On Why Good People are Divided by Politics
By Christopher Ryan Maboloc, PhD
Jonathan Haidt explains that our political leanings are not rooted in reason but in gut feeling. The word "righteous," Haidt writes, is associated with the Norse word "rettviss," which means "upright" or "virtuous." The word later meant being obedient to God's will and thus, to God's judgment. Being judgmental in this sense is linked to righteousness. It then connects to being "self-righteous," which Haidt says is the normal human condition.
Haidt argues that men and women evolved from group attachments in the same way as primates. There is no flaw to this design as we all are rooted in a moralistic strife given the primordial reality of conflict between groups. In which case, differences and disagreement are normal. Since we use logical reasoning in judging human character, we easily see others as fools or idiotic, thus the labels we attribute to adversaries. In reality, it has nothing to do with morals. We act this way because we want to defend our own kind.
The mind is divided and we do not know the elephant in the room 99% of the time. Morality, Haidt argues, is not just about questions of virtue and fairness. Haidt says that it also concerns issues pertaining to loyalty, belief, commitment, among others. To you, the person on the other side is an enemy. On the part of that person, his gut feeling is telling him that his position is right because of his sense of loyalty. This explains why conflict is good for society as it teaches people how to value trust.
In this case, there's no need to demean other people since politics is about our sentiments. Our associative relations with one another help define our interests. This is clear in what we call the ethnic divide among us. Democracy is not rooted in the monolithic principle of reason. It cannot set aside the emotional part. You can judge a person but he will stick to his political position because it is not about what he thinks but how he feels.
