Politics is About Much More than Truths and Untruths

Virtually all aspects of our society are influenced by the parameters of politics. In the realm of human understanding nothing is as pervasive as political thought. We live in a world that insists on using political labels to define who we are as people and group us into absolutes. One of my favorite things to do is to ask someone that identifies as a “Democrat” or “Republican” what that actually means. I ask them to give me a definition, explain how your label differs to the opposing. I watch them stop, ponder, and stumble, as I once did. They can’t explain it, they just know that’s what they are. Perhaps they grew up in a family that identified that way or they hear sound bites that describe the attitude of that particular party and they think “yeah that’s for me.” Then they proceed to absorb any and all information, however incomplete or inaccurate, to support their standing. The level of polarization in this country is compounded by a duopoly and political dichotomy that has created the perfect storm of erasing anyone’s responsibly of thinking for themselves. We have transformed into a society of idealogues-blind partisan advocates or someone that sticks within the rigid walls of their subscribed ideology. No need for critical thinking; if my party says that it is right or wrong then that is good enough for me. There are many reasons for this, such as our propensity to live in a comfortable, safe bubble where we value uninterrupted predictability instead of accuracy. Rather than engaging in the complexities and nuances evident in the world its much easier to join a like-minded group of people. And we wouldn’t want to admit it, but one of life’s true pleasures is the feeling of superiority you get when you bad mouth others. I’m guilty of it, I’m guilty of all this.

I grew up in a very liberal leaning family for the most part. My Dad identified as a Democrat, still does. He has always been the most intelligent and capable person I have ever known. I understand the bias that exists within that opinion, he is my Dad after all. Nonetheless, I knew early on that was the party I was a part of, but it wasn’t until later in life I understood why exactly that was. And it was even later that I realized my disdain toward party labels all together. During my time in college I took a lot of sociology classes. The first class I joined was an introduction to social issues. Everything from gender inequality to racial discrimination to climate change. I was submersed in statistics and figures and what seemed to be the most accurate depiction of each of these challenges. I remember the issue that stood out to me the most was surrounding immigration in the U.S. My textbook detailed the overwhelming benefit that documented and undocumented immigrants had on the U.S. economy. It described the horrific living conditions suffered by those apart of the H-2 visa programs-some of the few legal pathways to work in the U.S. Nearly every issue presented in that textbook aligned with a liberal mindset. I thought how could anyone have a different opinion when presented with the facts on these topics? They must not know! Then a few years later when referencing my seemingly tremendous knowledge of sociological issues and the facts associated with it, someone told me that none of that was true- “education was liberal.” Somehow insinuating that I had been indoctrinated with liberal propaganda during my time at OSU. That’s when the debate hit a wall, how can I find facts and evidence to prove the validity of my facts and evidence? The reality was that it didn’t matter. I understood in those moments that truths or untruths only go so far in political positioning. And what was worse-there were often perceived facts and evidence to support the opposing claims just as much as mine. Whatever information you want to seek out, you could find it. What matters most is your motivation to find that information in the first place-your Weltanschauung, a German word conventionally translating to “world view.”

Don’t get me wrong, I still value objective realities and think there is often a right or wrong approach to an issue determined by evidence or lack thereof. Facts are invaluable and without a common baseline of facts and a respect for the scientific process of obtaining them our democracy will fail to exist. But understanding your Weltanschauung and the Weltanschauung of others is undoubtably important when attempting to explain one’s perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing. Depending on one’s world view or ideology, two people can interpret the same event in drastically different ways. I believe one’s ideology is shaped by a combination of biology, upbringing and experience and the more understanding we have towards other people’s hearts and minds the more tolerant you can be of those who interpret reality differently than you do. I’ll be the first to admit of my frustration or intolerance to those who disagree with me, but I can attest to the fact that the more time I poured into understanding them the less frustrated and judgmental I became. Its been a process.

Its important to note that political ideologies are mostly based upon theory or assumptions because they can’t be proven in an objective sense. Let’s take liberalism for example. A key assumption of liberalism is that individual people are rational actors. Liberals have full faith in individuals to be capable of exercising free will based on their own independent and reasoned judgement. Furthermore, liberals have an optimistic view of human nature; an overwhelming majority of individuals are inherently good. Liberals promote tolerance to the widest possible spectrum of lifestyles. A liberal ideology is most closely associated with the pursuit of happiness-the quest to be who you want, express yourself and live any life you choose to as long as it does not impede on someone else’s freedoms.

Conservativism is a stark contrast to liberalism, specifically in regard to human nature. One of the most important premises of conservatism is that human beings are irrational and are prone to hostile or selfish behavior. Therefore, conservatives have a pessimistic view of human nature. They refute the liberal view that people should be entrusted with as much freedom as possible. The government and a strong criminal justice system is needed to control human beings from acting in an antagonistic manner. Conservatism centers around a number of fundamental values and is highly supportive of traditional institutions, such as the Church, the Constitution or the nuclear family. Social order is of upmost importance and they believe heavily in the virtues of the tried and the true. Conservatives value social harmony and community, balance and traditions.

In 2016, the Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth”-defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”-as their word of the year. Neither those on the left or the right are immune to it. We as human beings are a post-truth species. In Yuval Noah Harari’s book “21 lessons for the 21st Century” he makes a brilliant case for this reality. At the risk of offending anyone I will present the best example of this-religion. Religious texts and beliefs exist with little scientific evidence to support their validity, yet religion has guided and influenced human beings for thousands of years. Even if the one religion you follow is taken as absolute truth, that implies that every other religion is fiction by default. As a species we have sought cooperation through appeals to emotion and have evolved to take mental short cuts to make decisions and take action. Consider the days in which humans had to quickly run and protect themselves from approaching predators. Those that processed quickly and didn’t rely on the calculation of evidence and reason were the ones that survived. But we live in a very different world now. One that is much more socially and technologically complex, yet our brain’s decision-making mechanisms have not adapted to our changing world. This could very well be the reason the human species will fail to survive, cue in climate change.

So what’s the takeaway from all this? How do we accept the fact that humans are highly emotional beings with poorly adapted brains living in a time of over stimulation and political polarization? The short answer is that we don’t. Biology is not destiny. We have the ability as a species to find a new level of cooperation that embraces science, reason and logic while respecting each other’s world views. But my opinion is that our biggest obstacle is a political system that forces us to choose between two sides and a voting system that ignores millions of voices. The process of labeling people can be dehumanizing as it can take away our ability to function as individuals and think for ourselves. I have much more in common with many of my Republican friends than I do differences. But our political system makes it hard to see it that way. What we have lost sight of is the common good. The reality is that most people are hardwired for some degree of cooperation with and compassion toward others. We wouldn’t have survived this long if that wasn’t true. There is a tremendous amount of agreement around what is right and wrong and a shared set of values most people have agreed to. Americans can disagree on what we want for the country but its how we deal with those disagreements that matters most. Part of the common good is accepting truth and facts, the other part is understanding our differences.