The Polarization Series: The Power of Listening

Amidst the rise in digital technologies and new avenues for communication, the general quality of our public discourse has declined. As I have explored in this series, modern society has become increasingly fragmented and polarized. We are no longer able to search for areas of compromise or entertain opposing viewpoints.

The cause of the issue stems from our inability to truly listen to one another. In a culture that promotes individualism and self-righteousness, we are conditioned to enter into conversations with our own agenda, set of prejudices and biases. Rather than engage in the mutual pursuit of truth, we are more interested in pushing our opinion and influence onto others.

This mindset inhibits us from truly listening to and appreciating what others are saying. It blocks us off from other perspectives limiting the possibility of entering into a conversation openly, with the chance of changing our minds.

The physicist David Bohm makes an important distinction between dialogue and discussion, highlighting the key differences in these two modes of communication.

Dialogue vs. Discussion

Dialogue is centered around the shared flow of meaning and understanding between all those who are involved. The point is not to try to ‘win’ or ensure that your argument prevails, but rather to mutually search for collective wisdom and truth. This requires one to be adaptable and flexible, accepting that your original views may be wrong or ill-informed.

Good dialogue is sort of like jazz. It revolves around improvisation and spontaneity. Throughout their solos, each musician integrates the melody and phrases of the other band mates. It is a dynamic and collective process. The success of the band is determined by how well the musicians are in synch with one another. This demands that everyone listen closely to the tempo of the drums, the key of the band and the melodies of the other soloists.

Like jazz, the point of dialogue is to build off of the ideas of others, to be open-minded and fully listen to what is being said. When done correctly, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is a win-win process for all participants involved – everyone gains.

On the other hand, Bohm characterizes discussions as communication which is aimed at preserving one’s point of view. Those engaging in a discussion are motivated towards persuading others to change their minds. As a result, it is framed more as a debate embodying win-lose dynamics, as the purpose is to have your viewpoint adopted by the group.

There is a time and place for each of these conversational styles. However, social cohesion is undermined and conflicts arise when our discourse becomes increasingly centered around debate, conflict and argumentation.

A consequence of this type of thinking is that we aren’t fully attentive to what others are saying. Further, we don’t validate or clarify that we have a mutual understanding of another’s point of view, leaving room for error and misinterpretation.

As noted by the renowned physicist David Bohm in his book On Dialogue,

Surprisingly, most people have never discovered how to listen, and instead spend most of the time whilst another is speaking working out what to say the moment he or she stops

Listening

To listen attentively or mindfully, is to be completely immersed in the conversation. It is to be aware of our automatic judgements, refrain from interjection and practice empathy. Just as in the practice of meditation where we mindfully and impartially watch our thoughts pass by, a genuine dialogue requires us to do the same when conversing with someone else.

The objective is to be aware and in control of your thoughts, feelings and emotions refraining from being reactive to the situation. It is to engage with openness and be receptive to what the other person is saying.

When disagreements do arise, research indicates that changing someone’s mind is both rare and difficult. However, techniques do exist to help you navigate through conflict and arguments.

There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument—and that is to avoid it. Avoid it as you would avoid rattle-snakes and earthquakes.
Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

Nonviolent Communication

Marshall Rosenberg’s book Nonviolent Communication focuses on how we can navigate through disagreements through empathy and mutual understanding.

Underneath adversarial language and conflict, lies someone with unmeet human needs. Regardless of who we are, we all have a set of foundational human needs such as health, love, respect, trust etc. The issue is that rather than explicitly communicating these unmet needs, we direct our attention towards criticizing others or defending our views on a topic.

A good metaphor to think of here is an iceberg. What’s visible to us is the immediate disagreement, while what’s uncovered is a broader set of phycological factors affecting and issues one’s mood and behavior.

Encouraging honesty and transparency, Rosenberg identifies four communication techniques to help us when dealing with difficult circumstances:

Observation: Observe what you notice about the situation objectively and nonjudgmentally.
Feelings: Express our emotions and feelings clearly and in a thoughtful way.
Needs: Make a connection between the identified feelings and your unmet human needs. You may feel upset or angry at someone because their actions violated your needs of honesty and connection.
Requests: Make a specific request in a compassionate manner to rectify the situation based on the feelings and needs you have communicated. Of note, requests are never demanded. Rather, they are asked from a place of mutual understanding and respect for the other person.

All criticism, attack, insults, and judgments vanish when we focus attention on hearing the feelings and needs behind a message. The more we practice in this way, the more we realize a simple truth: behind all those messages we’ve allowed ourselves to be intimidated by are just individuals with unmet needs appealing to us to contribute to their well-being. When we receive messages with this awareness, we never feel dehumanized by what others have to say to us
Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication

Conclusion

Genuine dialogue and discourse demands a shift from egotistical thinking to a focus on the collective wellbeing, emotions and needs of others. It changes the focus from the content of the conversation to the underlying feelings that are driving one’s behavior and attitude. Only through bringing awareness to the factors and emotions influencing our behavior can we begin to notice and change them.

