Social Affairs

Thinking Anew – A time to build bridges not walls

“We have become very good at analysing the divisions between generations. We are not so good at bridging them yet.”

Fergal Mac Eoinín
Sat Jan 21 2017 - 00:01

Paul wrote to a divided Corinth. His reminder of the importance of the things that unite us is timely. It always is. The Christians of Corinth were probably no more divided than any other group of humans before or since them. We tend to divide more easily than we unite. The constant call of the prophet is to remind us of the ties that bind us when we feel cast adrift.

Divisions are a natural part of life. Different generations merely find different environments to dig them. New faultlines appear with changing social conditions, giving every generation its own versions of division. Some contemporary ones should not go unremarked; they are certainly not going unfelt.

We can be extremely critical of each other. That of itself is not new but social media has given us a whole new way of making criticism a whole lot easier and much more lasting. Like howling soap stars, we vent our frustrations on each other in public. The unfriend button is the new public stocks. Easy access to bored friends has led to many things being written that were once only said. It is far more difficult to go back on a regretted, written word. The best songs were all born of sadness but so were many harsh criticisms. Social media does not allow for regret. Even if you delete your comment, it still remains there somewhere. Humans are slower to reconcile when they feel embarrassed in public.

When we do argue, some do so with the drama of soap stars. Far from reflecting normal life, people in soaps do not spend their time watching soaps and reality TV. They use their TV time to attack each other on the street, in the pub or at work. This behaviour has no repercussions in imaginary world of soaps. In real life, that type of behaviour does real damage.

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Every generation criticises the one that went before it but we do it scientifically now. Equally, every generation criticises the one that comes after it but we do not do that scientifically yet. We genuinely accept parental faults as an explanation for unusual behaviour. We have become very good at analysing the divisions between generations. We are not so good at bridging them yet. Strong in the knowledge that the other is fully at fault, people once close have stopped talking.

Corinth had its divisions that were proper to its time. We have divisions that are proper to ours. To prevent separation we have to build bridges. The success of a generation rests on its ability to do this. Can you build a bridge of forgiveness when regret is hard to show? Can you refuse mercy to your parents yet still expect it from your children? Broken, flawed and cantankerous as we are, we are all still capable of building a tolerance based on mercy and forgiveness. We have systems now that make it far too easy to maintain division. That makes us different to Corinth in the first century. Corinth could unite on faith.

There are more things that unite us than divide us. These things are true for most people regardless of faith or lack of faith. We are all capable of loving and being loved. We are all profoundly romantic and tragic. Most of us seek peace. Most of us love fairness. Most of us enjoy laughter. All of these are more basic to who we are than are our voting choices, the colour of our skin, the manner of our prayer or the shortcomings of our friends. With all the things that divide us, forgetting what unites us is a lethal option.

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