Trying to explain today’s divisiveness, some pundits point to an information revolution permitting us to choose news that mirrors our own beliefs and gives us our own facts. Others suggest the roots of incivility lie in income inequality and its ripple effects. I suspect another reason might be the lack of shared experience of a monumental national crisis; one that forced virtually all Americans to interact with others unlike themselves, whether they wanted to or not.
Consider the current politics of economic nostalgia –suggesting we can return to a lost “Golden Age”; namely the 1950’s. Now it’s obvious the ‘50’s weren’t “Golden” for everyone - it helped to be a white male – but our collective yearning for the so-called “Age of Consensus” is palpable.
But those peddling that nostalgia forget that the shared experience of World War II laid the groundwork for the Eisenhower era’s shared prosperity and civic engagement. The war impelled the greatest mass population shift in American history as the demands of military service and wartime production uprooted young men and women, sending them places they’d never heard of to perform tasks they’d never dreamed of with people they’d never imagined. Unlike today, when our wars are largely fought by the working class, few were exempt. Hence the classic World War II movie, with its platoon or bomber crew characters named Murphy, Little Crow, Gonzalez, Washington Roosevelt Jones, and Lowell Cabot Adams VI. Yes, it’s a stereotype but, like all stereotypes, it’s partly true.
My late father told me his ship’s crew had two mottos: “Deal with it” and “Get on with it”. Nobody cared about your background. “I learned not to judge,” he said, “the only thing that mattered was doing the job well. Lives depended on it.”
Those vets who molded postwar culture had learned the hard way that everyone had worth and something to contribute, which meant that everyone deserved respect – even if you disagreed with them. When President Kennedy summoned the nation to shared sacrifice, arguing that Americans chose to do things not because they were easy, but because they were hard, Americans responded. This wasn’t new – this was something they understood and knew how to do.
And it’s something many of us today have forgotten.