The Rabbit Hole

In this group, we discuss polarized America. We talk about who we are and how we got here. We weren’t always like this. Is the status quo we want? If not, then how to we work our way out of it?

We won’t be talking politics in the traditional way people talk politics. But we will be talking about politics and all of its attendant realms of ideological and value-based thinking. We’ll discuss public issues as vehicles to understanding the issues, each other, and ourselves. We’ll be identifying lines of disagreement but also discovering the many agreements we already have.

In a nutshell, we’ll be going down rabbit holes. Every issue of public interest is rife with rabbit holes. It’s by not going down these holes that we stay and live in ignorance of the political reality engulfing us, of each other, and of the mechanisms which keep us divided.

We are not about fixing each other. We are about understanding each other – and ourselves.

Whereas in the public sphere, we attack and ridicule each other, we are about creating a social environment where it’s safe to be open – to say things we would normally reserve for conversations with ‘trusted’ individuals. In political discussions, we have a bad habit of constantly pointing towards the other side’s faults and shortcomings. In our discussions we point equally to our own. No one’s got a monopoly on common sense. The everyday political strategy of targeting the other side’s faults and shortcomings is as much a contrivance to keep us from looking at our own.

Ultimately, there is no reason why we can’t have civil and constructive discussions about the most important public issues facing us day to day. Disagreements are as much opportunities to learn as they to tear each other down. It’s a choice.

Our discussions will be in the nature of sharing thoughts – not about debating and winning arguments. We will nonetheless be posing questions that one would expect to hear during debates – the difference being that the intent is not to win. We’ll be asking questions we’ve trained ourselves not to answer. We’ll speak about public issues in ways that society discourages us from speaking. We’ll be asking questions that media avoids asking. At all times, we’ll be respectful of each other. But we will be pushing boundaries and, hence, comfort zones. It’s the boundaries that divide us.