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A House Divided: Why America's Greatest Enemy Is Itself

42 0
02.11.2024

If you feel anxiety about America's future, especially with the 2024 election approaching, you're not alone. It's a peculiar kind of madness when our right arm attacks our left, each fighting for victory while we bleed from the wounds created. Yet this is precisely what's happening in America today. Our adversaries insidiously amplify our divisions as we tear ourselves apart from within, knowing they don't need to defeat us. We're doing it ourselves, ignoring unity's imperative.

Our Founding Fathers and spiritual leaders warned us that division is downfall. Jesus's words "a house divided against itself will not stand" were so profound that Abraham Lincoln invoked them before the Civil War. Hidden within this warning is an even greater truth: A house united will not fall.

We're behaving like two gigantic Red and Blue toddlers, breaking the very toys we are fighting over. We've forgotten that "United" is America's first name, that "E pluribus unum" (out of many, one) was our original motto. This wasn't just wordplay. It recognized a fundamental truth: Our strength, our very greatness as a nation lies in unity. True greatness in leadership isn't about conquering the opposing party—it's about embodying and cultivating unity around these foundational principles that define the United States.

The price of forgetting this wisdom is mounting. Over 12 years, America has fallen from 11th to 23rd in the World Happiness Report rankings while mental health challenges, especially among youth, have soared. We're seeing alarming warning signs: increasing political violence, rising extremism, and a shared sense of unraveling. Our health and greatness as a nation are inextricably........

© Psychology Today


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