“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
—Mark Twain
Notable figures throughout human history have worked as changemakers, for good and ill. Was it easier to change the way things were 20 years ago? Unlikely.
Change is, by its very nature, a stretching of the mind and soul, and human beings are mostly wired against it. Aversion to change had an evolutionary purpose that would help early humans avoid the danger that might be lurking in the unknown. Granting the utility for survival, it’s also undeniable that the greatest discoveries of our time were made not by aversion, but openness to change.
From where we stand today, locally and globally, overcoming our hardwired aversion to behavior change will prove critical to humanity’s survival.
When nearly every facet of our human life is politicized, it’s becoming harder and harder to listen to alternate viewpoints without seeing it as potentially harmful or sacrificial. It becomes more and more exhausting to engage with others. Instead of asking how someone came to believe a harmful thought, we tend to either numb out and shrug off responsibility or go all-in to dismantle their beliefs. This feeling probably emerges from a really authentic place. No one should have to prove to another person that their life has value or that their perspective should matter. At this point, even the most well-intentioned and loving human can become prone to dehumanizing beliefs that do not align with the matter in their heart.
Before arguing with one another, we might begin by making sure we understand each other. Even as an experiment, we might begin to see new things happen in our relationships with people we used to see as fundamentally different.
Conviction in belief is not rare, in fact, it’s pervasive. When someone shares the same conviction as ours, it satisfies a very basic need in our hearts to feel connected and valued. Achieving that value, we seek out validation more and more wherever we can find it.
The call of our time is not a call for greater conviction. It is a call to greater understanding and wisdom. The environments that best cultivate vulnerability and dialogue too tend to favor transformative change.
Are we as good at listening to people we disagree with as much as listening to people we agree with? When was the last time you changed your mind while also feeling attacked or shamed?
If ignorance and fear are the basic forces upon which systems of oppression and violence rely, the only sane thing we can do in favor of peace is to counter those forces with deeper insight, better education and more advanced empathy.
While echo chambers of belief may be a tremendous source of healing in instances of marginalization and dehumanization, these same echo chambers can also cause as much dehumanization in another context.
Seth Godin put it so well when he said, “All the easy problems have been solved.” The issues we face today continue to demand more complex responses, healing, dialogue and humanization—and it all starts exactly where we’re standing.
—Jessica Lien, Prairiewoods development coordinator