Steven Crowder, bless his heart, put out a two-part barbershop conversation with the topic “Black and White on the Grey Issues”. That was his first mistake. It’s not “Black and White”. It is “Black and Western Civilization”.

The reason I insist on this is because there are too many “white-looking” people who are not in Western Civilization and too many “black-looking” people who are not Black.

It is an ongoing conflict, and it is the conflict of our day.

Crowder learned, and demonstrated to all who want to see, the same feeling any of us members of Western Civilization have felt when around Blacks: the realization that “there is no common ground.” One soldier in my recent Vietnam War readings said it best when he described that they (Vietnamese people) are not from a different country, they are “from a different planet.”

It is at precisely this point that Crowder and others need to improve their game. Get over the shock. Quit being shocked. There is nothing in Western Civilization which came easily, came without tremendous work. Nothing in Western Civilization was or is “intuitive”. One of the distinguishing marks of Western Civilization, one of the reasons its foundation is so strong, and its power so lasting, is the sheer effort it took to build it. I want to be sure not to say “will” because I am not talking “will power”, I am talking actual work. Will power might help me lose weight, help me not get angry enough to hurt people, and might help me finish college. But will power is not “work”. And Western Civilization (which I would consider the actual and only ‘civilization’—the rest of people are in chaos, and the entire population, Western Civilization included, is therefore in chaotic need of leadership vis-à-vis civilization) is the result of work.

The above is ground-level fact. It is the given. It is the axiom from which anything that follows is derived. And what follows is not the axiom. What follows is opinion. And my opinion is that conversations which merely highlight the seemingly different planetary origins of Westerners and Blacks are not work. To use wordplay, the reason I believe this is in my experience (to include listening to converts) these conversations do not work.

Work, in the meaning I am attempting to promote here, is not merely illustration or illumination or revelation that the given is given. Work is not some ‘raising awareness’ to the fact that there is no common ground.

What is this work, then? Well, according to the great tradition of the men who bestowed Western Civilization upon the occupants of Earth, work is the creation of common ground.

By way of example, take Western Civilization’s conception of the Universe as heliocentric. It wasn’t always so. But even in the beginning, Western Civilization was working to prove the Earth was the center and likewise to prove the regularity and order of stars and the moon etc. Furthermore, you can read the work for yourself—it is readily available. And due to this work—inaccurate as it proved to be—other members of the West looked around and allowed themselves the freedom to think, “Hmm. But that isn’t what I see.” And then the shift in understanding began. This is until Newton thought, “I want to measure rainbows.” Do you know how much work is required in measuring rainbows? I know you know because neither you, nor nearly anyone else, has ever done the work! But Western Civilization’s premiere member Isaac Newton did. And here we are, being slung around the Sun (at least until someone who wants to work even harder comes along and re-orients us). I could go on.

And yet, admittedly, this is where my wisdom peaks. I do not know how to create common ground. I have some ideas how not to create it, though. I mean, if gently pressed, I could teach how to create division. For example, it is assuredly not creating common ground to have no interactions with Blacks. But it is also not creating common ground, as I said, to have interactions or relationship with Blacks which hinge on the fact that we’re different from each other.

Most of you know that my efforts lie in church world. But I can imagine other avenues. The main thing, of course, is that before you attempt this “create common ground” lifestyle, you need to know with certainty into which group you fit. And, for today, my provocative send off is, I can tell you confidently that if you fear losing the conflict, then you are not in Western Civilization. (Don’t read this to indicate that I believe living without fear is the only or even the sufficient requirement for membership in the West. It merely is required.)

I’m sure I’ll have more to say later. Exciting times.