America Is In Civil War. (How We Can Defuse This, Together.)

The other day I predicted to a friend that depending on the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election, America could be on the brink of Civil War.

But, as I thought more, I realized we are already in Civil War. Today’s weapons of choice are more memes than muskets.

The polarization and division of our population is as deep as the Union and the Confederacy in the 1860s. And the stakes are just as high, with the future of our country, culture, and society hanging in the balance.

How did we get so divided?

Our country is dominated by two rival tribes. Each is utterly convicted in their belief they are solely and uniquely patriotic in wanting the best for America and each equally certain the other side is willfully and carelessly destroying our nation.

The opposing narratives are stark.

Online media distributed by machine learning technology, optimized to drive user engagement, have perpetuated two polarized, unnuanced, and binary views of the world. All things are seen as black or white, with neither side able to recognize shades of grey.

A profound (yet simple) insight was revealed to me upon devouring Tim Urban’s ambitious and compelling “The Story of Us” published on his remarkable “Wait But Why” blog. Over two years in the making, and soon to be reformatted into a must-read book, his series offers an explanation of mankind and society through bridging anthropology, sociology, psychology, biology, and behavioural economics. The series explains how we find ourselves stuck in a world where two conflicting worldviews have become so entrenched and unproductive.

In Chapter 9, Urban successfully distills his point of view on the fundamental conflict between progressives and conservatives. He writes:

Progressivism = concerned with helping society make forward progress — positive changes to the status quo. That progress can come from identifying what you deem to be a flaw in your nation’s systems or its culture and working to root it out, or by trying to make your nation’s strong points even stronger.

Conservatism = concerned with conserving what is already good about society — either by fighting against the erosion of what you deem to be your nation’s strong qualities, or by pushing back against well-intentioned attempts at positive progress that you believe…