Make adversaries, not enemies
As a society, do we have irreconcilable differences? Or is it the distance generated by our beliefs and ideologies?
When I was studying my Masters at Harvard University, I was part of a study group led by Professor Steve Levitsky, a leading scholar in Latin American politics. In my first session I heard one of my classmates from Venezuela. I was struck by the consistency of his ideas and how much we had in common. The love with which he spoke of his country and the need to have efficient governments that create equal opportunities for all.
At the end of the session, I was even more impressed when I found out he was from the Venezuelan opposition political party. By then, I had worked for five years in the government of President Rafael Correa in Ecuador. Although in theory we were from opposite sides of the political spectrum, in that conversation I learned that our principles brought us closer than what the labels of our respective ideologies prescribed. I started wondering how much more I was missing out on due to my stereotypes and biases.
Adversaries versus enemies
One of the biggest problems in politics, and in polarized societies, is the ease with which adversaries are turned into enemies. Michael Ignatieff, a former Harvard professor and Canadian politician, explains the difference in his book Fire and Ashes. An adversary has to be defeated, while an enemy has to be destroyed. With adversaries, compromise is possible. An adversary today can become an ally tomorrow.You can’t compromise with enemies. And you certainly can’t become allies with them.
The traditional lens of ‘Right’ versus ‘Left’ in Latin American politics is toxic and outdated. We must find a better, Third Way, a way to do capitalism differently.
Politics has turned into a war where we all contributed, by trading tolerance and respect for our adversaries in exchange for prejudice and hate. And in a war, everyone loses. It happens in Ecuador and around the world. The United States faces the highest levels of division of the last twenty years, in the absence of a common national cause. Unifying the country will be the greatest challenge for President Biden.
How our biases contribute to polarization
Neuroscience helps us understand how our stereotypes affect the polarization of our society. The main function of our brain is to guarantee our survival, for which it is essential to belong to a group. Being part of a tribe was a defence mechanism to protect ourselves from other tribes and animals. Throughout history, our brain has developed the idea of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Slavery or the holocaust are the most tragic and extreme examples of this division.
“Convincing someone to change their mind is asking them to change tribe, which affects their survival.” Our beliefs must be consistent with the social group to which we belong, not with the validity of the facts, or we run the risk of being cast out. It is not necessarily the difference in our ideas that causes polarization, but rather the distance we have generated with those who think differently. As proximity increases, so does understanding.
Social media has exacerbated the distance between groups. The algorithm is designed to interact with people who think like us. In the documentary The Social Dilemma, they explain that “over time, you get the false sense that everyone agrees with you, because everyone in your news feed sounds just like you.” The objective of social platforms is not to present facts, but ideas that reinforce our beliefs, even if they are false. An MIT study shows that fake news on Twitter spreads six times faster than real news.
Even worse, each group has its own of facts, its own version of reality. As President Obama said, we live in a world where everything is true and nothing is true. It worries me to think that we cannot even agree on the facts, on the problems we have, even if we disagree on the mechanisms to solve them.
It’s time to take action
We can’t continue on autopilot. Either we do something to increase our tolerance and respect in search of a way out, or we are destined to failure. It would be easier to blame someone with an opposite view than to take our share of responsibility.
We can start to listen more to those who think differently. Not necessarily to agree with them, but to understand their point of view and broaden our perspective. Open ourselves to the possibility that there is something valuable to learn. A good start is to follow people of different tendencies on social networks, and to read editorials and books by people with a different view from our own.
The effects of the pandemic are just beginning. To emerge stronger from the devastating economic and social impacts, as a society, we need to redefine the fundamental pillars and beliefs that make us a nation.
Covid-19 taught us how much we need from each other. What brings us together is stronger than what breaks us apart. Thinking differently does not turn us into enemies. We can debate and dissent without hating each other in the process.
Photo by Christian Regg on Unsplash
