After the 2016 presidential campaigns, this healing process might not happen and, depending on the policies of the new leadership and the attitudes of the American people, the initially superficial social fractures might continue to expand and deepen. If not addressed adequately, the United States will be divided into two antagonistic tectonic social plates along which significant stresses can build up and result in what I label as a social earthquake.
… I define social earthquake as a violent social conflict resulting from the (sudden) release of tensions existing among groups formed by the fracturing of a society along ethnic, religious, economic, ideological or political lines, or a combination thereof. Tectonic social plates are formed when two or more distinct groups of people share a common space, but have little in common when it comes to values, principles and objectives. When the differences between the groups make their coexistence difficult and the commonalities that unite them are reduced below a minimum, these distinct groups of people might start looking at each other as different, strange, or even as the evil others.
I think we are going to see small attacks very soon or at least in the spring. Maybe not here in SE Idaho but in maker cities.
I don’t see an existing path that “heals” that divide. I honestly believe that these two sides will become increasingly polarized until the anger and hatred is so overwhelming that we act against each other.
Like you said, we are “looking at each other as different, strange, or even as the evil others.”…..but especially that last one. It’s a fool-proof recipe for disaster.