Episode 241 - Let's All Agree

It seems the political divide – left vs. right – is only getting bigger and bigger. I’ve been doing a lot of pondering on why we seem to disagree so much to the point where debates can often disintegrate into violence, name-calling, or (in one word), hatred. I’m going to propose a way that many of us that disagree can actually debate with cooler heads by agreeing on what our fundamental goals actually are.

Episode Transcript

Introduction

First of all, Happy New Year! This episode was recorded in 2022, but you are hearing this in 2023. And that is just a wee bit spooky, isn’t it? I figured I’d start the year with somewhat of a political episode. It seems the political divide – left vs. right – is only getting bigger and bigger. I’ve been doing a lot of pondering on why we seem to disagree so much to the point where debates can often disintegrate into violence, name-calling, or (in one word), hatred. I’m going to propose a way that many of us that disagree can actually debate with cooler heads by agreeing on what our fundamental goals actually are.

What Do We All Want?

We human beings are all 99.9% genetically similar. That means that what separates us is 0.01%. Really think about that for a minute. We all have way more in common than we do differently, genetically speaking. That also means that our psychology isn’t that different. That’s why there’s a branch of science called psychology – there are common functions that we all share.

We all have a biological desire to live. We all need to eat food and drink water to survive. We all want to feel like we are part of a community. The list is quite endless. In fact, one of my most enlightened moments occurred when I was about 22 years old. I was about to graduate from engineering, and I realized that everyone I saw, everyone whom I had even some form of a relationship with, all seemed to be struggling with similar things.

One such thing was insecurity. I’ve never met a person that told me that they never struggled with insecurity in their life. Sure, it can be overcome with time, but everyone I’ve had deep discussions with on this topic has pointed to some insecurity that they have or had.