How Do We Talk About It

Finally. The election is over and the interminable television ads that tell you in an ominous tone how the opposing candidate is going to ruin the republic, spoil your milk and turn your children into deviants are at an end. Hallelujah! What not is at an end is all of the trash that is left in your mind that was planted there to create an emotional urge for you to rush out to crush the evil opposition and stamp out any vestiges of its existence. It is the political equivalent of spraying images of pornography on the city's sidewalks and not coming back to clean it up. Neuroscientists are beginning to discover the basis of emotions as being the impact of various chemical combinations on the different areas of the brain and what has happened is that these imprints have been set free in your gray matter.

Political operatives have discovered that they can manipulate response by appealing to raw emotion using methods that social scientists would be discredited for if they used them. People think that Political Science is the study of political methods and institutions and it is that but it is also a social science that is focused on what motivates particular political behavior. Political operatives can accurately predict what a specific ad will do and largely how many people and what subsets it will impact. This leaves us, the people who have real lives and in whose hands the welfare and future of the republic lies, with a big question.

HOW DO WE TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS?

We are beset from each extreme by disembodied voices that preach to us what they say will surely result in our destruction if we do not act immediately. This comes at us from Social Media, which is surely the wild west of free speech, from television and radio networks who specialize in a certain political slant and even, to some lesser degree, our national news medial which has abdicated the role of calling into question ridiculous behavior for fear of appearing partial. It is only natural that these modes of expression would find fertile ground in the expression of individuals. Can anyone really believe that this kind of expression will lead to rational discussion of areas of disagreement? Why on earth do people believe it is either my way or the highway?

Let's face it. Rational discussion and thought are just not that exciting and they do not create all those chemicals that trigger our animal responses to slay the enemy who is not like us. Rather, being calm and rational may possibly lead to that favorite chemical of mine, oxytocin, which promotes feelings of well being and love.

So, why on earth do we persist in this flawed mechanism that can't, by its very nature, lead to agreement and compromise? In addition to the implantation of single minded trash we simply don't know how to go about debate. We don't know how to prepare an argument buttressed by facts and references. I'm talking about real facts and references and not the stuff blown out the mouths of right and left wing media outlets or those senseless memes so popular on Facebook that ridicule one side while wrapping in holy cloth the other. I am talking about stuff that one actually has to think about. Stuff that has to be rolled around in a head in order to examine it from every angle and to consider the impact on people other than oneself. We are much more comfortable with the assurance that we know the correct behavior and we certainly don't want to have to think too hard. Many of us don't know how to think too hard and the use of labels to describe the sacred self and the unholy others makes it all to easy to describe our own group. It is almost tribal.

If you can do it I urge you to consider this the next time you passionately echo some phrase that defines how you feel. Take a moment and think about it. Why do I feel this way? What is the impact of my statement on others? How can I use this to speak with someone who holds a different opinion and perhaps persuade him or her of the rightness of my position. The other side of the coin is to allow yourself the possibility of not having all the answers and to open yourself to consideration of the root causes of particular opinions and behaviors. It is liberating but most of you will refuse to do it because you don't know how or you see it as a betrayal of your clan or tribe. It is the only way our Republic will survive in a form that we will recognize.

I'm not saying to be without passion. Passion is vital to a vital democracy but it is not everything. Our welfare is not up to our leaders, they are just figureheads we elect to represent us but the powers that manipulate them also seek to manipulate us and we must refuse to be so gullible. This manipulation has done great harm to our home and it must be resisted as if it were an invader because that is precisely what it is. It seeks to deprive us of our greatness in order to enrich a special few and that is not democracy.

Religion and politics are topics that many avoid due to the propensity of passionate argument that can lead to anger and hurt. One deals with our relationship to our God and the other with our relationship to our fellow man and woman. It is vital that we talk about it. I love to engage in these discussions and entertain different viewpoints and I often find reason to reconsider my own rationale. It makes ones holdings a bit harder to define but that is OK. We are complicated and wonderfully made. We should act like it.