Unlikely Coalitions: Can They Bring Our Country Back Together?
Dr. Eileen Borris
Global Consultant in Political Forgiveness, Multi-Track Diplomacy, Leadership, Conflict resolution, Author, Dynamic Key-Note Speaker
A Message to You
Many of us are wondering if there’s anything we can do to lower the temperature in this country, with the election just around the corner. The truth is, there is something we can all do: building coalitions within our own personal community. Since division and polarization are fueling anger and hatred, the antidote is coming together, learning about one another and uniting with one another. We don’t hate people we know. We’ve all got our circle of friends—most of whom probably think just like we do—but there might be a few who see things a bit differently. Actively nurturing these relationships instead of compartmentalizing them could lead to a fresh perspective.
What Can You Do?
Are there friends or family you’ve shied away from because they think differently from you? What if you were open to learning more about their unique point of view? Better yet, step out of your comfort zone and reach out to those you may not even socialize with, and be curious as to who they are and why they think the way they do. Even though they may have different opinions, find the common ground. You may find out that we are more alike than different.
Unlikely Coalitions: Can They Bring Our Country Back Together?
As we get closer to election day, people are feeling the stress of a polarized society. The division seems more palpable the closer we get to November 7, with many of us feeling more fear and anxiety as we approach that date. Some feel that we are so far apart — even living in different realities — that bridging the divide seems impossible. So how can we bring our country back together again?
Democracies work best when we follow norms; norms are agreed-upon ways we conduct ourselves in our society. Two basic norms that have helped preserve our democracy are tolerance and forbearance. Tolerance is about accepting the beliefs, feelings, or behaviors of another group or culture as legitimate, even when they differ from one’s own and even when you may not necessarily agree with them. Forbearance is showing restraint under adversity, patience under provocation. Tolerance is a mindset whereas forbearance requires restraint, a behavioral action.
When tolerance and forbearance are weak, democracy deteriorates. The challenge facing our democracy is not only the weakening of our democratic norms, it is extreme partisan polarization — which not only erodes our democracy, but can destroy it. Tolerance and forbearance can help in reducing polarization: When leaders are more tolerant and practice forbearance, they are more likely to view their adversaries as legitimate partners and less tempted to resort to political violence. But when societies become deeply divided and parties become wedded to their worldviews coupled with polarized groups rarely interacting, people become less tolerant and less likely to practice forbearance.
Strange Bedfellows Combat Anti-Democratic Forces
How can we turn the tide given the climate that our nation is facing today? The antidote to polarization is the coming together — most importantly with strange bedfellows. History has taught us that the way to combat anti-democratic forces is joining forces and developing coalitions with opposite groups. This was demonstrated clearly during the 1930s when authoritarian influences were taking hold in Europe. The countries that were able to hold on to their democracies and not fall prey to dictatorships were the countries that formed coalitions against authoritarians. How can we apply this to what is taking place currently in the United States?
From My Desk
BOOK: How Democracies Die
History and research are clear when it comes to stemming the tide of democratic erosion happening in the US: Coalitions that extend beyond our natural allies are the most effective. According to authors Levitsky and Ziblatt, “Coalitions are those that bring together groups with dissimilar—even opposing—views on many issues. They are built not among friends but among adversaries.”
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ARTICLE: The Snipers Are the Lucky Ones
Some of the worst war trauma comes not from injuries done to us, but what we inflict on others — this is true for both the individual sniper and for an impersonal culture of war and killing on a national stage. Humility, honesty and self-forgiveness are the only things that eventually bring healing to a festering wound. On the national level a political forgiveness process allows for the re-humanization of perpetrators and dealing with the deep, traumatizing emotions of all parties.
Authoritarian leaders have a cunning, intuitive understanding of the psychology behind the human stress response. They exploit people’s physical fight-or-flight reaction to keep them overwhelmed and numb, stifling creativity, hope and possibility. We build our resilience against these tactics by becoming aware of how political language makes us feel, stepping back to breath, and noticing who is trying to manipulate or divide us. Then we have the resources to reject divisive rhetoric, reach out to find common cause with those different from us, and sustain a pro-democracy coalition.
A group of researchers has recently proposed a new framework of collaborative imagination, which they call “co-imagination.” They report that, “People who collaboratively imagined a shared future together felt closer and more connected to their partner …. This finding begins to illustrate how collaborative imagination may support new social relationships.” While this experiment took place on the interpersonal level, there are exciting implications for diverse communities coming together to co-create a new future, the final step in a political forgiveness process.
Deeper Moment
Turning Down Our Own Anxiety: Can Meditation Help to Reduce Our Fear of the Other Side?
By Julian Adorney
I think the purpose of meditation is two-fold.
First, it can help us to observe our thoughts. Observing our thoughts is crucial because the act of observing shows us that we are not our thoughts—after all, if we were, than we wouldn’t be able to observe them. As the Indian mystic Sadhguru puts it in one of his guided meditations: “I am not my body. I am not even my mind.
”The benefit of observing our emotions is that it stops us from identifying with them. When we observe our emotions, we no longer are scared. Instead, we have fear. That’s a crucial distinction. If our fear is particularly irrational (for example, I used to have a strong fear of water slides), then we can even say that our fear is something external to us: a mind-virus that is separate and distinct from our core essence.
Read the entire article by Julian Adorney here.