The culture wars are upon us... it's not to late to choose a different path / A.J. Hendry

Violent rhetoric online is becoming both more common and normalized. And as tensions build online, the risk of violent ideas turning into violent actions increases. It's time to choose a different way

Last week the Prime Minister’s electorate office was attacked.

Pictures of a broken window, smashed glass, a bent samurai sword, and rumours of a smoke bomb flooded our news feeds.

By all reports, the woman who attacked the Prime Minister’s office was unwell, and had a long standing grievance with the Prime Minister. The details of that grievance and the motivation behind the attack, are unclear.

And yet, when the story first popped onto my feed I remember thinking, “flip, here we go.”

You see, increasingly, I have been worried about where we’re going.

Though the health restrictions no longer govern our lives in the way that they used to, though in many ways we could deceive ourselves into thinking that we’ve gone “back to normal”, the reality is that the spectre of the Covid years still hang above us.

The last few years have shifted something within our communities. We are not the people we used to be

We have changed.

Or perhaps, who we were has become more pronounced.

Tensions that long simmered, are now at boiling point.

Divisions, once obscured, have been clearly marked.

And though political discourse may have simmered a little since the Parliament protests earlier this year, those divisions and grievances haven’t gone away.

Next year is our general election.

And what concerns me most, is not necessarily which party will win, but how we’re going to have the important conversations we need to have as a community. Because, at the end of the day, that is what election year is. It’s a point in time, when we as a community come together to discuss our hopes and aspirations for our nation, and dialogue about how we think we can get there.

And yet, our discourse is becoming increasingly divisive.

The idea that you and I can disagree politically, yet still respect and Love one another, is almost an anathema to some people.

We have got to a place where our ability to separate a person’s ideas from their humanity, is waning. We see each over as political units, and try to push people into political boxes, cataloguing perspectives and opinions, and weighing up one another’s humanity by the nature of their politics

It concerns me that the attack on the Prime Minister’s office may only be a sign of what is to come.

Politicians increasingly speak of their concern for their safety, with threats of violence becoming both more intense and more common. Online throwing hate at each other has become common place, speaking to one another in ways that might get us arrested if we acted in such a way in real life.

We act as if how we think, and what we say on Social Media, has no bearing on the real world.

And yet, violent ideas turn into violent action.

And over the last few years, the divisiveness within our political discourse has only intensified.

We ratchet up the tension by ascribing the most extreme motivations to those we disagree with. People we disagree with don’t simply have flawed ideas, or inconsistences in their thinking, no they’re intentionally out to take away your freedom, steal your kids, and burn all rich people at the stake.

We dehumanize those we disagree with, choosing to paint them out as caricatures of our worst fears, rather, than being willing to lean into the murky complexity of human reality.

This reality that humans are complex, that we don’t fit simply into boxes, and that sometimes good people, have bad ideas.

No one is the sum total of their worst idea. And yet, we pigeon hole each other, and instead of seeking to build bridges, we work to tear them down.

I fear where this is going. I’ve been watching over the last few months as political groups and parties position themselves. It’s like watching a game, with the player’s jostling for position, testing one another, exploring weaknesses, all in preparation for the main confrontation.

The great game that will be our election.

The Culture Wars, NZ ed.

If we continue down this path, choosing division, choosing hate, choosing to blind ourselves to the humanity of those we consider other, this will end in violence.

People will get hurt.

That is the path we are on.

And yet, it’s not too late to choose another.

We can choose to see one another’s humanity.

We can refuse to dehumanize within disagreement.

We can hold Love as the Way.

When it all comes down to it, we need each other. We may have strong disagreements, but at the end of the day none of us are going anywhere. We’re stuck on this planet together whether we like it or not. We have to figure this out.

So, let us pull back from hate, let us cease fanning the flames of divisions, let us refuse the lie that any are other, and let us remember, the only Way we will ever truly get through all this, is together.

#LoveIsTheWay

A.J. Hendry is a Laidlaw College graduate, and a Youth Development Worker and housing advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads a service supporting rangatahi experiencing homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent. 

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