How have we ended up with this divisiveness and lack of proper debate?

Four key observations and the five underlying changes that have rocked our world and are shaping our reality.

I don’t know about you, but when I first meet someone, I inevitably weigh the person up with an initial scan of sorts. If it’s online, I might do a Google search. If it’s IRL, you could say that I read the book by its cover. It’s simplistic, but it’s a natural starting point. The question I have for myself is to what extent I tend to stick to that initial ‘reading’? How often have I misread someone? There are some acquaintances to whom I feel a strong and positive vibe. Am I not just making a self-fulfilling prediction that we’ll become friends? And vice-versa. Whatever the truth in that equation, we are all onions and while the outside layer is attached to the core, the layers underneath tend to reveal differences and nuances, filled with a variety of experiences and probably some deep challenges.

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As I wrote in my last thread, I was disheartened to read an article in the New York Times (behind a paywall) written by Emma Camp, a senior at University of Virginia. Her article is titled, “I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead.” If we can’t have proper debate on university campuses, what does that mean for the rest of us? It feels like an indictment on our times.

How have we, as a society, ended up in a place where meaningful conversation and rigorous yet civil debate is so deeply missing? This post finally comes after three other aborted attempts. The more I plowed into the subject, the more I found a complex maze of reasons. I also realize that the diagnosis is going to be critical to the prognosis and any possible solutions. I have thus decided to cut this question into several posts. In this post, I’m going to start with some of the more basic – and probably more obvious – elements. Subsequently, I will attempt to unfurl some of the deeper more complicated – and likely more controversial – issues. So, let’s start with four observations.

Observation #1 – Structural Changes Shaping our Situation

The seeds for today’s painful situation were sown and nurtured long before the pandemic. I would argue that no one was purposefully intending to create this vexing state of affairs. Things conspired together, without it being a conspiracy. In fact, on face value, everything in isolation could be deemed as positive. Some people revelled in the changes, and many benefitted. Meanwhile others were left behind or preferred the status quo. The global pandemic catalyzed the thoughts of many and, given the existential nature of a pandemic, pushed people to seek greater meaningfulness. In that rush for meaning (echoing logocentrism* as developed by early 20th century philosophers), I would argue that many adopted a stance that wasn’t always attached to their real beliefs. In taking up a cause or rallying behind a person, people found meaning. Between the way media has evolved and the fact that many people had to live in isolation during the pandemic, it’s not too exaggerated to say that we were literally pushed into our corners.

There are five important structural elements and societal shifts among the Western** countries that contributed to this:

1.     World (and) Peace. While we’ve experienced an unprecedentedly long stretch of global peace since WWII, the fight for hegemony has shifted playing fields. The trend toward globalization has been at the expense of national identity. The global rallying cry to save our planet is not sufficient to belie our need for power (and money). And there are underlying ideological battles raging in the hearts and minds of many people and groups. Granted there have been many local wars (rather topical, right?), but most of these have been far afield. The Islamic Jihadi terrorism has destabilized Western culture. And, now, the current situation in the Ukraine has brought the ‘terror’ of war much closer to home. As paradoxical as it might sound, are we prepared to fight for world peace?

2.     The 1960s social movements. There has been a march toward evermore freedoms on all levels. The many benefits are broadly known. The unintended consequences are not so obvious, more nuanced and trickier to discuss. Freedom is wonderful, but who gets to dictate which freedoms for which groups, and at what price?

3.     The spread of the Deconstructionist*** school of thought – which literally explored words out of their context – has led to a review, if not revision, of many traditional canons of thought. It seems that, as a consequence, we have stopped sharing a common vision of history, science and facts. How can we have an honest debate if we have a different set of facts?

4.     Socio-Demographics. The aging of populations coupled with an important drop in fertility rates has meant that people may need to work longer before retirement, and that every child is more precious. In addition, given the uneven economic situation and evermore precarious living conditions due to climate change, not to forget local wars, we are bound to have to come to terms with the movement of populations and immigration. People’s livelihood, lives and retirement lie in the balance. Are we prepared to have a serious debate about our national identity and the role of immigration?

5.     The arrival of the Internet completely upended many industries, including most saliently the media (as Denise so rightly pointed out in a prior thread). The business model of media was turned upside down and we’ve seen the Murdochization of media, where the channel has an announced bias in order to capture its audience. The Internet also gave a stronger voice to the people and shifted the balance of power (including among corporations), making the running of democracies far harder. How does one control the narrative? Who is responsible for holding democracy up?

