I'm mostly going to side-step criticisms of the article (I enjoyed it), because, ironically, it will present itself as emotionally-charged to most people that read it.
Instead, if anybody's interested in trying to limit the effects of this kind of psychology in themselves, I think there's a way to do it that involves a subtle but persistent shift in your state of mind. I think I first read about it in, of all things, "How to think like Leonardo da Vinci" many years ago. The trick is to drop all of your personal desire in being right, and instead adopt a sort of state of constant curiosity. Put less effort into defending your views, and more effort into trying to learn something from everyone and everything around you.
I was a conservative Republican. Now I'm closer to a liberal (I prefer "progressive") Democrat. I used to be a climate "skeptic"; now I think the majority of the science behind the theories is solid, although there's certainly a lot of room for more research. I've flipped on some things several times; the important thing, to me, is not my opinion on them, but whether I'm still open to new information in the field. For example: I used to believe that wind farms were a subsidized waste because all of the energy costs of production and maintenance must eclipse the energy they produce, especially when half of them don't seem to be turning ever. Then I got curious at how the numbers actually worked out, and found that, in terms of EROI, they seem to be one of the most efficient sources of energy we've got. If something else comes along that presents new information, I like to think that I'll be open to re-considering my opinion on it, because mostly, I'm intensely curious about what the truth of the issue really is -- even if I never discover the "truth" about it.
It's taken me a while to change my thinking this way, and I still haven't gotten it 100%. I still can get charged-up about some things, but, much less so than I used to.
Well said. I'm curious about your decision to affiliate with a political party in light of your approach to avoiding these psychological pitfalls. Personally I try to avoid thinking of myself as either liberal or conservative in order to avoid the same pitfalls that you describe, i.e. by affiliating with a party, to some extent you close yourself off to considering certain viewpoints (out of a desire for your party to be right).
Yeah, that's fair. I decided to become politically active because I have certain values, and I would like to live in a society that values the same things I do. e.g,. equality, high socioeconomic mobility, education, etc.
It didn't look like society would do those things on its own, and if I criticized it for not doing those things but didn't at the very least vote on issues and candidates, then I was a hypocrite.
Given the things that I value, the Democrats more often at least claim to represent them. In California at the time, I had to register with one of the two major parties, or my voting options would be seriously limited. Thankfully, this just got fixed during the last election cycle.
I'm totally disillusioned by politicians, though. The only candidate for any political office that I've had strong positive feelings about since I started voting was Brown, and that was mostly based on what I found of his track record and what I think this state needs.
So I chose a political party out of necessity, and because even though I consciously try to hold my convictions lightly, I do still have some.
But I would still feel an overwhelming urge to wash after shaking a politician's hand.
Instead, if anybody's interested in trying to limit the effects of this kind of psychology in themselves, I think there's a way to do it that involves a subtle but persistent shift in your state of mind. I think I first read about it in, of all things, "How to think like Leonardo da Vinci" many years ago. The trick is to drop all of your personal desire in being right, and instead adopt a sort of state of constant curiosity. Put less effort into defending your views, and more effort into trying to learn something from everyone and everything around you.
I was a conservative Republican. Now I'm closer to a liberal (I prefer "progressive") Democrat. I used to be a climate "skeptic"; now I think the majority of the science behind the theories is solid, although there's certainly a lot of room for more research. I've flipped on some things several times; the important thing, to me, is not my opinion on them, but whether I'm still open to new information in the field. For example: I used to believe that wind farms were a subsidized waste because all of the energy costs of production and maintenance must eclipse the energy they produce, especially when half of them don't seem to be turning ever. Then I got curious at how the numbers actually worked out, and found that, in terms of EROI, they seem to be one of the most efficient sources of energy we've got. If something else comes along that presents new information, I like to think that I'll be open to re-considering my opinion on it, because mostly, I'm intensely curious about what the truth of the issue really is -- even if I never discover the "truth" about it.
It's taken me a while to change my thinking this way, and I still haven't gotten it 100%. I still can get charged-up about some things, but, much less so than I used to.