‘Changing the world’ begins by taking a few steps at home

The book is called “The Big Sort” and it goes a long way in explaining the “how” and “why” of political polarization.

The authors of the 2008 book, Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing, believe that over the past three decades Americans are increasingly living in politically like-minded communities. The result, they contend, is a “country that has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred that people don’t know and can’t understand those who live a few miles away.”

In succinct terms, they analyze it this way: “Mixed company moderates; like-minded company polarizes. Heterogeneous communities restrain group excesses; homogenous communities march toward extremes.”

If their reasoning is sound, then it logically follows that the implications are dire for our country unless we open our minds to a different approach to overcoming the mistrust and animosity prevalent across the political spectrum.

This so-called “culture of contempt” seems to grow by the day and can only be tamed by a concerted bipartisan effort to discover non-political solutions to our most pressing problems.

Correspondingly, it has served as the impetus for the creation of the Primerus Foundation with the lofty goal of “changing the world in the nick of time.”

To some, such a mission must sound like a pipe dream, nothing more than a fanciful notion destined for failure.

We respectfully disagree, seeing instead a possible pathway to help unite the country for the common good, and in the process hopefully eliminating the political free-for-all in which seemingly only the loudest and most extreme voices are heard.

But, of course, before that monumental task can be undertaken, there must be an acknowledgment of the challenges we face.

Of utmost importance, we must agree that our democracy is facing a grave threat which, if unchecked, has the potential to destabilize other prominent democratic systems of government around the globe.

Secondly, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has placed the world on a knife’s edge, increasing the likelihood of a nuclear conflict that could have disastrous consequences for all of mankind.

Third, climate change is real, and ignoring the science behind it will be the ruin of our environment and our very way of life.

And lastly, poverty and starvation continue to hold a steely grip on millions in the U.S. and hundreds of million worldwide, and the need to address such a tragedy is both a perpetual and emerging global challenge.

These issues are glaring and urgent and require a pragmatic and strategic approach to deal with them. It’s time for us – as a nation – to get serious about the gravity of the situation and to marshal our forces for the benefit of current and future generations.

To that end, we envision the Primerus Foundation as the beginning of a movement to support governmental leaders of character who hold a profound respect for freedom, liberty, equality, and the rule of law.

We also see the Foundation as a vehicle for creating a nonpartisan institute that can serve as a public forum for the sharing of ideas on how best to solve the series of mounting challenges we face.

We embark upon this mission with an overriding sense of purpose, fueled in part by the immortal words of Plato:

“Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom.”

Best regards,
Jack Buchanan, President

2022 August 29 - Weekly Secondary Article - Jack Column