A lot of virtual ink has been spilled in the past couple of years trying to home in on the source of our discontent. In the past half century or so we’ve experienced quite a few disruptions to the system, exposing deep rifts that were plastered over more than a few times in the past. America is nothing if not the land of skeletons in closets and the more that people are told what they may or may not consider by their betters, the more threadbare the excuses become. Everything has a reckoning, it is the immutable force of creation that established the physics of all things. Every action and all that jazz.

We are in the midst of a very, very dangerous time. Anyone who still believes in the power of the vote to reconcile our differences has not been paying attention. The time for campaigning things away has come and gone and there will never- until this conflict settles matters in flesh and blood- be a coming together of one side with the other. It is purposeless at this point to reason with one another, sides have been clearly drawn and like a family dispute, everyone knows where everyone else stands on the matter.

The premise is simple; there are those who want the heritage America of the past and those who want another country altogether. Those aren’t views that can be reconciled and both sides are convinced that they hold the moral high ground. The conflict has a neo-theological feel to it. It has become a religion to many, the righting of historical wrongs on people living in the present and the only solution is final. There is no compromise with someone who wants you gone.

What most of us do not consider, however, is that all of this, every epic meltdown and scandalous exposure is all a part and parcel of a perfectly natural cycle that has been going on for as long as mankind has existed. It’s what we do. Maybe, if we begin to look at it from that perspective instead of taking it personally, we’ll be able to keep the wheels from falling off of our personal lives, even if everyone else loses theirs.

1) Conflict is why we’re successful as a species. Human beings are soft.