Love my neighbor?

From the Bible, Mark 12:31: Jesus answers a question from the crowd: “Which commandment is the most Important of all?” 

In reply, Jesus says, essentially, “the first commandment [paraphrased to love your God above all else]. ‘The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Everyone knows the country is politically divided, and it’s because of social media. Of course, it took the Internet to make that happen. Which required packet switching technology and TCP/IP language protocols, but that’s probably too far afield. Let’s just stick with “it’s social media’s fault.”

The “good old days” weren’t always good, as I’ve discussed before, but before garage door remotes, before school became an all day and night pursuit, before lifelike video games occupied kids’ lives, and before adult social media consumed two hours and 25 minutes of our day (worldwide average!), we were better people in many ways.

Before social media, you didn’t know that your neighbor was crazy. Now that you see their posts, surely you don’t have to love them.

You didn’t know that the bagel shop you frequent was owned by a liberal, LGBTQ-supporting Democrat. You just liked the bagels and he was a nice guy.

You didn’t know that your pharmacist was a conservative, NRA supporter, he just was friendly and gave you good advice.

Now that you know they aren’t like you, surely you don’t have to love them.

Before social media, people just talked civilly to each other, and while they had the same general leanings they do now, they only shared with their like-minded friends.

People didn’t put up billboards to announce their beliefs, but they had them just the same.

Church-going people didn’t know that the couple who sits in front of them at church voted 100% opposite of them. Churches avoided politics because they misunderstood the Johnson Amendment banning political endorsement by churches. So pastors and priests avoided politics altogether: probably a good thing!

But now that we know they are diametrically opposed to everything we believe, we don’t have to love them, do we?

At work, people seldom talked politics openly. One never knew for sure where the boss or company stood, so best to avoid it, except with lunch friends who are carbon copies of you. Those other nuts, they should be fired. They aren’t like us. They don’t believe the right way and we don’t have to love them.

Going back a bit, racism, sexism, homophobism, elitism, and all the other “isms” were there in 1966, sure. But the causes weren’t celebrated 24/7 on our telephone screens. We might have had leanings toward a particular cause in 1973, but now we follow pages that amplify that message in our brains.

In 1978, there were no Charlie Kirks to be assassinated, although Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, almost was killed in Gwinnett County by a white supremacist for showing interracial sex. That deserved assassination, surely.

Rush Limbaugh gave a voice to 15 million people over a 30-year career, but mostly he saved AM radio during that time. Amazingly, he was never shot because he was certainly the cause of so many problems.

I’m telling you what you already know. I also admit there is no obvious solution to the social media conundrum. Sure, you can turn off your social media, but that doesn’t change your neighbor. And it’s your neighbor who is nuts. Not you. Right?

That second commandment doesn’t apply to loving them, right? There’s got to be a disclaimer somewhere.

Kelly Burke was born in Knoxville where he spent his younger years, followed by high school years in Atlanta where he graduated from Georgia Tech, and then graduated from Mercer Law School. He has been in private practice, a magistrate judge, and an elected district attorney. He writes about the law, politics, music, and Ireland. He and his wife enjoy gardening, playing with their Lagotto Ramanolo named George Harrison, and spending time with their grandchildren.