I don't think I would *define* wisdom that way, but certainly taking emotional charge out of memories/history is one of the *keys* to wisdom.
This might help to explain why our modern historical memory of the Nazi phenomenon - which largely reduces to an emotionally-charged "fascism bad!" - seems more likely to facilitate than to prevent a recurrence as both sides project the "fascist" label onto their enemies.
For me, personally, the covid years have helped to break down these faultlines. Previously, I was largely on "team blue" and (especially during the GW Bush years) viewed "team red" as rather frightening and alien. Seeing the blue team double down on irrational belief and the red team stand up for personal freedom in this case has effectively balanced the scales - where now I see the whole political landscape as filled with good ideas and bad ideas tangled up together in an oddly tribal, divided world.
If I may seem optimistic about our chances to avoid civil war, it is because my own desire to fight on either of the sides that may arise from a red-blue divide has - over the last three years - dropped to zero.
I suspect that the general working-class shift from blue to red that has occurred over the past 20 years might represent a similar awakening and softening of charge for others, who are now voting red but who are really waiting for a real populist uprising. Any other realignments that occur as people become disenchanted with some position of their "tribe" will help with this, even as others find themselves more polarized.
With the exception, perhaps, of the regions where the original Civil War was fought, my sense is that the USA is largely lacking the sorts of ancient and deep-seated cultural, ethnic, and religious hatreds that can be rekindled into open warfare - which I see as a reason for hope that we might make it through the next decades without major violence.
Re: breaking the binary
I don't think I would *define* wisdom that way, but certainly taking emotional charge out of memories/history is one of the *keys* to wisdom.
This might help to explain why our modern historical memory of the Nazi phenomenon - which largely reduces to an emotionally-charged "fascism bad!" - seems more likely to facilitate than to prevent a recurrence as both sides project the "fascist" label onto their enemies.
For me, personally, the covid years have helped to break down these faultlines. Previously, I was largely on "team blue" and (especially during the GW Bush years) viewed "team red" as rather frightening and alien. Seeing the blue team double down on irrational belief and the red team stand up for personal freedom in this case has effectively balanced the scales - where now I see the whole political landscape as filled with good ideas and bad ideas tangled up together in an oddly tribal, divided world.
If I may seem optimistic about our chances to avoid civil war, it is because my own desire to fight on either of the sides that may arise from a red-blue divide has - over the last three years - dropped to zero.
I suspect that the general working-class shift from blue to red that has occurred over the past 20 years might represent a similar awakening and softening of charge for others, who are now voting red but who are really waiting for a real populist uprising. Any other realignments that occur as people become disenchanted with some position of their "tribe" will help with this, even as others find themselves more polarized.
With the exception, perhaps, of the regions where the original Civil War was fought, my sense is that the USA is largely lacking the sorts of ancient and deep-seated cultural, ethnic, and religious hatreds that can be rekindled into open warfare - which I see as a reason for hope that we might make it through the next decades without major violence.