Hi everyone! It’s been a good while since I posted anything other than a musical review. It has seemed to me for some time that the heated and meaningless duck/rabbit arguments going on for some time within the US were so loud and thoughtless that it was impossible to add to the din and accomplish anything worthwhile. But now I see some reasons for hope.
For anyone not familiar with the phrase “duck/rabbit argument,” the cartoon below offers a good explanation. (This cartoon appears to be commonly circulated under fair use and is used here in that sense). A “duck/rabbit argument” is an argument that emerges when two different persons or groups look at the same thing and argue over what it is. Duck/rabbit arguments are based on our projections of our mental states onto something we all see, and because our mental states are different, arguments ensue. Because these arguments are not really about what is actually in front of us, they tend to rage on without resolution. For years now the primary arguments in the US have fundamentally been about our preconceived notions rather than actual events around us. These disagreements have been egged on by the many elites on both sides who profit from the existence of such fights.
But there are signs of reason for hope. The primary source of my current hope is, of all things, actions of elected Republicans within Indiana. The Indiana Senate voted overwhelmingly to defeat a midterm gerrymandering effort for seats in the US House of Representatives that would likely have eliminated any Democrats from Indiana in that elected body. 40 of 50 seats in the Indiana Senate are held by Republicans. Twenty-one Republican Senators voted with the 10 Democratic Senators to defeat the midterm redistricting effort by a final vote of 31-19.
WFYI’s writing on this matter included the following: “Senator Spencer Deery (R-West Lafayette) said he felt mid-decade redistricting would undermine the people’s faith in the electoral process and was not in line with conservative principles. ‘My opposition to mid-cycle gerrymandering is not in contrast to my conservative principles, my opposition is driven by them’ …”
Indeed, this is an outbreak of conservatism within the Republican Party of a form that George Will or William F. Buckley would recognize. Buckley’s book “Up from Liberalism” is of course one of the canonical works of conservatism in the USA. What happened in Indiana is conservative in the sense of restricting the use and power of government and listening to the will of the people whose votes determine who is elected to public office. The conservative Senators of the State of Indiana deserve our great respect. Now if only we can get an outbreak of liberalism in the Democratic Party in a form that Herbert Croly or Alexis de Tocqueville would recognize, our nation might really get somewhere. Croly’s “The promise of American Life” and de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” are foundational works of American liberalism.
There are other reasons for being optimistic. Births among them. I always think this quote says something tremendously important:
This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of a child — life’s most dramatic answer to death — this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!
Howard Thurman
Of course, Christians have just celebrated the birth of the Christ Child. For Christians seeking optimism I particularly recommend https://christinwinter.blogspot.com/, written by retired minister John McFarland.
Within my family optimism is spurred by a particularly important birth likely to take place yet this month. Our great-niece Emma will soon have a little sister. We take this as a sign of hope and as a sign that life will go on.
And not to neglect Wiccans…. we are past the Winter Solstice. For the next several months the forces of light will be prevailing over those of darkness as days grow longer. May the forces of light prevail more generally in the world as well.
In the coming weeks I am going to continue on a bit with the theme of optimism. After that I will switch to a few posts aimed at graduate students regarding scholarly and scientific writing. This is an area where I have some background. And right now, grad students nationwide are among many groups sorely put upon. So perhaps some encouragement and a few tips will be of value.
And after that… who knows?
Self-fulfilling prophecies are a thing. If we have low expectations for 2026, our subconscious is likely to help us find ways to fulfill that expectation. If we have high expectations for 2026, we may be disappointed. But with high expectations comes the possibility that we may help better the lives of other people as well as our own. We don’t all have to agree on everything. But we might just try agreeing on the sacred value and full personhood of each and every human and then see what comes of that. It’s worth a shot.