Divide and Conquer

Environmentalists like to talk about thinking globally but act locally. The point is to think about the big picture but act within one’s community to make a difference, and this has been an effective strategy.

The flip side of this coin is to think locally and act without principles. This strategy focuses on the moment and ignores the big picture. The result of this strategy is to deal with some immediate local issue while ignoring the long-term and broader implications of the proposed remedy. Politicians, newspapers, and citizens focus on the issues that concern them at the moment. They feel some pain, and they want it to go away.

It is understandable that people want to eliminate pain. Pain is an indication that something isn’t right. But the easy and quick solution isn’t always the best solution in the long-term.

For example, farmers in West Texas are concerned about farm subsidies and water rights. They lobby legislators for laws that promote their interests while ignoring what this means to urban Texans. At the same time, urban Texans are concerned with transportation and housing costs. They lobby legislators for laws that promote their interests while ignoring what this means to rural Texans.

At the risk of over generalizing, laws that promote the interests of rural Texans are detrimental to urban Texans and vice versa. And so, the legislative process becomes a battle to determine whose interests will be promoted and whose will be harmed.

But these battles are not solely between urban and rural Texans. They occur between a wide array of groups: Christians and gays, conservatives and liberals, employees and employers, to name a few. In the end, virtually every Texan is divided into some group that is at war with some other group. Sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose.

Texans are very diverse, but each of us has one thing in common–we are each individuals. Each of us has a moral right to live our lives as we choose. We have a mutual interest in protecting our freedom to do so. But when we get divided into warring groups, we all lose.