Bill Kenny of Norwich: Looking back at our country's past to help us in the present

There’s a big to-do right now about the movie “Civil War,” described as, "A journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach D.C. before rebel factions descend upon the White House." I admit they had me at "dystopian."

The title, of course, is a reference to the original War Between the States, 1861-1865. Today is not a day to write about that war but, rather, the political environment that led to hostilities back then, and how history could repeat itself, and to what extent.

I recently saw a shirt with “We no longer have a difference of political opinion. We have a difference in morality,” and realized no matter how you view that, it’s true.

I was thinking about that because, in the freeze-dried, drive-by way we live, we spend about a minute looking at a headline and the cutline on a photo and move on to the "next news story" as if involved in a marathon sprint contest. Assuming we read a newspaper at all. Whoever talks last or loudest carries the day, even if they're talking trash. Sadly, that was as true in the decade leading up to the Civil War as it is now.

I will point out that in the period just before the winds of war swept everything before them, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engaged in a campaign for Senate in Illinois regarded by historians and others as a model of civility and extreme intelligence. Viewed from today’s perspectives, it seems more the exception than the rule.

One of my favorite places in the online world is the digital history website (www.digitalhistory.uh.edu), both for a closer look at our national history, but also for every aspect of that election campaign whose outcome may well have influenced the rush of events producing the Civil War. (I’m not sure how accurate that statement is but I take comfort knowing in less than 30 seconds you will have forgotten you read it – call me cynical.)

Fast-forward to the here and now and scan any national political report today and tell me your flesh doesn't crawl with dazed revulsion at the motion and commotion on both sides of every issue. We've gone from "A house divided against itself cannot stand” to "Snowflake and Cuckservative.”

I’m discomfited that more of us aren’t frightened by the tenor and tone coming at us from all sides and I'm not sure if we allow this hullabaloo to continue like this because we're too tired to stop and think or because we fear if we do stop, we may never start to think again.

Perhaps it's the fatigue from feeding the white noise generator that is the 24/7 news services that's numbed us to our core. With so many tongues wagging, there's no effort made to listen by anyone to anyone else. Somewhere along the line we've added "Nyah, Nyah! Hanny, Nanny, Do-Do" to the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and it is the only part we can remember.

Often enough in the past, we've gone crazy from the heat. Almost 250 years can do that to you, but our better angels have always intervened and interceded at critical moments in the life of our nation, but this time they are conspicuous in their absence, leading me not so much to wonder about what will happen next, but to dread it.

Bill Kenny, of Norwich, writes a weekly column about Norwich issues. His blog, Tilting at Windmills, can be accessed at https://tiltingatwindmills-dweeb.blogspot.com/.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Bill Kenny of Norwich: Looking back at our country's past to help us in the present