Episode 30: Bahá’í Approaches to Depolarization (Part One)

Society Builders pave the way To a better world,  to a better day. A united approach to building a new society. Join the conversation for social  transformation - Society Builders. Society Builders with your host Duane Varan. (Duane) Welcome to  another exciting episode of Society Builders and thanks for joining the conversation for social  transformation. Now allow me to start today's episode with a bit of a bird's eye view of where  our journey together has been navigating us to

over the past year or so. In episodes 18 and 19,  we began exploring one of the fundamental pillars of society building engaging with the prevalent  discourses of society. We explored what this means particularly from a Baha i perspective and we  discussed strategies for effectively engaging with such discourse. Now I then wanted to take us on  a journey exploring a SPECIFIC discourse and here, of course, I focused on the contemporary issues  associated with the rampant polarization that

is currently plaguing the world. I did this so  we could explore what discourse looks like how we engage with a new discourse. Now, I could  have focused on any number of discourse themes: the environment, race unity, the empowerment  of women I mean these are all great examples of discourses that Baha'is would normally engage  with. And in due course, we ll explore all of these and more. But I chose the polarization focus here specifically for a number of reasons: First,

it was something I knew absolutely nothing about.  In fact, I remember being blown away when I read reference to the need for us to bring antagonistic  people closer together thinking, how on earth do you do that? And that was exactly what I wanted  a challenge I knew nothing about - so that we could together go through the process of engaging  with a new discourse from scratch. An authentic

journey similar to the ones you will face when you encounter new discourse themes. Second, it had an urgency to it that was reflected repeatedly in guidance from the Universal House of Justice who describe the world's situation today as polarized  and paralyzed , with prejudices polarizing societies at a time when unity is more vital to  resolving local, national and global challenges ;

calling on us to resist the pull of controversial  and polarizing debates. And this guidance is a reflection on the extent to which polarization  has emerged as one of the dominant issues of our day all over the world. So the gravity of this  particular theme seemed particularly urgent. This is front and center with Baha'u'llah advice that  we engage with the needs of the age in which ye live in and polarization clearly meets that test.  It responds to one of the most critical needs of

THIS age. Third, polarization intersects at the  very heart of the mission of Baha'u'llah. I mean, bringing antagonistic groups together this is  EXACTLY what we re about. It s the ultimate expression of the unifying power of the Faith. Fourth, it s foundational. And what I mean by this is that learning how to address polarization is  a skill that helps us in just about any other discourse we engage with because almost all modern discourse will require this capacity for us to

help bring people together. So gaining new skills  and insights around depolarization helps lay a foundation for our capacity to engage effectively  with other discourse themes. And finally, I felt it was an arena that had great opportunity for  engaging and collaborating with others and with

like-minded organizations. And here, specifically,  this view was shaped by reading the work of Nealin Parker who features in episode 27 who, together  with her research team at Princeton University, has identified over 6,700 organizations in the US  alone working to find paths to depolarization. So this was the underlying rationale for  the polarization focus. And what we ve been doing from episodes 20 onwards has been getting ourselves up to speed on the scientific knowledge

that exists in the existing discourse. This is  where we should always start - by reading society listening and coming to terms with the existing  discourse. And here, we ve been incredibly fortunate to learn directly from the leading  luminaries in the world in this discourse. And so today and over the next few episodes, we re going to try to bring some synthesis to what we've

been learning from these amazing individuals and from their research and experience. And in that context, we re going to try to explore how this  relates to Bahá’í perspectives and how we might bring new contributions to the discourse at  present. Now that s an incredibly tall order well beyond my capacity, for sure. So we won t get  it perfectly right and it won t be comprehensive. But we can at least scratch the surface here  and explore some possibilities to at least

demonstrate the potential of such an approach.  So today, we start exploring Bahá’í perspectives towards depolarization. (musical interlude) Now once again, I need to offer a bit of a disclaimer here to remind you that I speak with no authority  here. This podcast is a personal initiative it does not necessarily reflect the views of any  Bahá’í agency. So you should weigh the ideas here for yourselves. Again, my voice is no more  important than your voice so explore at your own

risk (laughs). And an added caution. It s far  too premature to argue that anything could be a true Bahá’í perspective on depolarization. In the  same way that we don t really yet have something akin to Bahá’í art or Bahá’í music or even Baha'i education, for that matter - we definitely don t have a distinctive approach to this issue of  polarization. So I use the term Bahá’í perspective here in a very broad sense and not in any kind  of official sense. It s more that we re exploring

