The divide in our country between left and right is serious. It is not a matter of disagreeing over fine points – the future of democracy in our country is at stake. For some people, this is a life and death struggle. It can’t be ignored.

But when you allow yourself to give into righteous anger, when you allow your thinking to become black and white, when you start thinking in terms of us or them – you have lost the ability to communicate. Without communication, there are three possible outcomes:

1. The problems you are concerned with will resolve themselves. This is probably not likely, because if the problems weren’t complicated you wouldn’t have gotten upset enough to allow your thinking to become black and white.
2. The problems you are concerned with will remain unsolved. This is probably not too likely, because if the problems were trivial enough to allow them to remain unsolved, then you wouldn’t have gotten upset enough to allow your thinking to become black and white.
3. The problems will be solved with violence.
4. Some of you are probably so far down the path of righteous anger that option 3 doesn’t sound so bad. Or maybe you are so frustrated you think it’s desirable. Or it’s the only option you see.

Think again.

Violence is always the last resort. Always.

I have never been in the military so I am not an expert here, but I have read quite a bit of historical nonfiction. I have read pretty many personal accounts of battle, and I have not read one yet that talks about what a great growth experience it was for them. Every account I read talked about how horrible it was – the range generally seemed to be from horrible to unbelievably horrible. Often it would result in life altering changes that can’t be forgiven or undone.

You should never entertain violence as a potential solution. It should be utilized only when backed into a corner and it is the only – I mean the ONLY option.

Liberals should be especially reluctant to resort to violence. The military is primarily conservative. Most police departments are primarily conservative. The NRA is a politically conservative organization, and most 2nd amendment supporters are conservative.

To put it mildly – if you are liberal, violence is not a practical option.

If you are conservative, it may seem that violence answers all your prayers. And I guess the truth is that it might – in the short term. But the fact that we have liberals and conservatives at all is because we need each other. We have evolved to check each other’s worst impulses. This blog post talks about this in detail: The Evolutionary Purpose of Liberals and Conservatives

Unbridled conservatism ends in fascism. This statement is based on the work of Dr. Haidt. I put together a pocket guide to his five foundations of morality which you can probably read in five minutes, or if you want more details I have links in there to his TED talk where goes into much more detail : The Five Foundations of Morality – A Pocket Guide. To understand the link between fascism and conservatism, watch the TED talk.

Or don’t – maybe you think psychology is bullshit. Ok, then how about history? Intellectuals are primarily liberal. Scientists, professors, etc. Killing intellectuals means killing primarily liberals. Countries that kill off their liberals for political purposes end up either fascist or totalitarian or both. This has happened in Germany, the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and China. I’m sure there are more – that is just what springs to mind. Can you give a counter example? Where killing large numbers of liberals for political reasons resulted in greater freedom? Maybe – I’m not a historian – but I doubt it.

So if you kill off the liberals, you will probably find yourself living in some weird version of the Handmaid’s Tale.

Violence is not the solution. Stop thinking in black and white terms. Find a way to talk. We are not backed into a corner yet.  Maybe this will help: Overcoming Differences in Political Morality

For a different perspective on the same problem:
Today’s Biggest Threat: The Polarized Mind

 

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2019-04-23 Title changed from “Black and White Thinking” to “The Black and White Path”