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“Them” and “Us” by Thomas Rider, PhD., April 10, 2005
It has always been my dream to preach a sermon from the pulpit of a real church. Knowing that this can never be, I have decided to be here with you this morning. I have consulted my only reference book on the subject, “How To Become A Bishop Without Really Being Religious” and it states that one should do three things during a sermon: (1) make ‘em laugh, (2) make ‘em cry, and (3) make ‘em feel religious. I shall endeavor to meet these three criteria in this, The Annual John Isom Sermon. Some thirty three years ago in October 1971 I stood in this same pulpit when John was minister of this Church, and read as part of the service a short piece I had written called “Petty Loyalties”. It was based on a column in the Des Moines Tribune written by Sydney Harris. I will now read a portion of that piece, and I quote myself: “Recently, columnist Sydney Harris addressed himself to the question of the petty loyalties that so often govern our actions, often to such an extent that they hinder us from any concerted and collective action for the common good. His thesis is that this is a basic defect in the human character. I believe this proposition to be related to the so-called Territorial Imperative discussed so well by Robert Ardrey in his book by the same name. As animals we acquire and defend with great effort small territories. Is it any wonder then that we develop and hold sacred those petty loyalties that go along with this insignificant territory we so jealously guard. This is why we build fences, both real and figurative. I am certain that each of us carries within ourselves certain petty loyalties that prevent us from acting in a manner that would benefit all of us and the environment in which we live. I would hope that we are at least partially aware of some of these. For example, I am aware that I carry with me to this day a completely irrational dislike for Roosevelt High School, nurtured in my youth by that trite time-worn slogan “Lee Township Against The World!” How important this slogan once seemed, and how ridiculous it now appears. Nonetheless, it is still there. With this mind set if I were on the Des Moines School Board, would this color my actions about this school? Each Saturday in the fall we all know that we must “fight fight fight for Iowa” In my infrequent rational moments it has become at least partially clear to me that 22 young men dressed in padded knickers, 56,000 screaming drunks, and an inflated pig bladder really have little or no consequence in the grand scheme of things. Yet, each Saturday I die a thousand deaths as our beloved Hawkeyes are consistently and completely obliterated (remember, this was written in 1971 B.H.F. (before Hayden Frye) That I am at
long last perhaps coming of age was amply
illustrated to me at a recent P.T.A. meeting. We
were called upon to recite the Pledge of
Alliance to the Flag. Suddenly, some little
voice inside of me cried out, Tom, you don’t
feel like saying that pledge at this time. The
last line in it just isn’t true. The petty
loyalty center in my brain was shocked beyond
belief and responded, “But what will these
good people around you think if you don’t?
This country, no matter what its faults, at
least allows people like you and those
Unitarians you hang around with to go relatively
unpunished for your deviant thoughts and
actions. Good grief!! You used to cheer for John
Wayne in “Sands of Iwo Jima and hated the Japs
and Germans during World War II!! I guess what is needed is a complete rewrite job on all the slogans and pledges that express our petty loyalties. It now seems to me that some of those previously mentioned ought to read: Lee Township, FOR the world! We’re going to fight fight fight for survival! Mother earth, love it and protect it! My species, right its wrongs! And last of all, the Pledge of Allegiance that I would gladly say at any time ought to read: I pledge allegiance to the universal community of human beings And to the personhood upon which it must stand or fall One world, diverse, but indivisible Crying out amidst its own madness Liberty and justice for ALL Unquote. After that service in October 1971, John Isom seemed impressed with what I had said and asked for a copy of my short discourse so that he might duplicate it and make it available to the congregation. I was honored that John thought what I had said was significant. Before he died last year, John said that he would like the topic of these annual sermons honoring his name to be from the thoughts and ideas of the persons delivering them. He made it clear that he did not want us re reading any of his old sermons. Because of this, I have chosen to make what I just read to you relevant for us here today, just as John thought it relevant over 33 years ago. I have chosen to change the name from “Petty Loyalties” to “Them and Us”. I hope you will see why I did so when I have finished. There is a famous catch phrase from the comic strip Pogo, written by one Walt Kelley, now deceased. It is written at the top of the Order of Service: “We have met the enemy and he is us” I’ve thought a lot about that