Cheap Victories and False Vindications

I chanced upon two different blogs tonight (I have since surfed from both sites and forgotten which ones they were - but I couldn't help think about the contrasting posts, triggering the thoughts that I am posting here) - one an obviously "right-wing" conservative who applauded the Passion of the Christ winning a People's Choice Award. A few minutes later, I came across another, obviously "left-leaning" blog who lamented that the election did not go the same way as the vote for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 which won the accolade in its category.

The thing is this: in both blogs, each poster was claiming a glorious victory of sorts for their preferred ideology apparently symbolized by the respective films of their choice. A cheap substitute for whatever vindication they are feeling that their side had won some kind of acclaim, some kind of justification that they are on the straight and narrow. As if, the popular choice awards have given their ideology of choice the vindication of being finally true, or right and the other side have lost whatever battle they were waging against each other.

Perhaps in this curious dispute lies the reason why this country is so divisive, and why so many outside its borders just don't get Americans and why Americans don't get people who are different from them. And, perhaps it is also the reason why Americans don't even get themselves.