Divided By

                                      (image: youtube.com)

Bungkag!. After 35 years, the “people power revolution” is being drowned with the pressing health concerns, K-pop, divisiveness due to online trolls and the all-time selfish intentions.

As our society evolves, it is indeed a potent question to ask: What made us divisive as a people? What are the reasons why we disagree on a lot of things instead of working as a team for a common goal?

Jonathan Haidt in his book titled “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion” mentions that the building blocks of society rely on morality (a belief in what is right and what is wrong). A shared morality helps humans to bind together into cohesive social groups, and that allows us to live more productively and effectively. Inherent in this socialization process, however, is the division of individuals into groups to which we either belong or do not belong. Those who belong become our comrades; those who do not, our adversaries.

These facts can be encountered as we scroll the social media pages where people “label” others as “dilawan” and “loyalists” then bombard us with unqualified and even scandalous words. We can read on long threads their defenses and their profanities which the readers can oftentimes wish they are not in social media so NOT to be infested with such negative murk.

Psychologists began to study labels in the 1930s, when linguist Benjamin Whorf proposed the hypothesis of linguistic relativity. He believed that the words we use to describe what we see are not mere labels, but end up determining what we see.

Decades later, cognitive psychologist Lera Boroditsky demonstrated it with an experiment. She asked people of English or Russian mother tongue to distinguish between two very similar but subtly different shades of blue. She then theorized that labels not only shape our perception of the color, but also change the way we perceive more complex situations.

It is always a mystery why a lot of people label themselves as this and that. In the political arena, we then question their selflessness and equate their “passion” to selfishness. We often conclude that they do this “defenses” for them to benefit something in the future. For what else is there to “fight” for which has the outcome of DIVISION?

But what about those who are labeling themselves who act like a fanatic? Aside from being a fan, it was found out that it is all about CONTROL. Our deep passion for labels comes, in large part, from our need to feel safe and control our environment. A label is a quick response that makes us feel that we have the control, even if it is only an illusionary perception.

While the extremity of the current political rhetoric may feel unprecedented, the emotional undercurrents are common across high-stakes conflicts. If we have any hope of restoring a functional political system that serves the vision of the family, we must understand these hidden forces.

Confrontation focuses the emotional energies on the singular goal of winning over the other side. As people become consumed in this mindset, they reenact partisan patterns of conflict that may comfort the fears but undermine cooperation. Fierce loyalty to “our side” and “their side” makes it impossible to become ONE NATION.

Thirty five years ago today, the people acted as one to gain the real democracy thirsted for. They went to the streets showing oneness towards that goal. But the prize of their efforts is probably not redeemed as we look how others embrace such democracy to the extreme. There are those who hurl insults openly on social media in the guise of freedom. There are those whose ill manners are presented on the web without filtering them with education and cultured decisions.

''1984'' a dystopian novel by George Orwell contains no prophetic declaration, only a simple warning to mankind. Orwell did not believe that 35 years after the publication of his book, the world would be ruled by Big Brother, but he often theorized that 1984 could happen if man did not become aware of the assaults on his personal freedom and did not defend his most precious right, the right to have his own thoughts (Bossche, 1984).

It is really important for us to filter everything in our midst. It is good to be influenced positively by others but to disallow the self to make a stand is deadly. The development of our moral beliefs which leads to the attainment of moral actions is a big start.

While our moral minds may lead us down a path of division, we can choose to pause and reflect on whether or how far down that path we wish to travel. We can, for example, choose to appreciate the value of differing views of the "right" and "wrong" way to live. We can choose to believe in positive intentions, even when those intentions arise from entirely different moral values. We can acknowledge the way our righteous minds tell us a story that is only partly true (Schonbrun, 2018).

Then as a people, we can proceed to where we dreamed of becoming: Whole, United, and Progressive.