Bear in mind that in my next article, I will be elaborating on each of these above five points, but I’d be glad to have your thoughts thus far!

Observation #2 – The Promise of Progress

The promise of “progress” always has a counterpoint. If you look back at the massive progress of the invention of the automobile at the end of the 19th century, just think of all those people and horses put out of business, not to mention the pollution and associated dangers with higher speeds. According to WHO stats, road traffic crashes now represent the eighth leading cause of death globally. They claim more than 1.3 million lives each year and cause up to 50 million injuries. Moreover, the vast majority of these accidents (93%) happen in low- to middle-income countries. And, tragically, many of the accidents involve the younger generations. Again according to the WHO: “Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years.” When we seek progress, often in sync with capitalistic gains, there are inevitably winners and losers. Doing “good” is not always good for everyone. In the same vein, calls for transparency inevitably harbor an agenda. If progress is hard-wired into our psyche, as part of our human condition, it does have a cost and often has unintended consequences.

Observation #3 – Dealing with Cycles

Whether we like it or not, our lives – and all preceding civilizations – are cyclical. They have ups and downs and they come and go. Moreover, as part of our cycle, we seem programmed to progress most significantly through a destructive creativity. Destroy to rebuild. It’s certainly part of the capitalistic cycle. I also think of the way plants and trees can adapt and grow back strongly after a fire {Source: National Forest Foundation}. In general terms, we often talk about the need for the pendulum to swing massively to one side in order to move the dial. But, in the ebb and flow of these cycles, there will always be unintended consequences. And casualties. It can be very destabilizing to experience these cycles, depending on your point of view. In times of crisis, there is surely opportunity for some, but misfortune for others.

Observation #4 – Straining Democracy and Capitalism

We are living through a period where democracy and capitalism are under stress. We can probably all agree that democracy and capitalism are two different forces that are not necessarily symbiotic. But, for now, we don’t seem able (or willing?) to come up with any better alternatives. Discussions about capitalism (private ownership of means of production) and democracy (governance and politics) quickly become existential. When we express our political views, we are typically shining light on our personal core values. When we discuss capitalism and private ownership (money), we run up against our status and place in society, or more prosaically, our own identity and survival. Much of the world’s geopolitical conflicts resides on the incompatibility of different models of civilization. Underneath these are struggles for money and dominance. And, today, those same questions and issues have become domestic hot potatoes, albeit in each country somewhat differently. 

These four observations are an attempt to reveal the nature and scope of the forces that have shaped our current environment and context. We are living through dynamic times. As my mentor, Sam Villa, taught me: “Change is for sure. Growth is the option.” In order to grow, I believe that we must reintroduce more hearty conversations into our daily lives that will allow us to explore and listen to all sides of the debate. But right now, it’s as if everyone feels entitled to feel challenged, overwhelmed and hurt. In so doing, people feel indignant, if not more significant. Therein lies the crux of the problem we find ourselves in today.

Whatever the truth in our analysis of a person or a situation, we are all onions and while the outside layer is attached to the core, the layers underneath tend to reveal differences and nuances, filled with a variety of experiences and probably some deep challenges.

I would love for you to react to them so that I may improve on my thinking!

In my next article, in the series on How did we get here, I will elaborate on the five major changes that led us to the current predicament where we struggle to have more meaningful and civil debate.

*Logocentrism is a term, that sprouted in the early 20th century, “describing a particular sense of the relationship between thought, speech, and writing.” {Source: Chicago School of Media Theory} It regards “words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality. It holds the logos as epistemologically superior and that there is an original, irreducible object [i.e. meaning] which the logos represent.” {Source: Wikipedia} According to logocentrism, the logos is the ideal representation of the Platonic ideal, i.e. that ideas are absolute, timeless and immutable. Considering the title of this Substack, Dialogos, you can imagine I had to dig in a bit on logocentrism!

**Whenever I use the term “the West” or Western countries, I typically mean to include the developed countries of Europe, North America and Australia/NZ.

***While at university, I studied Trilingual Literature and the principle literary criticism I used for my thesis was deconstructionism. Per this Wikipedia entry, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida “describes the task of deconstruction as the identification of metaphysics of presence, or logocentrism in western philosophy. Metaphysics of presence is the desire for immediate access to meaning, the privileging of presence over absence.” For me, the study of meaning (of words in a text) and the interplay of time and being has been foundational to my own wiring and writing. It’s clearly also played an important role in changing the way society studies words, texts, facts and history.

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