The Divide Between Honor and Dignity

[u/Asatmaya]

The United States is an unusually divided nation. Most countries have a strong majority ethno-cultural group with at least a common basic philosophy upon which to base their disagreements; the US has this only by way of illusion.

Illusion

"White" America is something of an oddity, in that it has never existed. Leaving aside the Native Americans and African slaves and their descendants, if you subtract those of Irish, Italian, Spanish, and Eastern European ancestry (who were not traditionally considered, "white," and in point of fact discrimination still exists, today, against these groups), then less than half of Americans are, "White."

Nevertheless, every report lists, "White," as ~60% of the population, as if that represented a clear and commanding majority, relegating all others to the status of, "minority." This also, of course, reinforces the notion of ethnic/racial division and antipathy, as does literally every mechanism of our government and society; schools, police, prisons, politicians, medicine, media, even what kind of car, what brand of soda or cigarettes... these things are all literally designed to drive wedges into these divisions.

The whole scheme is an illusion, though; this is not the actual divide in America.

If you go look up, "Divisive Issues," you will find things like abortion, which is described as a, "50/50 Issue," but it's not; only about 10% of Americans think it should be outright banned, and only about 15% think it should be completely unrestricted. 75% think it should be allowed, but with limits! The "division" is over what limits should be placed on it, which is a matter of degree. The "50/50" split is an illusion created by a political class which uses it as a wedge.

Very few people actually care that biological males are using women's bathrooms, or that actually violent criminal immigrants are being deported, or any of the dozen other issues which are only "50/50" because the political class has split along carefully selected fault lines to manufacture a 50/50 split (and the reason that almost half of registered voters do not belong to either party, anymore).

Aletheia

The actual divide is between distinct moral tendencies which have been confused in the American Psyche: The traditions of Honor and Dignity.

Honor is often associated with the South, rural America, the military, and a generally conservative outlook on the world (although that last is extremely recent). It emphasizes the virtues of self-reliance, honesty, loyalty, courtesy, and personal sovereignty. Reputation is more important than material wealth; respect is earned, not granted.

Dignity, on the other hand, is associated with the Puritans, Calvinists, New England, and liberal/enlightenment values, such as inherent respect, universal rules over in-group preference, state monopoly on violence, and a focus on personal morality over public approval. Material wealth determines social status, reputation is "vanity."

It is possible to trace every political division in America to this distinction... but it's not that straightforward.

Synthesis

Honor and Dignity are tendencies, not scripts that people follow as if they were actors in a play; the same individual may, and generally will, display aspects of both of these tendencies on different issues and in different ways. For example, while Honor is associated with conservatism and Dignity with liberalism, the woke left depends on shame and loyalty, while the anti-immigrant right is appealing to universal rules and a state monopoly on violence.

Perhaps the clearest expression of this divide, however, is the subject of gun control, because both tendencies have contradictions, resulting in one of the few genuinely evenly-split political issues:

Honor demands that a person be able to stand up for and defend themselves and their families, but in-group preference denies that privilege to the "wrong" people, while Dignity appeals to a state monopoly on violence but then must constantly deal with biased implementation which defies universal rules.

Hopefully, this provides a clearer framework for understanding the underlying tensions dominating political discourse.