Are you fatigued and disheartened by the current amount of polarization in the world today? Are you frustrated with leadership that divides instead of unites?

Instead of wishing someone would do something about it and feeling helpless, focus on the place you have the most control—your own immediate sphere of influence. Take an honest look at your own beliefs and actions, and consider how you might be contributing to perpetuating the polarization.

Negating people who don’t agree with you alienates them and makes it impossible to find common ground. Indeed, some people, like white supremacists and neo-Nazis, are so filled with hate that there can be no common ground. But most people are not that extreme, and it is important that they not be pushed to the edges.

Polarization is self-reinforcing

If you only talk with people who agree with you and only read and listen to news sources that hold your own viewpoint, you will get distorted, filtered information that simply reinforces your viewpoint.

Unless we let go of foregone conclusions, only looking for proof of what we already believe, we are doomed to be stuck at deeply opposed, irrresolvable poles.

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