I keep thinking about that scene with the “red phone” (or more formally, the Moscow-Washington hotline) from The Sum of All Fears.

It’s after a nuclear bomb goes off at a football game. The president narrowly escapes, and then starts spinning up the American military for a counter-attack. The initial intelligence points to Russia as the culprit. Meanwhile, attacks are happening on Russian forces. They suspect the Americans. Events escalate quickly.

All while shadowy forces are pulling the strings of both sides.

Neither president wants to enter into nuclear conflict, but they each feel they have no choice. They’re certainly both surrounded by people who want blood. And the crucial detail that everyone is missing is that a third party has set up the entire conflict for maximum carnage.

Then Jack Ryan gets ahold of the hotline. He’s able to send messages directly to the Russian president. He says he discovered the truth about who’s behind the attacks, and asks Russia to stand down. At first, the American president tries to shut it down. The conflict seems inevitable. But a glimmer of trust emerges, and the two countries de-escalate.

This scene keeps coming to mind because of a line that Ryan says to the other leader: “I know you.” That personal connection, amplified by the technological connection, is what turns things around.

“I know you.”

We have vastly more advanced technology to connect with one another now, but it seems to not be working. Or working against us. Our country has become more polarized than ever before, and the gap seems to be widening between different sides and differing individuals. It’s led to some serious, real-world conflict. Not just recent events, either.

Are we being pulled apart by malign actors? Shadowy forces (spiritual, as well as human) who enjoy this hyper-partisan conflict?

What keeps happening is that we’re presented with the absolute worst caricature of other people. The normal bonds that maintain peace between neighbors, co-workers, even political rivals seem to be weakening. Do we see this danger to our social fabric? It’s clearly under assault.

Where are the Jack Ryans that are able to bridge these gaps? More importantly, where is our own hotline––not with a foreign leader, but with one another? Not simply a phone line, though, but the actual connection that de-escalates tension. The simple line: “I know you.”