The Truth About Political Polarization And Its Relation To You
Politics has become a major part of our modern day lives.
You’ll have to deal with it when you are debating with friends and family or making big decisions in life. You can either be a conservative fighting for free enterprise or a socialist fighting for wealth redistribution.
The truth is, it doesn’t really matter which side you choose because, at the end of the day, conservatism and socialism are two sides of the same coin.
To dive deeper into this, I will be using the hermetic premise of polarity. If you would like to know more about hermetic premises, you can check out my book: 8 Lessons to Succeed at Anything.
POLARITY
The premise of polarity states that polarity exists in everything and that there is no definitive line that separates two polar opposites. Just think about temperature (hot/cold), wealth (rich/poor), health (skinny/fat) and even the economy (inflation/deflation). Political polarization is true as well.
As a coach, a very common question I ask my clients is ‘Who wants to be Rich?’ and, as expected, everyone immediately raises their hands. But, the truth is that people don’t really want to be rich, they just don’t want to be poor. Being rich is just their way of running away from being poor.
Politically speaking, conservatives are just running away from what they want from socialism and socialists are running away from what they don’t want from conservatism.
LAW OF RHYTHM
Think of the law of rhythm as the swing of a pendulum. It covers equal length on both sides in the same amount of time, regardless of any circumstances.
When you engage in polarity, you activate the law of rhythm.
A friend of mine whose life goal was to become rich frequently finds himself poor more often. His life has become a rhythmic cycle of being poor, rich and then poor again.
In politics all around the world, you would often find two major parties competing for power. There are Conservatives and Socialists and Republicans and democrats.
As soon as one party comes into power, the pendulum hits its maximum position and the swing back begins (their downfall). At this time, the opposition does anything and everything they can to gain power back, which inevitably does happen at one point or another.
WHAT YOU RESIST PERSISTS
It’s a common reaction to run away from things we find dangerous, unpleasant or unwanted. However, when we do run away, it reinforces the fact that what we don’t want is dangerous, unpleasant and unwanted.
For example, in a recent conversation I had with this extreme French socialist, she told me that what she wanted for the world was wealth redistribution for everyone. I asked her why.
She answered by saying that the rich have too much and they should share with the poor. As an example, she told me that she works on a rich man’s boat and that the money she makes helps her live the life she has. She told me that he could pay her more and still live the life that he wanted.
I followed up this example of hers with a series of questions to see what she was truly running away from (resisting). It turned out that she was unconsciously running away from the fear of failure. She believed that she was too incapable of becoming rich.
Therefore, to deal with her own fear and incapability issues, she demonized the rich and wanted to bring them down to her level. And her way of achieving this would be supporting and voting for someone who would bring up taxes for the rich and have more benefits for the poor.
Her decision is to back a regime that will discourage entrepreneurs and businessmen from conducting business and generate income, leading to a fall in the economy. This, as a result, can leave the government with not enough money to pay for benefits, leaving people poor and incapable.
In terms of conservatives, a good example is Donald Trump who wants to bring the USA back to the ‘good old days’. He wants to regain its status as the most dominant country in the world that has everything under control.
He and his voters are unconsciously resisting change because of the fear of losing control. His strict immigration policy is one good example. He fears that too many immigrants from different cultures and backgrounds will change the way the country is.
See Also: How Cognitive Bias Played Into The Most Divisive Election Ever
FINDING WHAT IS IT THAT YOU TRULY WANT
Usually, people think that the solution to polarity is balancing the two opposing forces. In reality, however, a proper balance can never be achieved. As long as you are on a polarity, you will always experience oscillations.
The only way to escape polarity is to:
1. Become aware of the polarity you are in and to identify what you are running away from
2. Identify what you truly want, while being free of what you don’t want.
Consider this:
The extreme socialist from the previous examples realized that she wanted wealth redistribution because she felt incapable. That gave her the freedom to realize that what she truly wanted was to travel the world. This also opened her eyes to the fact that a socialist or a conservative government would have little or no impact on her in relation to achieving her dream.
See Also: The Ultimate Stepping Stone to Personal Freedom
In conclusion, you can have a million reasons why you should be a socialist or conservative but you don’t really need to be either. When you realize what you truly want, you’ll find a way to get out of any political polarization you’re in.
