Staying Sane in Uncertain Times: Harm Reduction for the Stressed-Out Thinker
We’re quick to judge, quick to anger, and desperate to be understood. All of us, from everywhere on the political kaleidoscope, feel this way.
And I use the phrase “political kaleidoscope” purposefully. We often think of a political “spectrum” from left to right, but anyone reading this article knows that's too simplistic. People today hold integrated opinions drawing together positions from all over the “spectrum.” So it’s really a kaleidoscope.
What’s strangest about our national discourse is the fact that practically everyone wants to be understood. We all want a more open discourse, while we all feel frightened that the forces dividing us will prevent that from ever happening.
How can we all be concerned with opening our discourse while our discourse gets worse? It has to do with how we learned to communicate. In many ways, we’re experiencing the end result of a massive shift in American education that’s been in the works for fifty years.
What caused our current situation?
Our educational system has been manipulated by all facets of our political kaleidoscope for social engineering purposes. Some use it to impose ideological curricula as fact. Others push for taxpayer-funded homeschooling so they can teach religion as fact.
Those pushing a social engineering mission agree on one thing: The less critical thinking students do, the better. They don’t want questions or debates. They want obedience. They have the “truth,” and they want students to receive it, believe it, and internalize it.
Literacy can serve as a litmus test for critical thinking. Critical thinking must be taught, and it can only be taught to a literate person. The ability to read and write greatly strengthens the mind’s ability to reason, critique, and question. Becoming literate is the exact opposite of becoming a believer in a received truth.
Social engineers, wherever they fall on the kaleidoscope, want students to believe. They do not want students to critique and question. Therefore, they need to limit literacy.
Weirdly, they have all worked together on this project, whether consciously or not, and they have succeeded to a terrifying degree.
According to the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, 46% of adults in the U.S. struggle with reading comprehension tasks above the elementary school level. Those “tasks” include things like forming basic inferences or explaining how facts substantiate an argument.
Illiterate people are vulnerable to manipulation. Forces of manipulation are not inherently dangerous – any democracy is full of them. What is dangerous is a population that is incapable of evaluating how they are being manipulated.
Critical Thinking in the Modern World
This is especially dangerous in our age of influencers. Influencers need conflict to remain relevant. They need rage to keep their feed full of content. They need sensational conflicts. Again, this is not really a problem – yellow journalism has been with us for hundreds of years.
It becomes a problem when people can’t understand how facts can be manipulated. It becomes dangerous when people end up believing an influencer because they appeal to them emotionally and hormonally.
It becomes especially dangerous when people believe that they don’t need “intellect” or “thinking” at all. All they need is belief. Belief in a leader, belief in an ideology, belief in what they are told to believe by the people they admire or by the leaders of the tribe they want to belong to.
Influencers and politicians tell their followers that non-believers are stupid. They tell their followers that they are intelligent, well-informed people who “do their own research” and “form their own opinions.” In fact they do neither. But it doesn’t matter; they believe they do both because they are told to believe that they do.
This is particularly insidious. People who think reading is hard work don’t research anything, and they certainly don’t investigate contravening opinions. They consume what they like and believe it.
Leaders and influencers need to continuously ratchet up conflict to remain relevant, and when people rely on what they hear with no reference to hard-to-read analysis and data, the conflict can invite violence.
Things get dangerous at this point, and we are at this point.
Peacemaking in a Warring World
How can someone who can see the whole kaleidoscope deal with people who are fixated on one facet of it, believing that is the whole world?
This toxic environment takes a toll on everyone. My clients, regardless of their political leanings, experience heightened anxiety, frustration, and a deep-seated fear, even fearing the possibility of civil unrest.
So, what can we do? How can we cope with this overwhelming reality?
We need to focus on harm reduction. We need strategies to endure and manage the stress that comes with living in this climate.
Here are some ways you can help improve our situation while caring for yourself:
Prioritize Real-Life Connections: Cultivate relationships with people who hold different viewpoints. This is challenging in an age where human interactions become rarer and rarer, as we all focus manically on our phones and the reality they project. Talking to a living, breathing human being is an almost revolutionary act at this point,especially if this human being is not from your “tribe.” There are groups that try to create these interactions, but you can accomplish this anywhere.
Suspend Judgement: This is a tough one. If someone is wearing a MAGA hat or a LGBTQ pride t-shirt, resist the urge to believe that you know everything there is to know about that person. Instead, see if you can strike up a conversation about anything other than politics, and let them tell their story. Almost invariably, when people do this they find that their “opponent” is really a good person at heart, and they share many of the same hopes and dreams.
Find Humor: Mark Twain once quipped, “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” We’ve seen the tragedies that arise when divisive leaders (or influencers) pit people against each other. Refuse to cooperate with that by adding the time in your imagination. See our situation from a grander perspective, and use that perspective to point out the silliness inherent in any extreme position – especially your own.
Focus on What You Can Control: Instead of dwelling on the enormity of the problems we face, focus on taking small, positive actions in your own life and community.
By focusing on harm reduction and prioritizing genuine human connection, we can each find ways to endure and even thrive in these turbulent times. By reaching across the divide to people who are supposedly “against” you, we undermine the leaders who thrive on conflict.
Simply refusing to cooperate, and refusing to believe the extreme accusations bandied about by those who profit from conflict, helps empower us personally and helps us empower others to rise above the conflict.
We’re all people who care. No matter what hat or shirt someone is wearing, know that is true, and has always been true.
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