All my life Ive been waiting for
Ive been praying for
For the people to say
That we dont wanna fight no more
One Day – Matisyahu
Matthew Paul Miller is known professionally by his stage name, Matisyahu. After teen years plagued by drug abuse, Matisyahu dropped out of high school and headed to a wilderness experience in Oregon that also offered classes, allowing him to finish his high school diploma. In his time in the wilderness school, he began to create music that blended reggae, rap, and pop sounds. He recorded his first album in 2004.
One Day became a big hit for Matisyahu in 2008. The song reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100, preaching a message of hope for peace and unity in the world.
The irony of this song, and why it works very well with todays subject matter, is that Matisyahu is someone who has contributed to division.
In his teens, he rediscovered his Jewish faith and joined what is often viewed as an extremist sect of Judaism. Matisyahu has expressed some of those beliefs from the stage, declaring that he does not recognize the existence of Palestine and he supports any and all means to eliminate Palestinians from Gaza.
So, if this person with such extremist views to say that he supported up to and including the slaughter of people over territory puts out a song about desiring peace, you understand the uphill climb we have in our society when it comes to division.
An excellent story recently emerged after the death of Charlie Kirk. Two women, one a strong Kirk supporter and one incredibly against Kirk, got to talking over coffee about their individual reactions about the murder. They each realized that the other had been fed just one side of the story on Kirk – one woman received uplifting messages that claimed to point to the Bible and Christian faith as the source of that uplifting while the other had her social media feed full of quotes from Kirk where he demeaned women, those of other racial backgrounds, and encouraged violence against Democrat leaders.
Both women had been fed an image of a person through their social media algorithm, but neither even knew about the other side.
Discussing the legislature with District 22 legislators and with friends who have served recently, a very definite division was noted, but its not the one youre likely imagining. Legislators have said that the Republican party in the legislature is significantly fractured, with one former legislator saying that there are three or four GOP groups.
Heck, it doesnt have to be politics to find division. While you may claim to be Christian (you may not, but go with me for the example here!), there are more than 200 Christian denominations in the United States, and many of them dont even recognize one or more other denominations as being Christian. And even those within denominations have negative feelings toward other churches within their own denomination.
Unfortunately, the way most of us respond to division is exactly what spreads us further apart. We seek out our preferred viewpoints only on social media rather than looking for the full spectrum on a particular issue, and often that sort of echo chamber can further the other-ing of those who have a differing viewpoint.
That is what leads to violence over something as silly as seeing the same issue from two different vantage points. It can even be the same side, as many political commentators have received threats from members of their own party. Ive received threatening emails in response to writing I did in this space in the past. Two podcast hosts that I enjoy listening to have received death threats in the last few months and were honest about that in the wake of Kirks death.
One of the things that will always make me shake my head is those who commit these acts of violence rarely, if ever, get the reaction they were hoping for. In todays this day in history, the inauguration of Chester Arthur after the assassination of James Garfield is mentioned. Garfields assassin, Charles Guiteau, passed out flyers for Garfield and felt that he was key in Garfields win, so he should have a spot in the incoming administration.
The issue is that Garfield had no clue who Guiteau even was. So, when Garfield did not give him a spot in the administration (because he didnt know him), Guiteau took offense and chose to solve his frustration by shooting the President.
In other words, violence against our enemies is nothing new. Violence, even against those who are ideologically aligned with our own viewpoints, is nothing new.
So what do we do to solve this?
Plenty of sociology and psychology studies have been done on this exact question, and they all have arrived at the same conclusion. Talk.
We need to spend time, face to face, not behind a phone or computer screen, talking through concerns we may have with someone and their viewpoint. The science of connection is that we show a chemical reaction to someone within seven minutes of face to face conversation that is nearly identical to the chemical reaction shown in the brain to a best friend or a spouse.
Connection matters, and while we wont all agree on each viewpoint because our human experiences bring us to each day with varying backgrounds, we can choose to work together, regardless of what those minor and minute differences may be.
Social media companies make billions of dollars finding ways to divide us because nothing draws clicks like rage bait. Instead, shut down the computer, go visit someone and have a conversation. One by one, we can radically change the forced narrative of division in our country by coming together.
Wouldnt that be a great way to fight corporate-sponsored division? A little bit of radical unity…
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