Subject: Where Does Polarization Come From? Invitation
Date: Fri, May 16, 2014
Msg: 100985
Thanks to all for this discussion.
Many important points have been raised already in this series of emails.
From my point of view -- it would make more sense to develop an "organized" approach to collaboratively brain-storm on this question -- and any issues that might arise on "what to do about it".
Email is helpful and illuminating -- but it is also scattered, overlapping, and generally incomplete. Nobody can think of everything in one email (and thanks to Michael Brand for gathering up so much of our conversation and putting it in one place).
Some of us are exploring new opportunities and new methods for collaborating on important questions like this -- and one approach is the survey system on Network Nation.
I have created a survey there -- and you are invited to respond. This type of survey does not simply insist that the participants respond to a pre-fab list of possible answers. Instead -- the participants can add their own answers -- to which others may respond as they wish. It's also possible to edit versions of answers -- so that a group can settle on the preferred wording on some hot-button concern.
The survey is online here:
http://networknation.net/question.cfm?svh=f4d185f3e6f2c466b30fb2d876619af2
It's also possible to send this survey by email, with an "instant login" link, which makes it very fast and easy to respond. I'll send this survey by email to a few people on this list, and if you are interested, let me know.
Here's a screen shot -- of the question only. There's about 12 possible answers on there now -- and maybe there should be fifty.
I like all of these thoughts:
My take is that polarization is a symptom of the underlying (and increasing) siloization (hope that's a word) of our society. In a complex system, the parts are interconnected through webs of feedback loops. This is what distinguishes a group that knows one another and has formed relationships (which is a compelx system) from a group that is suddenly thrown together--like a crowd--that doesn't have much in the way of relationships (and which is a collection of fragments rather than a true system). A collection of fragments will exhibit chaotic behavior, while a complex system maintains a dynamic equilibrium (a flexible order).
So the question is, why do we increasingly live in our own silos, communicating with and relating to only those who are most like us? (Which, BTW, results in positive (amplifying, as in snowball effects) feedback loops within those silos, or what you might call radicalization, because there is no reality check on their ideas and values from outside their silo, since they don't really live outside their silo and can just view the rest of the world as aberrant and misguided, and therefore ignore and condemn it. We see this everywhere today.)
By answering the question of what drives and sustains siloization, we can look for ways in which non-siloization (a really awesome word!) can be encouraged. That, I think, would be the best thing an effective transpartisan movement could do. I don't think there's one answer to this question, but a range of many answers, from small to large, from the very local (and even personal) to the macro. And the real trick is acting simultaneously in many ways, on many levels, in a somewhat coordinated fashion (facilitated by frequent and effective communication amongst the various parts or members of the system)--something that an effective transpartisan movement could help to do.
"There's a range of many answers" -- and the trick is acting simultaneously"
THAT sounds like the plan to me (!)
Let's DO that....
JJ
Bruce Schuman
NETWORK NATION: http://networknation.net
SHARED PURPOSE: http://sharedpurpose.net
INTERSPIRIT: http://interspirit.net
(805) 966-9515, PO Box 23346, Santa Barbara CA 93101
From: List for transpartisan leaders and innovators [mailto:TRANSPARTISAN@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG] On Behalf Of Rick Raddatz Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 9:22 AM To: TRANSPARTISAN@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG Subject: Re: [TRANSPARTISAN] Where Does Polarization Come From?
Yes, but why do the silos exist?
The two biggest silos are the left and right. And I believe these silos exist because nobody has united the parallel pursuits of ideal social justice and ideal freedom under a single vision of government.
My hope is that once the left and right see that cap-and-prioritize unites the parallel pursuits of ideal social justice and ideal freedom, the silos will crumble and we will find a new issue to divide us.
- Rick Raddatz
Http://IncentiveReform.org
On May 16, 2014, at 7:46 AM, millershed@EARTHLINK.NET wrote:
My take is that polarization is a symptom of the underlying (and increasing) siloization (hope that's a word) of our society. In a complex system, the parts are interconnected through webs of feedback loops. This is what distinguishes a group that knows one another and has formed relationships (which is a compelx system) from a group that is suddenly thrown together--like a crowd--that doesn't have much in the way of relationships (and which is a collection of fragments rather than a true system). A collection of fragments will exhibit chaotic behavior, while a complex system maintains a dynamic equilibrium (a flexible order).
