OPINION: Guest writer

OPINION | G. RUSSELL HOLT: Path to civility

The virtue of an independent mind

As Americans, if we are to keep our freedoms and liberties, we must strive to be a more virtuous people, as our founders hoped we would. They even warned us of times like these:

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

-- Benjamin Franklin

By being virtuous, I mean doing the best we can at being a good person. After all, we know either intuitively or through reason what is right and wrong, what is just and unjust, what is truth and what is false.

In order to cultivate virtues such as honesty, truthfulness, compassion, industry, and justice, we first must unshackle ourselves from the social media bondage to which we have become so willingly attached.

Over the past decade, I watched our society fracture into political factions, none of which wholly uphold the country's values as declared in the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed through the statutes of the Constitution of the United States.

Our cherished values such as individual liberties, limited government, free markets, and peace are all in jeopardy of being lost.

We have become so politically factious that the chances of being a unified people who can work out their differences through civil discourse have become nearly impossible. The civil unrest has risen to the level of destruction of property, the loss of life, and the riotous mob's invasion of our Capitol.

Some claim all this civil unrest is because of America's independence, and they call for more laws and regulations to better control us, further diminishing our liberties.

I beg to differ. It's not our independence that is causing so much civil unrest; it's our dependence on the dopamine-boosting experiences we get from the craftily manipulated feeds from our social media platforms.

Many Americans have traded their independence of thought for dependence on tribal propaganda. These Americans have lost their ability to think for themselves, each reacting to the next post like an automaton waiting for its next command, giving no thought to the truth or falsity of the post as long as it aligns with their tribe's dogma.

The road back to a united nation will be paved with virtuous acts of a virtuous people who act independently in both deeds and thoughts from the factious fanatics.

Fortunately, many have not succumbed to the social media brainwashing. They bravely stand alone, being considered outsiders by the political tribes. They risk alienation, verbal abuse, and shaming when they point out the truth. However, it will be those lone wolves who will eventually be seen as the beacons of reason that helped illuminate the way back to a unified nation.

Unfortunately, the pathway to return to civility will be blocked by the tribal fanatics who have lost the ability to think for themselves.

For many Americans, all it takes is a post on their favorite social media platform, telling them to be angry at a particular group, or hate people who hold an opposing perspective from that of their tribes. When that happens, they immediately feel rage and hatred toward people they don't even know and have never met without even a hint of fact-checking the post. And when asked to give reasons for these emotional responses, the words that spew from their mouths are verbatim the baseless propaganda they have read on their favorite social media platform.

These poor souls are entirely unaware of how these platforms profit off the duped users' gullibility.

It takes a particular character strength to shine the light of truth onto someone's deeply held false beliefs, exposing how they have been duped or manipulated into groupthink. That level of courage is one of the most needed virtues to bring civility back to our speech, which is needed to help us hold on to our freedoms and liberties.

"The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty." -- John Adams

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G. Russell Holt lives in Rogers.

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