We Are Not Smart Enough

First there was this…
“Everything is changing.
People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
Will Rogers
And then this…
Which hangs on the wall in the back stairway of our house
“It’s a sad day when our politicians are comical, and I have to take our comedians seriously.”
And, yesterday this…
“We are not smart enough to understand nuance.”

After walking for 30 minutes or so I was doing sit ups on our living room floor and had an evening sports program on the TV to help distract me as I counted to 100. The topic being discussed was the controversy around/statement being made by Colin Kaepernick’s  kneeling during the playing/singing of the national anthem. Instantly, like with so many of the very real and very complicated issues which face us, the rhetoric became heated and divisiveness and simplistic which lead one of the commentators comment.
“We are not smart enough to understand nuance.”
Race is challenging and complicated to talk about.
The line between respect and very real issues is hard to talk about.
The meaning/expression of patriotism is hard to talk about.
And, in religious circles the question of where our primary allegiance lies is hard to talk about.
“We are not smart enough to understand nuance.”
Is he correct?
Have we lost our ability and/or desire to do the hard work of listening to and learning from those whose life experience is different from ours and who have a different perspective and understanding than ours?

And, why, I wonder, does it take a sports commentator to speak that truth.