Bahá’í -INSPIRED approaches to depolarization. And one final disclaimer we explore this theme of depolarization with a focus on what WE can do and not on what we might expect others to do. In other words, we re not talking about social policy  or workplace law or anything macro. We re talking about the things we can do in our own lives in  our interaction with those in our orb what we can do directly to help remedy polarization by  integrating Bahá’í -inspired approaches. OK so

with those clarifications, let s embark upon our  little journey here. (musical interlude). Now,

rather than go through a linear review each of  our recent episodes, I thought I d weave across the interviews to pull out some key themes and  explore how Bahá’í approaches might contribute to these strands of the depolarization discourse.  Our approach won t be comprehensive it ll be illustrative. In other words, I won t cover  everything we've learned but I'll pull out a

few key insights to explore how we might integrate Bahá’í -inspired perspectives. And specifically, we re going to explore just FIVE of the key  principles that have emerged across these interviews. These are five of the most important  principles that grow out of the research on the science of depolarization. And for each of  these, we re going to explore how Bahá’í

perspectives might contribute to advancing the  discourse further. And so over the next few episodes we re going to explore these five  themes including: * Forces that act as an accelerant to polarization and what we can do to  help prevent that influence in our own lives and how to safeguard against ourselves adding fuel  to the fire. * How polarization dehumanizes the other and what we can do to help rehumanize  the equation. * How we can enhance our capacity

to listen and understand, which are critical to  effective depolarization. * How we can help break binaries narratives that reduce problems to  conflict between two opposing forces. * How we can enhance the environments under which contact between antagonistic groups are facilitated. Now again, this doesn t cover everything we've learned. But I think it s good ground for us to cover which will help illustrate how Bahá’í   perspectives can contribute to this discourse. So

that s our game plan. And obviously, that s too  much for us to cover in a single episode, so we ll cover this ground across a few episodes. So let's dig in. (musical interlude). Now polarization

is a social pollutant. Just like there might  be toxic particles in the air we breathe, if we live in society if we interact with society  we re going to contract this toxic polarization in our everyday lives. It doesn't matter that we  don t approve of it, that it s not compatible with our beliefs if we live in society we re going  to breathe in toxic polarization every day. So we can't stop it BUT we can certainly limit  its influence. But this requires that we become

more aware better sensitized to it. And this  requires active reflection reflection on what we breathe in what we inhale - but also reflection  on what we exhale on our actions. Because as we become contaminated, we can also accelerate  and add fuel to the polarization disease, despite our best intentions. So we start our  discussion on strategies to depolarize with a

focus on - ourselves. This is not about what  others should or shouldn t do it s about you it s about me and what WE can do to both limit  the toxically polarized pollutants coming in but also to regulate our own behavior so we don t  further contribute to the problem. Now our guests on these podcasts have been really helpful in  helping us understand this dynamic. I think the most common space where most of us interact with this kind of toxic polarization is in our social

media spheres. Now in episode 26, Dr. Lisa Schrich did an amazing job in helping us understand how polarization in social media is not coincidental  it s not an accident. It s the by-product of very deliberate strategies designed to maximize  profit for the social media platforms and a function of the work of chaos actors often from  foreign adversaries actively working to undermine

social structures by cultivating divisions. So remember, other things being equal, if you have a credible social media post and a highly polarized  version of the same post, the algorithms on these social media platforms will favor the polarized  and further propagate these over the credible. So the system is rigged to polarize. Now there  are larger conversations to be had about social policy around all of this. But for now, I d like  us to focus on what this means for us in our own

daily lives. Now let s pause here for a second.  Just for a moment, I d like you to think about the dramatic social transformation that has played out over the past two decades or so where we have become so much more aware of our food diets.  Today, when you go to a fast food restaurant and order a burger and fries, you are keenly aware of how many calories there are in what you order. Maybe that encourages you to order small fries  instead of large ones. And when you re at the

supermarket buying your groceries, you pick up a  can and look to see what it s ingredients are. And maybe you pick the item that has less trans-fat,  for example. So we've become a lot more conscious and discerning and aware of what we eat. We still eat bad things, right. But we're just a lot more aware of what we're eating and sometimes not  always but sometimes - we regulate our behavior armed with that knowledge. Now our social media consumption is a lot like our food diet it s

our media diet. And just like we ve become more  aware of our calorie intake and the ingredients we ingest we also need to become more aware of the polarized content we consume. And continuing on with the interview with Dr. Schrich, I think  what she really helped us understand here is that what these corporations and what these foreign  chaos actors are preying on is what she called

our reptile brain (laughs). I loved this part of  the interview. In fact, let me remind you of that part of the episode: (Dr. Lisa Schrich) So really, neuroscience is behind a lot of conflict behavior. When human beings can sit down calmly and breathing regularly, we can solve problems together. We can disagree about issues, but we can maintain a sense of human dignity, relationship

