Will we- "long endure... or... perish from the earth”?

I’d like to continue the discussion about values and consensus. Why do our core values, the values we care about the most, inhibit consensus building? Does the thought of compromising our core values anger us? Is it a bridge too far? Is the United States typical of most countries or are we different? If we make decisions and judgments about policy based on our core values, how does it work if the population is very diverse or very similar?

Societies that are very homogenous, and small, may find it easier to gain consensus to solve problems because their core values may be similar. A common culture shapes their common core values. Also, consensus may be easier to achieve with fewer people defending their core values. By contrast, the United States is very large and diverse; our core values are varied, so consensus comes harder for us- if ever.

We see core value alignment on a small scale almost everywhere. People worship together. Communities develop covenants that reflect a set of core values. People who agree with those covenants choose to live in that community because it mirrors their core values . It even may be reassuring to know that everyone in the community is like-minded. It could be a church, golf condo community, or a self-sustaining, intra-dependent community off the grid.

Beyond the micro level, when our country is confronted with issues that effect everyone- like health care reform, the diversity of our core values creates an idealogical traffic jam. It wasn’t any easier when the country was young. Far from it- we enslaved an entire race of people. Our core values divided us then, and we went to war over our differences.

Today, our unwillingness to compromise our core values has us in gridlock. We’re dividing ourselves between liberals and conservatives, urbanites and suburbanites, aliens and non-aliens, haves and have-nots, environmentalists and developers, pro-life and pro-choice, capitalists and socialists, straights and gays, energy users and savers, war and peace… Can we “long endure...” this political environment, as Lincoln said, or will “ we perish from the earth..”? We haven’t gone to war over our differences again, so maybe there’s hope.