BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Just how divided are we?

13 comments on Just how divided are we?

Just how divided are we?

: We are not as divided as media would paint us. Damnit.

Last night, I was listening to All Things Considered on the way home as they reported on the Supreme Court refusing to rule on keeping God in the Pledge of Allegiance. The anchor said this was a deeply divisive issue and some expert quoted said this was a cultural war over the soul of the nation.

C’mon, guys. Reality check! Does anybody really believe that the Pledge of Allegiance deeply divides us into a cultural war over the soul of the nation?

Hell, no.

Oh, most people surely have opinions and those opinions may well be statistically divided. But that doesn’t mean we’re ready to go over war over the Pledge.

I said below and I’ve said before that we are not a nation divided, as politicians and reporters would paint us.

Now it’s time that a social scientist or a pollster to measure the passion of our opinions — and an issue better come out pretty high on that passion scale before any reporter can say it’s deeply divisive.

Imagine a 0-5 scale like this:

0 – Don’t give a damn.

1 – Would defend my view in a conversation

2 – Would start a conversation on the issue to say what I think.

3 – Would write a letter to the editor (or weblog post) on the issue.

4 – Would consider the issue when voting for a candidate.

5 – Would change a vote for a candidate over the issue.

Most issues that are called deeply divisive probably come out about 0.5 on that scale. We are not facing each other, armed, on the borders of red states vs. blue over the Pledge of frigging Allegiance. We might discuss it over coffee.

It’s time to demand accurate portrayal of just how divided we are — and aren’t.

: By the way, if this does take off — if reporters regularly report on how much people care about the issues they report — I hope it’s named the Jarvis Passion Scale just cuz I like the sound of it.

13 responses to “Just how divided are we?”

  1. Seth Finkelstein Avatar
    Seth Finkelstein

    Hmmm … doesn’t this mean the Pledge of Allegiance rates out to at least a 3?
    “3 – Would write a letter to the editor (or weblog post) on the issue”
    Or does it just mean reaction to the court case is a 3 on the deeply-divisive scale?

  2. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Now it’s time that a social scientist or a pollster to measure the passion of our opinions
    They do. The General Social Survey has been conducted at one-to-two year intervals since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, and is generally considered the premier social science instrument for monitoring social life and trends in the United States. The survey asks opinions on social issues such as Free Speech, Capital Punishment, Gun Control, Abortion, Pornography, etc. Most importantly, with each issue they also meause how important the issue is to them, how much information the respondant has on the issue, and how firm their opinion is on the issue.
    You can run your own statistics on GSS data and many other databases here.

  3. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Michael: Thanks much. That’s what I do love about this medium: You read something and you add what you know as soon as it’s published. Appreciate the link; I will play with this.
    I also think we need to expect to measure and more importantly include such metrics in reporting constantly so that reporters don’t get away with acting as if the Pledge is going to cause Civil War The Sequel.

  4. Brian Jones Avatar
    Brian Jones

    I wonder if blogs and e-mail listservs are coloring this notion that we’re deeply divided. I belong to an e-mail list nominally devoted to chatting with other contributors to a humor site; however, on any given day, battle lines are drawn over increasingly niggling issues and passionate (and, largely, abusive) arguments are ongoing at all times. It’s tiresome.
    We’re divided over big things, and that means we’re willing to argue passionately and abusively over little things that stand in for those big things.
    Again, it’s tiresome.

  5. Thomas Avatar
    Thomas

    Amen! (or, uh, kudos!)
    I’ve gotten to where I don’t take part in a lot of online “opinion polls” because the supplied list of opinions are skewed. I would love an opinion poll that not only had more than three or four options but also could measure how hard I clicked the submit button (i.e. your scale of passion).

  6. sbw Avatar
    sbw

    My answer is “7”, which answers the concern, “Do the Poll options allow the most useful answer to the question.”
    I was seven years old when we had to insert the phrase “under God” in the Pledge. My considered opinion, and that of my elementary school friends, was that the phrase was unnecessary and just one more needless thing to learn. (Besides, we knew that Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge, who came from our home town of Rome, NY, and is buried here, didn’t include the phrase. Congress meddled it in.)
    Polls, being the blunt instrument that they are, should always allow a “None of the Above” and a free-form comment line. My comment:
    7. I give a damn — that the change made in 1954 was unnecessary then and now, but I’d rather keep “under God” in for a time than let some pedantic zealot tie up our courts with a frivolous lawsuit to tell me I can’t. I give a damn — that some misguided writer — not reporter — on “All Things Considered” fritters away my listening time misinterpreting the story. I mean, I expect that from Daniel Schorr, but not the rest of the staff.

  7. Chuck Olsen Avatar
    Chuck Olsen

    I have to admit, I shrugged my shoulders over the ruling. I think we’re divided, but probably not as strongly as the media says.
    I like your Jarvis Passion Scale idea, but fear its purpose could be misinterpreted. ;-)

  8. Steve K. Avatar
    Steve K.

    Would a better name for this new scale perhaps be “The Passion of the Jarvis”? It might make more money at the box office …

  9. Kevin Brancato Avatar
    Kevin Brancato

    How about adding an economic dimension to your passion scale?
    “Would contribute more than 5% of my income to causes representing my view.”
    or much better yet…
    “Have contributed more than 5% of my income to causes representing my view.”
    I’d leave it up to others to debate whether donating 5% of income is more or less passionate than changing a vote…

  10. John Avatar
    John

    I also would like to know how divided Americans are. You are probably right that most of us are more moderate than the press would have us believe.
    However, the main problem with your “We are Americans; We are not extremists” mantra is that the passionate, extremist minorities always drive political discourse and cause political change. Sure, most of us are politically apathetic moderates, just trying to “avoid politics” and live our lives. But it is extremist minorities on the right and left who have the passion to throw themselves into politics and cause change.
    The administration makes the same mistake in Iraq when it insists that the majority of Iraqis don’t support the extremists and just want the violence to stop. This is probably right, but the fact is that the majority waiting at home for all of the violence to stop have much less influence over the political future of the country than the minority who are willing to go out and waste their lives for their cause.

  11. TC-LeatherPenguin Avatar
    TC-LeatherPenguin

    Jarvis Scale: Anything “Conde” gets a bye.

  12. Lex Avatar
    Lex

    There’s just something about the juxtaposition of “Jarvis” and “Passion” that makes me go, “Ewwwwwwwww … ” :-)
    Regarding John’s comment about minorities of extremists driving political debate, do not underestimate the effect of legislative gerrymandering on this phenomenon. Only about 30 of 435 House seats represent competitive districts anymore; here in N.C., only about 10 of 50 state Senate districts are anywhere near competitive anymore. So no one has to moderate his extremist views to get elected.

  13. mdmhvonpa Avatar
    mdmhvonpa

    I think your scale needs to go to 11. You know:
    11 – Would commit genocide or detonate a WMD over the issue.