“Walls” can act as metaphors for many things. You can talk about the walls we put up to protect ourselves psychologically or the walls we have to climb in order to progress in life. I want to talk about the walls we inevitably run into in our progression of how we see the world, that is, how open we are to new ideas and other points of view.
It seems to me that it is inevitable that we, no matter how open minded we think ourselves to be, reach a place in our lives or come head to head with an issue that we just can’t see past. This is true for individuals and this is true for society/countries/cultures as a whole. I think the U.S. hit this point or ran into this wall sometime ago and maybe only now are we, as a whole, beginning to break it down, climb over it, see past it or however you want say it.
Even the most seemingly liberal people run into this wall and I fear most never break it down. They are no different than the most conservative “right wing nut” or “backwards redneck” that can’t break out of their “traditional” ways of thinking. It’s not about being liberal or conservative. It’s about being progressive and both red and blue voters, right and left thinkers can be progressive and have an open enough point of view to listen to new ideas, to forget on almost a daily basis all they have been taught to know as the truth, and for at least a moment in every argument or discussion, see things from the other’s point of view. It’s arrogance of opinion and a sense of superiority that often keeps this wall standing strong in front of us, perhaps all around us. And this can be liberal arrogance or conservative arrogance, but when it comes down to it, they are both the same thing because both are rooted in the same kind of stubborn ignorance.
I consider myself a very liberal person. But some of my favorite moments are when I sit back and let a gun loving cab driver or Bush loving graduate from Indiana (I mention those two specifically because they are interactions I have actually had) rant their opinion with as much passion as any tree hugger in all of Berkeley campus. And when their rant is done, they shut up and listen to my own rant with as much respect as I gave them. Even if in the end of the conversation neither of us has seemed to inch any closer to the other, I know that progress, true progress has been made because there wasn’t that wall between us, the wall that seems to too often keep us all apart. Or if their was at first, we at least broke it down for a moment, or removed just one brick, just enough to make a peek hole to the other side.
I think sometimes we forget that WE are all in this together. WE are on the same team. In fact, there are no teams. There are no sides to take. Not really. WE ARE ALL THE SAME. So why build walls on invisible borders that only exist as an existential means to divide us?
