A CULTURE OF COMBAT

There was good news and bad news this week. The good news: Within his first month in office, President Obama emerged from a bruising congressional fight with a signed stimulus bill. It is certainly not a perfect piece of legislation, nor the ultimate answer to the nation's economic woes. But it represents a bold, relatively reasoned and balanced approach to the economic needs of the country. With this bill, the nation will receive funding for a wide range of sorely needed projects.

The bad news: Partisanship is alive and well in Washington. Could we really have expected otherwise?

Our nation enjoys its rhetorical combat, and Washington is the best place to watch the show. This culture of contentiousness is so entertaining that it sells many newspapers and a great deal of web and airtime. We seem to take great pleasure in watching the cable news shows of our choice, cheering for our team and scoffing at the other's.

I recently read a piece of brain research suggesting that certain parts of the brain light up when we are defending our position or campaigning for our candidate of choice. This is perhaps the 21st Century expression of the primal reptilian brain, which gives us fight-or-flight responses and visceral instincts to defend "our side." Expressed in the political arena where there is rarely mortal combat, just a battle of ideas, we behave as if we must vanquish the other side, not just enjoy the pleasure of being "right."

Perhaps this is harmlessly amusing gamesmanship. But I believe it is more serious than that.

When we indulge the instinct to rhetorically trounce and mock the opposing position, we are practicing combat inside our own heads. The reptilian brain tells us that the other is our enemy and we must attack him; instinctively, we obey the ancient call. With all of us practicing this behavior – in print, on the airwaves, inside our own minds – the entire nation is engaged in combat, divided against itself. We are practicing a version of civil warfare. No wonder there is so much violence in the streets and in our homes; no wonder it is so difficult to move the country away from its addiction to military solutions to complex international problems.

The embattled quality of discourse in our country is deeply entrenched, even hard-wired in us. It will not be easily changed, but I hope that President Obama will keep trying.