A healthy world is a world founded on good ideas, and good ideas are founded on a process of open, rigorous, even heated, debate. Yet such a debate is not always what we see in our public discourse. Polarization has informed a public conversation which does not always support a healthier world. Conducting a better public debate, it seems to me, is trading the cynicism that often informs bad faith arguments for the healthy skepticism which informs the generative conflict of ideas that truly advances progress. Some thoughts on how we can support such a conversation, towards the goal of a healthier world.
The last several years have been a contentious time. Polarization, informed by political divides, has come to characterize much of the public debate. The below graph reflects this, showing how opinion has migrated away from the center and towards extremes on the left and right.
Source: Pew Research Center. October 5, 2017. The Partisan Divide on Political Values Grows Even Wider. From: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/10/05/the-partisan-divide-on-political-values-grows-even-wider/. Accessed May 18, 2021.
The time of COVID was no exception—it was, if anything, an intensification of the division we have seen. It did not take long after the emergence of a novel coronavirus for the existential stakes of the political debate to migrate to conversations about masking, lockdowns, social distancing, the origins of the virus itself, the means of treating the disease, and, eventually, vaccines.
These divides have done much to undermine our response to the pandemic, just as they have done much to add dysfunction to our political process and fray our social fabric. Having said this, I would also add that I do not regard emotional, deeply felt, debate to be a uniformly negative influence. I have long argued for the importance of a diversity of perspectives and for creating space for these perspectives to be aired and debated, even when such debates are uncomfortable and contentious. This discourse, when it is conducted civilly and respectfully, is necessary for advancing the ideas that support a healthier world, and, ultimately, a culture and politics capable of meeting the needs of the moment.
Read the full piece on The Healthiest Goldfish.