Being Sick (sic)

The other day, I had an email exchange with a friend that began after he’d read my article, “Onward, Christian Scolders," about evangelicals claiming to be 'Christian Warriors' yet slavishly following the  leadership of someone who, if it wasn’t Trump, would likely be described by them as a heathen.

My friend wrote back that “We are a sick country.”

It’s an highly understandable comment that I’ve heard a great deal – as I’m sure others have, as well.  However, it always bugs me more than a bit, since it mixes the healthy part of the country (which includes rational Republicans) in with the delusional.  So I replied, “I will add an Elisbergian rose-colored codicil: We are not a sick country.  We just have a large portion of it that’s sick.  And not willing to get vaccinated for it.”

He understood the point, thought it a good comment…though a quibble.  As he  wrote in reply --

“If half of your body is sick, you are sick. Even if a third of your body is sick, you are sick.

“We are sick.”

I thought about that at length, because I too understood what he was saying.  But I still didn’t agree with it.  And so I wrote a very long response back on why I stood by my thought.  However, as I explain in my reply, I realized it went on much too long and went into an unnecessary direction because we’d both gone off-track.  What I instead said was --

I stand by my quibble.  Though it’s more than a quibble.  Here’s what I mean:

What you say is true for a human body.  And I do understand its application for a country, as an analogy.  Outside of analogies, however, a country is not a single body.  It is made up of wildly diverse human bodies.  And states and cities.  And often does exist as a single entity.  And as a democracy, it exists by majority rule.  While (ideally) protecting the minority.  Human bodies don’t.

I wrote a long continuation of this argument – and it was a great one! Detailed and eloquent, near Churchillian in its detail and semantics -- but I realized it was just a silly, linguistic discussion.  That we’d gotten off the point.  Instead, I deleted it and decided it’s far better to put it this way:

You and I are hung up on the word “sick.”  And it’s not really “sick” at all, a medical term.  (Some is medical – delusion, dementia.)  But really what we are talking about is people who are willing to ignore things they don’t like. And dismiss science.  And don’t understand what fascism is, but (while claiming to be patriots) enable and accept fascism.  And threaten with violence those who rebut this, which is a tenet of fascism.  And work to undermine opposing power sources, which is a tenet of fascism.  And want to change laws to ensure they get their way contrary to democratic values, which is a tenet of fascism.  So, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll call that problem we’re talking about -- “They’re fascist.”  And I would say that maybe 30-40% of the country is willingly (if unknowingly), literally “fascist.”  But I would not say, if 30-40% of the country is fascist, then that means “The country is fascist.”  The country is still a democracy.  But that 30-40% has become fascist.  And it’s deeply troubling.

To be clear, I do understand your point, completely.  And I don’t think it’s inherently wrong to say, “The country is sick.”  I hear it a lot, and I get it.  It’s addressing a reality of deep problems the entire country must deal with.  But – (and this is not “rose-colored glasses,” because I absolutely recognize the problems and write about it all daily and in depth) I refuse to be considered “sick” in my views, which would be the case if it was “like” a human body that is sick because it has an illness.  I am not sick, you are not sick.  Most of the country is not sick.  Nor (importantly) is the country fascist.  Rather, 30-40% of it is.  That’s why I personally express it:  the country has a serious problem of fascism spreading, and far too much of it is delusional, sick and has chosen to literally ignore reality.

And I understand you standing by “The country is sick.”  Fair enough.  I just won’t say it, for those reasons. 

And in the end, happily, my friend agreed.