So the question is, why do we increasingly live in our own silos, communicating with and relating to only those who are most like us? (Which, BTW, results in positive (amplifying, as in snowball effects) feedback loops within those silos, or what you might call radicalization, because there is no reality check on their ideas and values from outside their silo, since they don't really live outside their silo and can just view the rest of the world as aberrant and misguided, and therefore ignore and condemn it. We see this everywhere today.)
By answering the question of what drives and sustains siloization, we can look for ways in which non-siloization (a really awesome word!) can be encouraged. That, I think, would be the best thing an effective transpartisan movement could do. I don't think there's one answer to this question, but a range of many answers, from small to large, from the very local (and even personal) to the macro. And the real trick is acting simultaneously in many ways, on many levels, in a somewhat coordinated fashion (facilitated by frequent and effective communication amongst the various parts or members of the system)--something that an effective transpartisan movement could help to do.
John Miller (952) 887-2763 Green Tea Party Movement
-----Original Message----- From: Rick Raddatz Sent: May 15, 2014 4:10 PM To: TRANSPARTISAN@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG Subject: Re: [TRANSPARTISAN] Where Does Polarization Come From?
I would like to offer a dissenting opinion.
The first rule of blame is that the thing being blamed has to be changeable.
This article fails that test because activists are going to exist as long as humans exist.
The second rule of blaming is that the thing you are complaining about must be something bad.
Thus article fails that test because polarization is not clearly a bad thing. E.g., If it's true that both sides have a piece of the puzzle, then polarization is a necessary phase on the way towards solving the problem.
- Rick Raddatz
Founder, Http://IncentiveReform.org
On May 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Brian Sullivan wrote:
Where Does Polarization Come From?
From the Daily Dish, a blog by Andrew Sullivan (no relation) http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/05/15/where-does-polarization-come-from/
Hans Noel tries to answer the question:
Members of Congress are not polarized because voters are now better sorted. And voters are not polarized simply because legislators now are. The missing piece is ideological activists, who now dominate the political parties. In short, policy demanders. These politically engaged activists are the base that legislators are increasingly playing to, because they are the ones who provide campaign resources and who threaten primary challenges. Their polarization also filters to voters, through elected officials but also through the media and informal networks. (And ultimately, these activists themselves may be polarized because elite political thinkers are polarized, but you don't have to buy that story to believe that activists are important.) Of course, studying legislative and mass polarization is very important, but its far from the center of the story.
Seth Masket adds that almost no one "gets into politics with the goal of driving the parties further apart." Instead, he argues, individuals "get involved in politics usually because they want the government to do something different from what it's currently doing":
Activists have become better at this over time. They're increasingly organizing over a broader range of issues and they've become adept at getting political parties to adopt their stances, making it even harder for politicians to resist them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, this is how governing ideas are generated and translated into law. But it's important to remember that the parties aren't far apart because people hate each other; they're far apart because people want the government to do things. This is why exhortations for common ground tend to fall on deaf ears. People favor compromise in principle, except on the one thing that drove them into politics in the first place.
Julia Azari partially blames growing polarization on growing distrust of government:
[P]artisanship and declining trust in government have become mutually reinforcing. In my research, I find that mistrust of governing institutions (I focus on the presidency, although I think we can all agree that Congress has not been immune to this) emerged around the same time that the parties began to sort ideologically in response to the collapse of the New Deal coalition and the rise of cultural issues on the agenda. These began -- in the late 1960s -- as distinct phenomena. But as time went on, they became intertwined. A general lack of reverence and respect for the office of the presidency -- not without good reason after Watergate and Vietnam -- have merged with party polarization to create an environment in which presidents tend to be divisive, rather than uniting figures. They also tend, as I argue in the book, to rely more on language that appeals to their supporters and their campaign promises, which does little to alleviate the problem. In turn, these developments shape the incentives of individual members of Congress, who have increasingly little reason to collaborate across party lines.
--
Brian Sullivan
Practical Evolution, LLC
San Francisco, CA USA
011 415.305.3651
Perth, WA AU 61 8 9467 4445
Producer of CivicEvolution
http://civicevolution.org
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