A Pandemic of Polarisation
Looking at all the challenges that we are currently facing from climate change to the global pandemic, one behaviour that for me is particularly alarming, is seeing caring, intelligent people polarise and focus their fear, grief and anxiety on people who are making different choices to themselves, in divisive ways.
Personally, I have noticed myself avoiding conversations with people about matters that are deeply important to me. I have avoided them for a few reasons, my fear of inciting an angry response, feeling I lack the energy required to engage, feeling I may have to defend myself, feeling that I may inadvertently trigger unwanted or inconvenient feelings … and yet I know how important connection with my community is.
Bridging the so-called Great Divide
Through my experiences and enquiry into deep ecology, systems theory, climate change, Buddhism, Indigenous wisdom, activist theory and a global pandemic I see the evidence of our fundamental interconnectedness. When we avoid conversations or avoid feeling our common humanity through aggressive and dismissive communication we are missing great opportunities for learning, connection and collaboration required to face the current risks we all are facing.
So, what can we do? First of all, we can recognise that this division, like so many others - racism, sexism, classism just to name a few - is simply a false binary. Yes, there are differences, but the division that may seem “great” is actually false.
Next, we can see engaging with and healing this particular polarity as great practise for all the others! Engaging right here will help us strengthen our connection muscles and our abilities to create positive social change.
And then, we can start to practise clearer communication, deeper listening, and building respect for each others' differences. Common ground and alignment can then more naturally emerge from our mutual exploration. We have a bunch of processes in our Joyality Toolkit to help us do this!
If you would like to join us in our new self-paced course ‘Bridging Our Differences’ overcoming this false polarisation in your community, click HERE!