simple line. How tragically true it is, especially at the beginning of the Third Millennium. “We have met the enemy and he is US!” You see, there really can’t be an “US” unless there is a “THEM” It seems to me that we have been creating a lot of THEMS lately!!!! During the next few minutes I want you to visualize that when I use the words us and them, that they are said with capital letters for emphasis. I would define US as any group of people, related by genetics, geography, custom and/or culture, who are associated together in some common endeavor for their own continued existence, and who usually act in concert in their common interest, although occasionally bickering among themselves. When we humans begin to group together into families, tribes, organizations, counties, states, and countries, our behavior begins to become more irrational, self serving and eventually infantile. Individually and in small groups we are often altruistic and rational. But as my friend Dick Kelley likes to hear me say “THE MASSES ARE ASSES”. The actions of US create THEM. THEM is everyone else who is not US. I suppose there are degrees of THEM all the way from tolerated THEM to the bitter enemy THEM. Therein, I think, lie most of the world’s troubles….. There are just too many “THEMS” and not enough of US: Witness Protestants/Catholics Christians/Muslims Jews/Arabs Hawkeyes/Cyclones Red States/Blue States Conservatives/Liberals Democrats/Republicans Straights/Gays Cub Fans/Cardinal Fans I have also observed that there are at least two kinds of people in this world: (1) Those who generally mind their own business and (2) Those who attempt to mind other people’s business. Many of the latter seem convinced that they somehow have found some sort of great general truth and now have the sole mission in life to inflict that so-called truth on the rest of the world. Couple that arrogant belief with a belief that “God” (whatever that means) is on their side and has commanded them to go forth and convert everyone else to their narrow way of thinking, and you have a very dangerous person. I personally observe that the President of the United States and those around him are of this ilk. This leads to more of THEM. Since we have just been through March Madness, I have chosen the human endeavor of organized sports to illustrate some of the points I wish to make this morning. I could just as well have chosen the areas of religion and politics to illustrate my thesis, but I fear these areas are much too painful for us in the year 2005. There is always an US and a THEM in sports. (statement underlined and in bold-face type here) Sports, like religion and politics, seem to be awfully important to us. We devote a whole section of the newspaper and countless magazines to them. Television is saturated with them. We have a “Super Bowl” where a commercial minute on TV sells for millions of dollars. We align ourselves with various teams in a myriad of sports. Some of us paint our faces and bodies and wave wildly at the television cameras. We hurl drunken insults at the participants. A few of us throw things on the floor, and even go down there to attack officials and members of the other team. Coaches have been known to hurl furniture across the floor when provoked. Some of us males even abuse our families when our favorite team fails to “win the big one” The highest paid employees of the State of Iowa are coaches at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. The highest paid professional baseball player, at least the last time I knew it, is one Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, who was paid a base salary of $21,726,881 in 2004. I did a little figuring using my calculator. That salary works out to be: $26,823 per at bat (figuring 5 at bats per game in a 162 game season.) $5364 per pitch assuming a 3 and 2 count and no foul balls. I cite these figures to demonstrate the point that organized sports in the United States is highly overemphasized and over subsidized, fed by the huge sums of advertising money in the national media. A Rod makes that kind of money because someone is willing to pay it to him for playing a GAME a little better than anyone else. Just where are our priorities??? Why isn’t all of this money being spent in more ways to benefit all of us and the environment? I observe that many people in this country personally identify with the various professional teams of organized sports, sometimes to excess. Another case of artificial US and THEM. I want to emphasize here that some personal identification in sports may be healthy, since it allows us to channel our aggression in acceptable ways. (Please don’t come up to me after the service and remind me of this.) Being a sports fan also gives us a degree of identity and sense of “belonging” to a group. We wear shirts with the team logo on it and go to the games to root for OUR team (and I emphasize the OUR). However, many of US get carried away in the heat of the battle with THEM, often completely losing touch with reality. Therein lies the rub. Yes, many sports fans are essentially lunatic fanatics and amply illustrate the THEM and US dichotomy in American culture. What difference