As we chisel away at our own egos and silence the need to be right all the time, we can start to become more open and empathetic to the needs of others.

After all, we are all humans trying to live collectively on one planet. So rather than being prisoners to our automatic thoughts and emotions, we can all temporarily pause, take a deep breath and try to show some more compassion.

At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled
Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication

Throughout the past year I’ve been introduced to different communication modalities from platforms like The Stoa and Rebel Wisdom, some of these include:

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The Polarization Series: The Search for an Integral Politics

More often than not, we are lured into the temptation of conformity and group think. As social animals we care deeply about the opinions of others. We concern ourselves with our relative position and status within society. At our core, we all want to fit in and gain approval of our peers and respective groups that we are associated with.

Group evolutionary adaptation, which enabled us to temporarily forego selfish self-interest in pursuit of the greater good of our communities is both a blessing and a curse. While this drive motivates us towards mutual co-operation within groups it can pull us towards antagonism and tribal politics between groups.

Of course, this has become evidently more apparent in our society with rising polarization in our politics and the general decline in the quality of public discourse. On issues that are of high importance to us, we tend to be unwilling or unable to understand potential criticisms of our view. We remain deeply rooted in our positions, dumbfounded by the counter arguments of our adversaries.

Morality binds and blinds. This is not just something that happens to people on the other side. We all get sucked into tribal moral communities. We circle around sacred values and then share post hoc arguments about why we are so right and they are so wrong. We think the other side is blind to truth, reason, science, and common sense, but in fact everyone goes blind when talking about their sacred objects.
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind

Breaking the Deadlock

So how can we go beyond these rigid political and ideological narratives that we find ourselves entrenched in?

How can we find a way to find a truce between these different ideological tribes?

In order to do so, the first thing that we must acknowledge is that each worldview has both positives and negatives. There is always a trade-off. For instance, policies which promote greater economic liberty and reliance on the free market (i.e. free trade) may collectively increase GDP while leaving certain groups of low-skilled workers worse off.

Additionally, each set of paradigms or beliefs has at least some degree of truth. That is not to say that each of these worldviews is equal or that one can not be categorically better than another. Rather, it is to argue that there is always some signal within the noise. While we may disagree with others on certain issues, if we remain objective and modest we can see that beyond someone’s beliefs they may have good and honest intentions. Perhaps they hold their view simply because they think it is what is the best for themselves or their loved ones.

An Integral Approach

Everybody — including me — has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace.
Ken Wilber, A Theory of Everything

The basic premise of integral theory is that we ought to seek to integrate different perspectives by incorporating the positives and discrediting the negatives of each paradigm.[1] Rather than rigidly maintaining our fixed ideologies, the integral approach advises that we approach new ideas with a sense of humility and curiosity.

In disagreements with those with opposing views, we can ask ourselves, what are the areas of convergence?

A useful way to conceptualize this approach is by thinking of how venn diagrams work, that is they highlight the areas of intersection and differences between various sets of concepts or ideas.

As an example of how we these can work in the real world, let’s look at a model developed by the integral philosopher Steve McIntosh in his article Towards a Post-Progressive Political Perspective.

McIntosh claims that three major worldviews characterize our world’s different values and belief systems, and each consist of both both positives and negatives. These paradigms (ways of seeing the world), along with there pros and cons can be seen in the chart below.

Worldview	Characteristics	Positives	Negatives
Traditionalism	Associated with social conservatism. Seeks to preserve traditional values such as one’s duty to family and country.	Acts as a social ‘glue’ which binds individuals together through a common set of beliefs.	Can disregard the rights and values of vulnerable minorities, and lead to the oppression of these groups (i.e., racism, sexism, homophobia).
Modernity	Promotes individual liberty and political and economic freedom.	Has led to unprecedented economic growth within the past few centuries. Resulted in a shift towards government which respects the rights of individuals, and led to the emergence of democratic institutions.	Prioritizes economic growth over environmental concerns leading to biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change.
Progressivism	Connected with advocacy and social reform.	Concern for the protection of the environment. Focus on the rights of vulnerable groups within society. Inclusive world-centric morality which aims to address inequalities within society.	Divisive identity politics which disregard any benefits that traditional values may bring. Can lead to relativism which claims that no one system is better than others, making it difficult to promote consensus or social cohesion.

Based on Steve McIntosh’s article: Towards a Post-Progressive Political System

McIntosh argues for a system called post-progressivism which seeks to provide a synthesis of these three paradigms by integrating the benefits and disregarding the negatives. For instance, this can include policies which promote the use of business and the free market to develop innovative technologies to curb climate change. Moreover, it can recognize the past injustices of Western colonization while appreciating the economic liberty and scientific progress modern society has brought us. Moreover, these individual freedoms and innovations can be leveraged as a mechanism to promote greater equality for historically disadvantaged communities.

