Because the wife and I have very different tastes in TV shows, we tend to stream to watch older TV series that we both like so we can watch TV together while eating meals. Some of the shows we have streamed in the past include Frasier, 3rd Rock From The Sun, Mad About You, and Friends.
We are now watching Night Court which is a show about an humorously eccentric arraignment court judge. But besides the humor, the character of the judge, who was played by Harry Anderson, exhibited a quality not seen in much of today's world: he listened to those who were charged with a crime in order to try to understand why they did what they did. And that understanding he gained played a role in how he sentenced those whom were found guilty.
Today's world is not like that nor is our nation. Trying to understand why someone did wrong went out of style with the 9/11 attacks. Many who sought to understand why the terrorists would attack us based on what they saw in or experienced US foreign policies were immediately condemned as terrorist sympathizers. And, on a good day, that attitude toward those who sought to understand why we were attacked has now been visited on those who seek to understand why people have different political views. That is because we live in a society in which the culture has passionately embraced authoritarianism. For in authoritarianism, dissent towards one group is met with hostility and self-righteous indignation.
But there is another characteristic of authoritarianism that plays a greater role in how we look at those who are different from us or have done wrong than the mere showing of hostility toward them. That trait is to have a black-white view of the world. When seeing the world with a black-white view, people are either good or evil, for us or against us. And if they are evil, there is no need to try to understand. With a black-white view of the world, there are no 50+ shades of gray in people. When people break the law or do other things we consider wrong, a black-white view of what they did will equate trying to understand why they did wrong with trying to justify what they did. That is because with such a view, those who do wrong are all bad with no redeeming qualities.
We need to understand the concerns of those with whom we disagree. Many times, people believe differently that we do or do what is wrong out of fear and that fear could be one that is recently acquired or one that has been carried over from the past. Understanding why people disagree or do wrong gives us not just a handle on how to influence them, but perhaps it gives us something we fear the most: a connection. Just think of what feeling a connection with those with whom we strongly disagree or who have done wrong does to how we respond to their dissent or even their wrongdoing. We might not be as harsh in our responses. In addition, those connections might challenge our pride. It might let us know that we are not as good as we would like to think of ourselves.
Currently, our differences are tearing our nation apart. In fact our differences have been the source for many past wars and atrocities. Understanding why people either disagree with us or do wrong can help us feel connected with them and that might just might mitigate some of the divisions that are in our nation. It might also help us to have a more realistic view of ourselves.
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