with others. And we have our prefrontal cortex.  I'm pointing to my forehead right now. We have this amazing brain, as humans, that can link up  with other people's brains and figure out creative solutions to problems. And really, that's what  conflict resolution, conflict transformation building, that's what that's all about, is trying  to create a setting, a condition where people can

be their best selves and work with other people  to find creative solutions to problems. So, as a mediator, for example, I'm used to sitting  in a room with people who are very angry with each other, disagreeing something. And it's my job as a mediator to lead them through a process of moving from the reptile part of their brain in the back  bottom of the brain stem, and trying to sort of create enough safety in the room that they can  come up to their forehead, where their thinking

brain is, where they can actually solve problems  together. And so even before all this, social media, I think neuroscience really underlies a  lot of the process of conflict transformation, moving from just an emotional response to be  able to think and be mindful of our ability to solve problems together. So I think when you think about neuroscience and social media, there's a few things happening. It's showing  us the emotional content which keeps us at that

brainstem. My colleagues at the Center for Humane  Technology call it the race to the bottom of the brain stem on social media. So it's this race to show us the most outrageous emotional content to keep us engaged at an emotional level.  (Duane) Now I love this way of framing the problem. Polarization feeds the reptile portion  of our brain it's this race to the bottom of our brainstem. And that, in turn, is addictive. And  our challenge, neurophysiologically, is to instead

feed the more human, the rational dimensions of  our brain. Now in Bahá’í terminology, this is what we call the struggle between our lower and  higher natures, between our animal self and our divine self between our material and spiritual  self. Abdul-Baha describes how this lower self is captive to nature and how our higher self  transcends this all. And the whole beauty of the human story is that we are creatures endowed with free will so we decide which version of ourselves

to empower. This reminds me of that story that I  know you ve all heard it s the story of a Cherokee chief explaining to his grandson that there are  two wolves in all of us one evil and dark and one noble and good. The grandson then asks, which wolf wins? To which the grandfather replies it s the one you feed. The one you feed. And this is where our reflection and vigilance becomes so important. In understanding which self we re feeding with  our media diets. Now this isn t limited to

social media. The same kind of communication diet is also true in our interpersonal interactions with others. When you re angry with someone and want to vent who do you turn to? You could turn to the friend you have who will likely get you  to pause reflect calm down get you questioning whether you really need to be so angry. OR you can  turn to the friend who you know will agree with your anger reinforce it make you feel justified  feed your anger. So which friend do you turn

to? And if we re being honest here there s a good  probability that we'll turn to that second friend because it FEELS good. It vindicates our anger it  justifies it. It makes us feel right to be angry.

But while it feels good but it is probably not the  most productive response. And this is what both Amanda Ripley in episode 20 and Dr. Peter Coleman  in episode 21 - this is what they were describing in our attraction to conflict entrepreneurs  people who are really good at feeding and inflaming our anger at weaving polarized reaction  at reinforcing our sense of being victimized. You're looking for someone to reinforce your  sense of anger and they re there to gratify.

Now in this context this often FEELS good. But,  again, that doesn't mean it's productive. In fact, it's probably making the situation worse. So just as we need to be discerning in our social media encounters we also have to be discerning in who we  confide in in who we turn to in our moments where our emotions flair up. And, of course, we need to  be on double duty on these occasions not to allow

this all to deteriorate into an opportunity for  backbiting. Enough said, right. OK so whether we re talking about social media or interpersonal  interaction we need to be vigilant so that we're minimizing our contact with forces that will  feed and enflame polarization. We need to feed our higher nature to rise and transcend above this all  so we are less a creature of our rampant emotions and we can better channel our divine selves.  (musical interlude). And there s another side to

this equation and that s that we also need to be  on guard lest we become an agent of polarization ourselves despite our best intent. You read a social media post. It angers you. Your emotions get triggered and you immediately  post a reply that you later realize has only further enflamed the problem. It's critical  that at those moments we pause and wait before

posting a reply so that our emotions can settle  down a bit. And that we then bring the voice of wisdom and not just the voice of our emotion to  our response, if a response is even merited. And as we discussed in our interview with Dr.  Schrich, it s much easier to have this kind of uncalibrated response online than it is in person  because when you say something to someone in person, you see their reaction to your words and  that reaction is often disarming. You see that

your words are making a person sad, for example,  and so you temper your response. But online, it's easy to become indifferent to such response.  So we become more callous, less sensitive and more likely to further fan the flames. Again, a number of our guests talk about this need for self-reflection over our own actions. Let's remind  ourselves here of what Amanda Ripley shared with