Polarization
So, I've been doing a lot of pondering in the last 24 hours or so. About a lot of things. But the question I would like to put to anyone who stumbles across my blog is this: Does anyone have a cure for polarization?
Recently, a number of people whom I respect, and some who are even my dear friends, have said things I don't agree with. Ok. Fine. We don't have to agree. Really. I wanted to engage with them about some issues. But I didn't. Because I was afraid.
I was afraid that if I was not in total agreement with them, I would be on the 'wrong' side, in the enemy's camp (pardon the cliché; I'm claiming emotional truth as my excuse). And from such an alignment of sympathies, I would no longer be acceptable as their friend. In all fairness, that may simply be me being too much of a people-pleaser, but the context included some pretty harsh statements about the 'other side.'
I think the potential loss of friendship over differing opinions is sad, but I also think that I would only respect someone more for sticking to their moral guns. So here's what's really troubling me about this: I don't think I would be heard for what I was really saying about an issue, I think that my partial disagreement would automatically lump me in with the total disagreers. I think that any loss of friendship would result not from what I actually thought, but from the sound of what I was saying being to similar to what these people did not want to hear.
So, does anyone have suggestions about how to depolarize a discussion enough to be heard?