According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of a construct is: “A working hypothesis or concept.” This means someone sets up an experiment based on a theory—not facts—on how the world works. We live in a world of constructs which individuals and/or groups believe in with religious fervor. Here are some recent examples:
• Putin’s view of Ukraine: Ukraine isn’t really a nation, and the lives of its people are of little value. Ukraine can and will be conquered and occupied. Russia must be made great again.
• Ukraine’s view: We have the will to defeat Russia, though we need the West to supply us with modern weapons.
• The U.S. and NATO’s view of the war in Ukraine: If we supply the Ukrainians with modern weaponry and support, the Russians will eventually lose due to fewer resources and lesser will. Russia will cease being a near-peer, and democracy will survive and conquer autocracy.
• A conservative’s view of when life begins: Life begins at conception. What happens after the birth of a child is the responsibility of the parent(s).
• A progressive’s view of when life begins: Life begins at birth. A woman’s rights supersede the rights of the fetus. Caring for a child requires a community working together for that child’s welfare.
• A conservative’s view of immigrants: As long as they look like us and/or have our values, bring them in.
• A progressive’s view of immigrants: All humans have value. All are family. Immigrants provide gifts and talents that enrich the nation.
What proof do any of these views contain? There really is no proof. These views were/are simply based on assumptions. In other words, they are only constructs. Time will decide if they are true or not.
In other words, these beliefs are based on faith, not fact.
Humans crave certainty. These assertions provide it. Yet, these assertions conflict with each other.
Recently I taught the history of early Enumclaw to a group of descendants of an Irish immigrant. Charles E. Finnigan had emigrated from Ireland in 1871 and arrived in Enumclaw in 1881. Finnigan left Ireland because his family had been persecuted and treated as second class-citizens. They were Irish, Catholic, and poor.
The English aristocracy came to Ireland beginning about 1603. They took Irish property, and the people could only survive by renting small plots of land. They raised potatoes which adequately sustained them until a potato blight beginning in 1845 killed over a million. Two million eventually emigrated to the western hemisphere in the years following.
When the Irish came to America, they were viewed as pariahs, because they were Irish, Catholic, and poor. Many ended up fighting in the U.S. Civil War and then building the transcontinental railroads that spanned the continent after the war. Today, the Irish are accepted because they are white and prosperous and have assimilated into the mainstream. Being Catholic is not so important anymore. We even celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day each year where children must wear green or be pinched.
I don’t know what my audience that day believed about immigration or abortion, but I encouraged them to consider their paradigms based upon their own family story—their constructs—because they had once been on the persecuted side of history. It seemed to me that compassion and mercy were a better, more realistic construct to which to adhere.
Today, Hispanics and Asians struggle to enter this country, but because they are different from the group that controls the reins of power they are viewed as second class citizens. Some Americans want to build 30-foot fences along our southern border to keep them out.
Can you see in all these examples where our constructs determine our behavior and our attitudes toward other people? Yet, we have no proof for what we believe. These beliefs are only constructs because it suits the structures we have created.
It seems that acting justly, showing mercy, and walking humbly are better constructs than exclusion and discrimination toward others. If only we as a nation could agree. What a different country we would be.
