help. I spent way too much time thinking the impact I had to have on this world needed to be big in scale to matter. I was so naive, because if you help one person who’s to say that doesn’t ripple out on a global scale. No effort is too small to matter. Good luck in all your endeavors ladies.
Sarah’s Media Diet
To Read:
WP - When and how Americans started souring on the war in Afghanistan
Pew - Political Typology Reveals Deep Fissures on the Right and Left
To Listen:
Honestly by Bari Weiss - You’re Already Living in China’s World Pt 1 & Pt 2
Honestly by Bari Weiss - How We Failed Afghanistan (And Ourselves) with HR McMaster
The Megyn Kelly Show - Wesley Yang on Weaponized Fragility, Policing Debate Out of Existence, and The Successor Ideology
To Watch:
BritBox or Amazon Prime - Bancroft (A dark thriller surrounding Elizabeth Bancroft, a senior detective with explosive secrets.)
BritBox, Hulu, HBO Max, or Amazon Prime - Whitechapel (A fast-tracked inspector, a hardened detective sergeant, and an expert in historical homicides investigate modern crimes with connections to the past in the Whitechapel district of London.)
Signing off with the most sincere prayer of safekeeping to our brothers and sisters that are in Afghanistan and trying to get out. Godspeed and God bless you all.
LYLAS,
Sarah
The Slip will return in two weeks.