The Way Out

As can be seen from the sidebar listing what Big Frank is currently reading, he is interested in learning more on "How to Overcome Toxic Polarization" in Peter R. Coleman's recent book, The Way Out. From what Big Frank haa read so far this is not a book that lays out a roadmap for how one side or the other triumphs over the other. This is not a manual on how to debate better nor is it a treatise laying out the moral superiority of one side over the other. Rather it appears, from what Big Frank has read so far to be a book on how the two sides broadly understood to be facing off against each other in the U.S. today could stop thinking of themselves as people in opposition to each other despite differing viewpoints on any number of issues. How does this happen? Perhaps the best method is, according to for example the experiences of pro-choice and anti-abortion groups in Boston, having the experience of being with the opposition, as it were, of learning that the point of opposition between you does not define either of you, and that there is so much more to each of you, more for each of you to share and care about. It reminds me of Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy of The Other wherein he writes that because of the asymmetrical relationship of our relatioship with our neighbour, we have an ethical responsibilit that compels us to respond to him. In this way our humanity is released as the solipsistic all-for-myself becomes a being-for-the-other. In this way we become ethically responsible for our neighbour. Those of us who have taken the time to sit down face-to-face with those on the other side of many issues we feel strongly about (abortion, vaccines, guns, election outcomes, healthcare, etc.) and continue the conversation for some time often find an acceptance of and growing affection for that person/those people who were previously primarily defined as the opposition.