Why Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney should go on a date
In today's ultra polarized, highly tribal society we find ourselves working with, fraternizing with, and sometimes even living with people with whom we may disagree vehemently on some seemingly key social and economic issues. Our families and communities are often split when we start to talk about hot button issues.
How many times have you made friends with someone and then added them on social media only to find out that they have views diametrically opposed to yours?
"Oh no!" We profess with disappointment. "Am I going to be able to be friends with this person anymore?"
And then, you spend more time with them. You play sports, you eat, you talk about your families, and more times than not, you are able to pass the time with enjoyment and much needed social connection, despite your differences. We do it all the time.
Now why wouldn't we expect this of our elected officials who are supposed to be working on passing legislation that is ideally going to improve our situation. In our current climate it would reprehensible for someone in the NDP caucus to be seen laughing at a UCP colleagues joke or vice-versa. Because we all know every UCP member is a racist and every NDP member is a Godless communist [insert sarcastic tone]. If you are caught fraternizing with the other side than you're a turncoat and must be dealt with immediately! In fact there is evidence that ideological bias is stronger than racial bias.
Supposedly in the 50's and 60's American congressmen would go out for dinner/drinks after work all the time. They were friends who were able to disagree with each other with respect and a spirit of collegiality. In the U.S. today congress will purposefully tank itself just to make the sitting President looks bad. In Canada and Alberta it is not much better. The official opposition slings plenty of mud at the current NDP government without providing any alternative solutions. The Alberta Party, back when it had one member, was a more effective opposition party in my opinion, offering a shadow budget that would have, if implemented, left us in a much more favourable position coming out of this recession. Instead, opposition parties focus solely on bringing down the current regime. Anyone but the NDP. Anyone but Trump.
Tribalism brings out the best and worst of humankind. On the one hand, when we are an important part of a unified group we are confident, empowered, and connected, and it feels good. Meanwhile, as our in-group gets denser and tighter, we tend to view any outsider as a threat to our group and therefore is an clear-cut enemy.
My thesis is that we can benefit from tightly knit social groups while still remaining open and respectful to others in order to work collaboratively with people who are ideologically opposite from ourselves. You and I do it all the time and we should expect it of our elected officials as well.
The Contact hypothesis tells us cross-group interpersonal interactions lead to desirable outcomes. There is more perspective taking, empathizing with the out-group, and cooperation.
We also know that when we work on superordinate goals with someone from the other side, we can bridge all sort of ideological gaps. A superordinate goal is one that effects both parties. Conservative and liberal doctors probably don't fight diseases in much different ways. In Alberta, virtually every party wants to get crude oil to the B.C. coast. Everyone should be at the table coming up with ideas to make this happen. The UCP presumably has a tonne of connections in the oil industry and could probably bring a lot of insight to the table but instead they are focused on highlighting NDP incompetence. Why would they ever collaborate with their enemies in today's political climate? I would bet that many conservatives are hoping that the pipeline doesn't go in until they take control of the government so that they get the credit instead. It's lunacy!!
Elizabeth Lesser challenged us to take the "other" to lunch in this talk here and I think we should be encouraging our politicians to do this more often so that we, ourselves can start to bridge the ideological divide that plagues us. Maybe if they do it then it will be easier for us to do it too.
So let's start with Rachel Notley and Jason Kenny having lunch.... at Greg Clark's house.
How many times have you made friends with someone and then added them on social media only to find out that they have views diametrically opposed to yours?
"Oh no!" We profess with disappointment. "Am I going to be able to be friends with this person anymore?"
And then, you spend more time with them. You play sports, you eat, you talk about your families, and more times than not, you are able to pass the time with enjoyment and much needed social connection, despite your differences. We do it all the time.
Now why wouldn't we expect this of our elected officials who are supposed to be working on passing legislation that is ideally going to improve our situation. In our current climate it would reprehensible for someone in the NDP caucus to be seen laughing at a UCP colleagues joke or vice-versa. Because we all know every UCP member is a racist and every NDP member is a Godless communist [insert sarcastic tone]. If you are caught fraternizing with the other side than you're a turncoat and must be dealt with immediately! In fact there is evidence that ideological bias is stronger than racial bias.
Supposedly in the 50's and 60's American congressmen would go out for dinner/drinks after work all the time. They were friends who were able to disagree with each other with respect and a spirit of collegiality. In the U.S. today congress will purposefully tank itself just to make the sitting President looks bad. In Canada and Alberta it is not much better. The official opposition slings plenty of mud at the current NDP government without providing any alternative solutions. The Alberta Party, back when it had one member, was a more effective opposition party in my opinion, offering a shadow budget that would have, if implemented, left us in a much more favourable position coming out of this recession. Instead, opposition parties focus solely on bringing down the current regime. Anyone but the NDP. Anyone but Trump.
Tribalism brings out the best and worst of humankind. On the one hand, when we are an important part of a unified group we are confident, empowered, and connected, and it feels good. Meanwhile, as our in-group gets denser and tighter, we tend to view any outsider as a threat to our group and therefore is an clear-cut enemy.
My thesis is that we can benefit from tightly knit social groups while still remaining open and respectful to others in order to work collaboratively with people who are ideologically opposite from ourselves. You and I do it all the time and we should expect it of our elected officials as well.
The Contact hypothesis tells us cross-group interpersonal interactions lead to desirable outcomes. There is more perspective taking, empathizing with the out-group, and cooperation.
We also know that when we work on superordinate goals with someone from the other side, we can bridge all sort of ideological gaps. A superordinate goal is one that effects both parties. Conservative and liberal doctors probably don't fight diseases in much different ways. In Alberta, virtually every party wants to get crude oil to the B.C. coast. Everyone should be at the table coming up with ideas to make this happen. The UCP presumably has a tonne of connections in the oil industry and could probably bring a lot of insight to the table but instead they are focused on highlighting NDP incompetence. Why would they ever collaborate with their enemies in today's political climate? I would bet that many conservatives are hoping that the pipeline doesn't go in until they take control of the government so that they get the credit instead. It's lunacy!!
Elizabeth Lesser challenged us to take the "other" to lunch in this talk here and I think we should be encouraging our politicians to do this more often so that we, ourselves can start to bridge the ideological divide that plagues us. Maybe if they do it then it will be easier for us to do it too.
So let's start with Rachel Notley and Jason Kenny having lunch.... at Greg Clark's house.
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