What should be my response to an increasingly divided society, and those who seem to be intent on dividing it further?
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Dr Sara Savage is a friend, a psychologist and a renowned world expert on something called ‘Integrative Complexity’. She uses it to understand terrorism and to work with those who are at risk of radicalisation. (Although she is on the side of the Angels of course).
And when I listen to Sara, and her insights, I begin to realise how we are ALL in imminent danger of also being radicalised.
We become radicalised when we see things too simplistically; when our values become polarised; when we stop understanding things deeply enough that we are forced to balance those values; and to work with those who balance them differently.
Radicalisation occurs when our values become so focused and exclusive that we stop understanding those on the other side of the argument. Radicalisation is what leads to a section of the population physically attacking their seat of government.
Integrative Complexity is about maintaining a wider viewpoint
And the fact is, it is not ‘them’. It is ‘us’. We may be being radicalised in the opposite direction, but we are still being radicalised.
The world has become more complex, not less, but our societal response to it is to run away from it. To seek sound bites, to look for simplistic certainty in our media rather than balanced but unresolved arguments, to surround ourselves with only those voices that are easy for us to identify with.
And the way I can recognise that radicalisation is taking place in me, is because I find myself struggling to appreciate the motives of those who continue to support the 45th US President and accept his stories.
And while I realise that I am not alone in this (nearly all my network feels the same), that does not make me right. In fact it is far more likely to mean that I am a victim of my own echo chamber. And I suspect that you probably are too – whichever side of the debate you are on.
And the problem with that is that if we don’t break out of it … it is only going to get worse.
Integrative Complexity is key to moving forward. If I cannot value ‘the other side’ as people … Or follow their logic and conclusions … And if I refuse to appreciate their perspectives … Then how do I understand and respect them?And if I don’t understand and respect them … Why would they talk with me?v
And if we are not talking … How do I pose the questions that might bring mutual appreciation and care? And if I cannot use language to resolve a widening gulf … What options are left to me, or indeed to them?
In Leading by Adventure this week (2nd March 2021) the Red Track challenge is to take something mainstream that you fundamentally disagree with, and understand what leads people to follow it.
You don’t have to come to agree with it. You just have to reach a point where you can understand why someone in different circumstances might. Where you can even see how, under different circumstances, you may have been drawn into it too. And where you can begin to recognise that someone who holds those views is another person not that radically different to you.
Because if we cannot truly appreciate our humanity in each other, the only option we leave ourselves is to demonise. And as self-fulfilling prophecies go, that is not going to be a good one to experience.