Political Anxiety and Creating a Better Future

What does skillful means look like in a divided world?

“Division implies sorrow; it is the root cause of sorrow – division between 'you' and 'me', 'we' and 'they', the black, the white, the brown and so on. So wherever there is division, fragmentation, love cannot be, because goodness is a state of non-division. The world itself is indivisible.”

-Krishnamurti

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I have a lot of opinions about politics and certain politicians in general, but I’ve long decided that I don’t want to be wading in those waters.

The thing is, politics is divisive.  That’s just the nature of politics.

While I consider myself a pragmatist and I know we need politics and political pundits, I think we more so need initiatives that promote empathy, compassion, and genuine efforts to humanize others and understand their views and how they got there.

I’ve always strived to understand people.  When there’s a person or group that seems wrong or just doesn’t make sense to me, instead of dismissing them as idiots I take the time to try to understand how they arrived at their perspectives.

With a little research I’ve always been able to do this.

For example, when Trump was first running and gaining popularity, I wondered how anyone could vote for a guy like him.  So I actually listened to his speeches, and let me tell you, I was shocked with how much of what he said I actually agreed with.

You see, watching the highlights of Trump rallies I wondered how anyone could vote for the guy.  But actually watching the full speeches, Trump was calling out corruption in politics, he was speaking to the broken system that fails everyday Americans, and most of what he said was spot on (he lost me at the wall though).

I didn’t believe Trump when he said he would address corruption in politics and actually serve the people over corporate interests, but I could understand how others might.  People want something to believe in, somewhere to place their hope.

When Trump won, there was a surge of Alt-Right figures in the media.  I wondered how seemingly racist ideology had gained popularity.  So I did some research.  I listened to Alt-Right pundits and even read some of their essays explaining the Alt-Right movement and what it was about from their perspective.

I learned that the Alt-Right movement was largely motivated by a perceived loss of culture.  And this made sense.  Western men don’t have much culture.  I know this as I am one.  I found culture in my own ways, in skateboarding and various music scenes, and I felt like I had a strong community around me when I was young.  But I knew many men who just didn’t find much of a place in the world.

For most Western men, their culture was based around the movies and TV shows they grew up with.  They didn’t have much guidance around what it means to be a man in today's world, but they found some positive role models in the media.

This is why the Alt-Right movement was so threatened by the diversity and inclusion movement.  They felt like they were being pushed out of their own culture.  There were fewer and fewer people in movies and television that they could relate to.

Western men didn’t have much in the way of culture, and what little they did have felt like it was being taken from them.

I once worked on a teen meditation retreat.  It was a great experience to hear from the teens directly what they thought and felt about the world.

I heard one boy in his early teens share that many groups at school were essentially telling him he should feel bad for being a white male.  Another group at school was telling him there’s nothing wrong with being a white male, and in fact he should be proud of his heritage.  Can you guess which group he was more drawn to?

Kids need positive role models.  They need a social identity that they can feel good about.  No wonder so many young caucasian men were being pulled to the Alt-Right, they were the only group telling them that they should feel good about who they are.

It’s Not About Right and Wrong

We spend so much time and energy arguing about who and what is right and wrong, but I think these efforts are largely misplaced.

I think we’d be in a much better situation if we instead asked why?

Why do people believe this?  Why do people feel this way?

It’s very easy to answer these questions regarding those we agree with, but can we answer them for those we disagree with?

This is why I spend more time listening to smart people that I disagree with than people I agree with.  I still listen to insightful people who generally share my perspective, and reading them can be helpful, but I learn just as much from listening to those that I decidedly disagree with.

You see, I am concerned with how real social change happens.  How do minds change?  And what you find is that people don’t change their minds from arguing with others, they change their minds by empathizing with people who have different views than themselves.

Megan Phelps-Roper is a perfect example of this.  She grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church, an extremely racist and homophobic organization.  She shared these views for a long time before eventually changing her ways and leaving the Church, along with her family, to become an anti-hate activist.

What changed her?  Well it wasn’t the people arguing with her.  Instead it was a man at the rallies who decided to be kind to her.

When people we disagree with are mean to us, that reinforces our separateness and makes it easy to dismiss them and their views.  We dehumanize each other.

But when someone we disagree with is kind to us, it makes us question our previous assumptions about them.

We shouldn’t be fighting against those we disagree with, instead we should be taking the time to listen to one another, trying to understand how they arrived that their views, while also trying to demonstrate how we arrived at ours.

I recently came across a video about a guy who “escaped the Alt-Right pipeline”. He escaped not because people were criticizing his views, but because he came across people who took the time to thoughtfully explain their own perspectives. One of the people instrumental in changing his view was Gary Stevenson from Gary’s Economics, who has became one of my favourite voices in speaking to the realities of wealth inequality and what can be done about it.

Beyond Voting

Now I know that in a very real sense elections are binary.  Each person gets one vote.  That’s just how things are.  But we don’t need to go through the rest of our lives in this binary.  We don’t need to hate or resent people who disagree with us.

While elections happen every few years, real social change happens every day.  Things are always changing, whether we like it or not.  And how we relate to others, and especially those we disagree with, is very impactful.

If you model hate and dehumanizing others, then people around you will feel justified in doing the same.  But if you model compassion, empathy, and understanding, you will also open that possibility for those around you.

While I realize this election has very real stakes for many people, I don’t think we should place our hope in elections.  Yes of course vote and support the candidates that you think are best fit to govern, but also think about what change you want to see in the world, on a day to day basis, and think about how you can contribute to that.

"Real revolution cannot be brought about by any particular ideology, whether it is communist, capitalist, or of any other form, because all ideologies are essentially divisive."

-Krishnamurti

When we look at the big problems of the world, it’s easy to feel powerless, like we don’t have impact. Instead of focusing on the areas you don’t have impact on, focus on the areas you do.

You have a very real impact in every relationship you have. If you’re kind, patient, and compassionate to those you encounter on a day to day basis, that’s impactful! It may feel like a drop in the bucket, but the bucket is full of drops…

I’ve noticed that when I think too much about the big problems of the world, I feel powerless and often lose any ambition to take meaningful action. But if I instead focus on where I have impact, on the people and issues that I do have some influence over, I then find the inspiration to take action.

I’m reminded of Joanna Macy’s idea of active hope. That hope is a verb, it’s something we need to act on. If you feel hopeless about the world, find some area you have impact, and act there. Hope comes from taking positive action, not from sitting around and criticizing others.

My hope is that people stop putting so much faith in politics and politicians, and instead look to how they can have a positive impact on their immediate environment. Judging others leads to further division, while acts of kindness and compassion are humanizing and help us work collectively towards a better future.

"To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves, and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves."

-Krishnamurti