Integral Consensus

The key to moving forward is to cultivate a sense of intellectual humility and resist the temptation towards group or tribal thinking. Of course, there is nothing wrong with affiliating yourself to a particular political party, group or ideology. However, it becomes a problem when we stubbornly hold onto rigid beliefs without questioning their validity or assumptions.

We must both celebrate our differences as well as recognize our common humanity with others. Disagreements are inevitable, but we can always settle them in a respectful and cordial way. As society is pulled towards the extremes, we must always search for areas of consensus and convergence.

In an increasingly inter-connected world, our collective wellbeing depends on our ability to work together.

[1] This is an oversimplification of integral theory which contains various stages and models of growth and development. For a primer on this work see Ken Wilber’s A Theory of Everything

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Sensemaking in the 21st Century: A Conversation with Noetic Nomads Founder Albert Kim

Amidst the growing uncertainty of the world around us and the erosion of public trust and good faith dialogue, I was drawn to several thinkers and platforms which offered a critical analysis of the current state of global affairs. The frameworks and structures that we’ve relied on for so long are no longer a sufficient to make sense of events in an increasingly complex, divisive and fractured world. With vast changes in the media, politics, economics we need to critically assess how we can become more informed and equipped to deal with the many changes, challenges and demands of the 21^st century.

The real problem of humanity is the following: We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a crisis overall
Edward O. Wilson

Emerging in a narrow corner of the internet is a group of thinkers paving the way forward to more beautiful futures, thinking about how we can shift from zero sum (win\lose) to positive sum (win\win) societies. That is, how can we transition to a world which puts wellbeing above profit, appreciates the finite resources on the planet and ensures that everyone has an opportunity to get ahead?

Of this group is Albert Kim and his project Noetic Nomads. I have attended a couple of his sessions where he gathers a diverse range of intellectually savvy thinkers to discuss how we can foster collective wisdom and insights to address some of these difficult and complex issues we face today.

I reached out to Albert to get his thoughts on the current set of crises, and to learn more about how he navigates the modern media landscape.

Tell me a bit about what got you interested in groups like the Stoa and Rebel Wisdom? What attracted you to the sensemaking space?

I’ve been immersed in the holistic health/biohacking space for around a decade in an effort to heal/improve myself outside the conventional medical paradigm. Through podcasts such as Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Radio, I was exposed to the supplement company Neurohacker Collective around the year 2017. I then discovered the Collective Insights podcast hosted by Daniel Schmachtenberger and it had, by far, the most mind-blowing conversations I’d come across, period. Daniel eventually left the show which I lamented.

After COVID hit, I had an itch to search for more podcasts featuring Daniel, of which one was Rebel Wisdom. I then found the Rebel Wisdom YouTube and the Sensemaking 101 course, which changed my life, as well as The Stoa through a YouTube recommendation for one of Daniel’s appearances on there. So, basically, Daniel Schmachtenberger.

Sensemaking refers to the idea of making sense of the unknown and coming to an understanding of what is going on in our external environment.

2. What is Noetic Nomads and what are some of the goals of the project?

My tagline is that Noetic Nomads is a community of radical thinkers and doers coming together to co-create a more beautiful future. The primary goal of the project is to attract a diverse assortment of minds from across the disciplinary spectrum to work on projects in service of a better world. Secondary goals include providing a platform for which community members can create and publish their own content, offer services, and support themselves financially. A bigger goal is to actually bootstrap our own circular digital economy (with cryptocurrency, for example), create a digital nation, and perhaps integrate it with an intentional physical community.

3. Many have said we live in a ‘post-truth’ world, with media organizations which interpret facts to align with their existing narratives. What is your approach in sensemaking and arriving at truth?

To state we live in a post-truth world is to presume we once lived in a ‘truth world’. I’m not sure when we lived in that world or what that world would’ve looked like. My approach to sensemaking and to arriving at truth is essentially to believe in that which is useful and/or in that which I like.

Much of the time what is useful is conforming with what many others believe, other times it’s to dissent, and there are times when it’s useful to believe in things which I know are likely far removed from any basis in ‘reality’, whatever that means. And sometimes I just believe in things which I like. I don’t think I’m much different than most people.

4. Do you have any advice to try and look at different perspectives objectively, and resist the temptation to be drawn into various competing ideologies?

I don’t really believe in the concept of ‘objective’ reality—I’m more so into idea of intersubjective realities. The concept of an objective observer is a contradiction in terms. My advice to one trying to make sense is to understand that everyone including themselves is simply making up a story. It may be a useful story in one case or another, but it’s still just a story. Use your discernment to parse out which stories are most useful.

5. Lastly, how can we build a more beautiful world that our hearts know is possible?

Love, and deeply rooted connection to the universe.