Overcoming Political Polarization

Emotional Truth, Political Lies #03

“How could they be so stupid?” A response.

There have always been divergent political opinions.

Now, more or less suddenly, they’re toxic and can’t be the basis for principled debate among friends or a bit of ribbing at family dinners.

The key to our current weird divide in our body politic doesn’t seem to be economic self-interest but the political manipulation of ‘identity formation’ — the dynamics behind the stories we tell ourselves and the processes by which we define who we are individually and as people.

Difference has become heresy. People are acting as if their politics — not family, not religion, not friendship — is core to their identity and must be defended by any means necessary.

Well then, perhaps it is. Let’s think about it.

Sixty years ago what I term the ‘everyday commonplace’ provided a majority in the USA, if not a deeply satisfying life, at least an assurance that ones’ life was meaningful.

Much of this was legacy and unexamined. There were a variety of hooks on which to hang what sociologists call one’s ‘social capital.’ Breadwinner or homemaker, factory worker or shopkeeper…

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