does it REALLY make if OUR team can bounce a large ball on a hard wood floor and jam it through a peach basket with a fish net tied to it better than THEIR team for 40 minutes? Have you ever stood back and looked at the game of basketball objectively? Is it realistic to get worked up over a slam dunk? Give me a break! After a game, the fans of the winning team happily run onto the floor or field and then leave the stadium or arena shouting “We won, We won!!!” However, as one somewhat cynical realist has pointed out, “No THEY won and you watched!” Let me say that again, since it puts the whole thing into proper perspective - “No THEY won, and you watched!” When your team loses the big game, how does that REALLY affect your life? Think about it. Isn’t it your perception of what is really meaningful being tested after a heartbreaking loss to THEM? For instance, when you wake up the next morning after a big loss, if your kidneys are still working and the sun has risen and the birds are singing and life is going on all around you, isn’t that what REALLY matters? It is your perception of what constitutes well being that has been affected isn’t it? I have been wondering if there is some sort of genetic and/or evolutionary basis for this THEM and US problem we have. Was there once survival value in the existence of all these THEMS and US??? Is it necessary any longer? It seems that the name of the game for life on earth has been and probably always will be competition or as Charles Darwin deemed it, Survival of the Fittest. We compete with everyone and everything else for those things we need to survive. Unfortunately, we also compete extensively in areas which are NOT necessary for us to survive. In fact, we will even INVENT areas in which we may compete for some imagined dominance. Why else would we have invented “Survivor” and “American Idol” for national television? Maybe Biology might give us an answer Over time we tend to become associated with individuals of like heredity, i.e our immediate families, or extended family, tribe, etc. It is either programmed in our genes, or we are taught and learn at an early age that anything too different from US is not one of US and should not be trusted. This then leads to the birth of THEM. If anything or anyone helps us survive, we welcome it and it becomes part of “US”. If anything or anyone is in competition with us to survive, or is a physical threat to us, they become part of “THEM”. Sometimes things get a bit absurd. For example, let me mention to you what I call the “cockroach problem”. Suppose that right now a number of cockroaches are seen to be crawling across the floor of this auditorium. What would be the immediate response of most of you? I know mine. Yechhhhhhh. Step on the little varmints!! We may rationalize our actions by saying they carry disease but have you ever had a bacterial culture of the inside of YOUR mouth taken? I now ask you what might be the real reason we get agitated by roaches? What if ET had looked like a cockroach? What about the “Alien” and “The Predator”?? Doesn’t this frantic behavior seem to indicate that anyone or anything much different than US is seen as a threat to US and our self concept - other examples - skin color differences, sexual preferences. We react accordingly. This was probably originally genetic, but is now also learned behavior. I note in this respect that my five year old grandson David loves insects and seeks them out under rocks in our back yard. I guess he never learned that they are dirty and filthy and carry disease and all of that. Some of his best friends are bugs! Let us not even get into snakes! I remember back in the late 1950’s at East Des Moines High School (recall Lee Township Against the World) a group of four or five senior boys were sent home by the Principal because their hair was too long. They were told that if they each got a regular haircut , they could return to school. Well, they did the Principal one better. They got ALL of their hair cut off and their heads shaved and attempted to return to school. You can easily guess the result if you were around in the 1950’s. WE GENERALLY DO NOT TOLERATE MUCH DEVIATION FROM THE NORM AS WE HAVE CULTURALLY DEFINED IT!!!!!!!! IN TURN, WE DEVELOP ALLEGIANCES (WHICH I ONCE TERMED PETTY LOYALTIES) TO THOSE AROUND US WHO SHARE OUR SAMENESS This, of course, leads to US (like we are) and THEM (not like we are) It thus appears that we each have a genetic program in our DNA that helps us survive. An interesting question is whether or not we can learn to ignore and unlearn parts of that program if they have become non useful or even absurd? For example, the Jewish Dietary Laws at one time had a definite reason for being passed down from generation to generation. There was no refrigeration at that time and food would spoil if not properly protected. These laws are no longer needed because of modern food sanitation, but they are nonetheless continued because they bond a group together with a common heritage. It is possible, however, to abandon keeping these dietary laws without ill effect healthwise. This abandonment is resisted by some, however. It keeps US apart from THEM. It has also been