We have met the enemy and he is us

 

Arianna Huffington

(…) We see this dynamic played out on a national scale, as well. In times of economic stress especially, there is a tendency to look for the cause of the problems in some identifiable “other” group, race, religion or country. Before he flamed out — the victim not of outside forces but of his own ego — Donald Trump had begun to move on from birtherism to trying to finger China as the cause for our economic ills (including promising to tell Chinese leaders, “Listen, you motherf—ers, we’re going to tax you 25 percent“).

Now we certainly have our share of complex economic issues with China, but China is not the cause of our current hard times. To find the real culprits, we need not look beyond our own borders (indeed, all we need to do is tune into HBO and watch Too Big to Fail).

Others, looking for scapegoats, want to lay the blame for our troubles on Muslims. Or government workers. Or teachers. Or gay people. Or rappers. Or, or, or, or… In short, anyone but ourselves.

In the end, if we spent even a small percentage of the time we devote to obsessing about those we consider our rivals, competitors, and enemies on examining where our own fault lines are, it’s hard to believe we wouldn’t be more successful – or at least less likely to be done in by our chief rivals hiding inside us.

Pogo had it right: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” As my compatriot Socrates told us all those centuries ago: “The unexamined life is not worth living.“

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