A self divided (against itself) cannot stand

Cross-posted here.

Barack Obama's recent presidential bid announcement alluded to Lincoln's famous quote: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Allegations of Obama as a would-be supporter of slavery notwithstanding, the freshman presidential-hopeful evoked an ever-powerful force in American political rhetoric: encapsulation of Honest Abe's spirit.

Yet I couldn't help but think: we're facing different challenges today than Lincoln did in his time. That much is obvious, you might say. But more subtle is how our present life conditions impact the way we think.

For example, the problems of Lincoln's time focused mainly on externally visible division within the body politic-namely, the debate on slavery and, as a result, the increasingly imminent threat of civil war.

Yet today, for those of us with the greatest amount of time, education, and wealth, we have evolved beyond (for the most part) the divisions our 19th century ancestors faced. This is especially true for my generation: we grew up well after Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson, not to mention Brown v. Board, and assume political equality as a basic value and right.

Yet the problems keep on piling up. We know the system's not working. And we know it's not because of a dearth of "good ideas." The barrier, as we've seen, is in coming together and collectively solving pressing issues.

What could possibly keep us from coming together? Well, for one... us! Our own commitment to seeing ourselves as separate-which isn't our fault, but rather simply a product of the individualism of the Enlightenment and relativism of postmodernism-acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In other words, as long as we see our selves as separate, we'll remain divided-even if only subtly so. And because our perspectives define our actions, and our actions impact the world around us, changing our perspectives would inevitably have demonstrable impact on the world. And if the impact we want to have is to create a more whole, unified, cohesive body politic, then our perspectives must reflect an equal wholeness.

Which means that we must see ourselves as whole-that we must evolve beyond internal division, so that our actions can result in external unification.

Maybe the signpost of our generation is, "A self divided cannot stand." Maybe then we could really come together and accomplish something extraordinary.