anti-oppression

Moving Beyond Polarization

Moving Beyond Polarization

​​A tendency towards polarization – division between sharply contrasting ideological perspectives – is very alive in today’s world. When we reduce each other to ideological labels – leftist, right-wing, communist, racist - we fail to see each other as humans. Whatever “side” we are on, a polarized approach to healing our world still perpetuates a culture of separation, supremacy and domination. Judging, labeling, and shaming people with different perspectives feeds polarization, but there is another way. Recent studies in deep canvassing show that when we deeply listen to each other, even to people with perspectives that we believe may be bigoted or misguided, both of our  perspectives actually evolve. Bridging across polarization is challenging, but possible.