Aaron Renn writes Oct. 22, 2024:
These disputes not only affect us psychologically, they also affect our intellectual positions, political positions, the tribes we associate with, etc. Seldom are the results for the better. As someone once told me of the David French-Sohrab Ahmari feud, “It turned both of them into worse versions of themselves.”…
Have you ever noticed that many alpha male types often, after a very public conflict with someone, get it settled and and move on? Sometimes they even strangely end up as friends. Republican megadonor Paul Singer was a Never Trumper in 2016. I sat at a gala and personally listened to him say that neither Trump nor Clinton were the right choice. But after Trump won, Singer went to Trump and made up with him. Why? Because he’s a smart, tough businessman who deals in reality. He didn’t let his pride marginalize him inside of a Trump administration. Similarly, we just watched Trump and Chuck Schumer getting along at the Al Smith Dinner in New York. That doesn’t mean Singer and Schumer are capitulating to everything Trump wants. They are going to keep fighting for what they want. But they see the value in not letting feuds compromise that.
The higher you go in society, the more likely people are to end feuds and work productively with – and even be somewhat friendly with – people on the other side.
