Our Nation’s Greatest Danger: The Fierce Certainty of Now

(This column is part 1 of 2. Part 2 will appear next week.)

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time.” –Martin Luther King, Jr 1967

In 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr. stood up to make a speech that was a call to action. He spoke at a time when this nation was at war with others and at war with itself. It was a nation torn by the political infighting over a foreign war that was drifting into wider and wider foreign entanglements. Our nation was fighting between those who wished to hold others back and those reaching for civil rights, for the founding ideals that all men are created equal and the rights of the ballot box.

Fifty years later the “fierce urgency of now” has given way to the “fierce certainty of now.”

We are a nation that in many ways mirrors that time. We are re-litigating the fight over voting rights, over affirmative action and our troops are on the ground in combat zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and perhaps Yemen and other nations. There is chatter about taking action against ISIS in the Philippines and “fire and fury” talk about action against North Korea.  

We are a nation divided among people in camps who believe they and they alone know the certainty of answers for our nation’s path. One pastor who advises the president even stated that “God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.”

The fierce certainty of now divides us into armies of social media mobs who know all we need to know. We know that because the opinion makers we choose to follow tell us what to think and echo what we want to believe. They reaffirm that our deeply held beliefs are unwavering truth, even as mentioned above by bringing God into it.

We quell the search for information that may contradict our “truths.” We dismiss other people presenting contrary facts as “your facts” and not “my facts.” We dismiss anything that might force us to open our eyes, stand up and walk halfway to shake hands with those who disagree with us.

Where has the intellectual core of both parties gone? Where is the courage of men and women willing to debate honestly while actually listening to ideas from one another? The courage has been replaced by those who will do anything and everything to attain and retain power.

All sides have taken to the streets based on false narratives driven by people with agendas of power. Misinformation amid the fog of political war in real time is a powerful currency and a seductive siren call to arms.

Why did we fall for this? Because someone, somewhere stood up with a fierce certainty of now, getting us to act believing a fantasy they sold to stir our worst fears.

We have a president who embodies the idea of the fierce certainty of now. Even when confronted with his own contradictory statements he never admits he was wrong. This president can’t be called on his mistakes because he’s never admitted to one. His fierce certainty of now never wanes.

The fierce certainty of now is an emotional response, not a rational response. It relies on our feelings, on emotions that overpower our mind’s ability to learn and adapt to new realities. It ignores the leadership style of Lincoln. Our greatest president sought out opinions that challenged his own thinking and then formulated an informed decision before acting.

When the time came, Lincoln acted with the fierce urgency of now because he’d reached a fierce certainty of enduring values. He fought for the 13th Amendment to end slavery because, first, he knew without question it was the right action to take and that it was also the time to strike.

In 2017 we mock intellect and those who hesitate to evaluate what will be the lasting and enduring solutions to crisis. We’re driven by the short attention spans the internet and 24/7 media have created. We demand immediate resolution that often makes bigger messes. We mistake immediate action as the hallmark of great leadership. We could not be more wrong.

Make no mistake. Martin Luther King was right to espouse the fierce urgency of now. But he came to that place after years of deliberation and thought before taking his stand.

If we are to effect change, if we are to remake the dysfunction in our politics then we will have to elect people who are not beholden to absolute certainty. We must elect people who will look at problems from the other side of the aisle and gain perspective that may provide meaningful solutions.

If not, we are destined to fail, locked into our own fierce certainty of now.