necessary for human males to unlearn those behaviors that formerly helped preserve the primitive societies they belonged to e.g.. the women stay home and raise the babies. The babies, the next generation, would be in danger if taken on the hunt and the women could not take part in the hunt because of their need to “stay home” and feed those babies. In modern times this is no longer necessary and women CAN take an active part in “the Hunt”. Many males (and even some females) resist this change, however. It becomes a question of education and the changing of values. Finally, where do all of these observations lead us? Are there any conclusions or recommendations I might make at this time, so that you can leave here this morning with something positive and uplifting and don‘t just go home and go sit in a closet in your basement for the rest of the day? Well, being a realist (Jane says I’m a cynic), and based on nearly 70 years of experience in this little corner of the world, I think that there will have to be a major change in our attitudes and behavior if things are ever going to get better for US. This was always a central theme of the preaching of John Isom when he stood in this pulpit. As my friend Terry Swanson might say, we need a new set of paradigms. It looks to me that Walt Kelley’s statement, “We have met the enemy and he is US” has never been more true than it is at this moment. In fact, I think we are losing ground in pursuit of our provincial and petty loyalties There seem to be far too many THEMS in our lives, alone and collectively, and not enough US and we don’t seem to be doing anything about it. A LOT OF THESE THEMS IN OUR LIVES ARE NURTURED BY WHAT I CALLED PETTY LOYALTIES IN OCTOBER 1971. To deal with the US and THEM dilemma it would seem we need more inclusiveness in our lives - more tolerance of deviation. It seems to me that a major problem we face in the United States is the intense rivalry between the governmental organizations responsible for our national security, The FBI, the CIA, and the Pentagon. The US and THEM mentality that pervades these rival agencies, fueled by their complex bureaucratic structures, has rendered them largely unable to do the jobs for which they were originally organized. They each seem too busy protecting their US (and their ASS) from all their rival THEMS. Bureaucracies are notorious for this kind of self protective behavior. Every one seems to be blaming everyone else for our inability to detect and deal with terrorist threat from without (a whole different group of THEMS) The wise among us through the centuries have tried to lead the way out of this kind of morass, but don’t seem to be making much headway. Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and a very humble John Isom come to mind. They have shown us the way, but we generally have not followed. I believe that their philosophies of life, if paid attention to and really followed by their “faithful” (and I put faithful in quotation marks), might tend to increase the membership of US and cut down on the number of THEMS. If we could put all of our enthusiasm into loving one another instead of winning some generally meaningless trophy for sports competition, there might be hope. For instance, many fundamentalist Christians wish to force their particular brand of Christianity on others, and really don’t seem to understand and apply some of the tenets of their own faith. For example, do these words sound familiar? “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….” “But I say to you, do not resist the evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.” An interesting thing to think about in terms of turning the other cheek, is what would the world be like today if President Bush had made no armed response to the attack of September 11, 2001, but had instead began to actively search for valid ways to address the major grievances of fundamentalist Islam? Since this was completely inconceivable to him and most of the politicians, as it may even seem to you, it was of course deemed impossible. After all, what are we? Wusses??? THOSE bastards had to be punished didn’t they? Just think about it - Turning the other cheek. Instead, we got Orwelian Doublespeak - “We must go to war to have peace” - in other words, “War is Peace” Maybe in 1941 it was necessary to go to war to save the peace, but was it in 2003??? To turn the other cheek is Madness?????? Do you mean what we are doing now isn’t MADNESS??? In closing, I believe that LOVE IS THE ANSWER - IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE ANSWER What else is there to say? If we really could learn to love our enemies (that is THEM) maybe we could postpone or delay our eventual mutual annihilation. The choice is up to US. Finally, I call your attention to the famous statement of the proof of our own existence by Rene Des Cartes - “I think, therefore I am” (I have always preferred rephrasing that to read “I think I think, therefore I think I am”) How about rephrasing that famous statement to an all inclusive statement such as WE love, therefore WE are!!!!!!!!!!! Now that would be something to be loyal to.
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