John Twelve Hawks - How to Free Your Mind in the Trump Era

The Lowest Point

Im worried about our country. Perhaps you are, too.

For the last decade, the American Psychological Association has hired the Harris Poll to conduct an annual Stress In America survey. This years report revealed that 59 percent of Americans believe were experiencing the lowest point in United States history that they can remember.

Although different states went for Clinton or Trump, all regions of the country were equally stressed out.

The 2016 election has made a majority of Americans unhappy about the present and worried about the future. Many people seem proudalmost gleefulthat our President makes no attempt to lead or represent the entire country. The politics of anger has trapped us in a prison cell of opinions that allow no way out.

And this is a problem that touches all of us. Democracy doesnt exist in a vacuum. It requires a sense of community that encourages citizens to focus on real issues and achievable goals. If both sides turn away from each other, it will only increase the division in our country.

So how do we discard our anger about the present and our fear of the future? How do we free our minds in the Trump Era?

Going To Hell

During the months that followed the election, there was too much news in my life. This hourly flow of information made me feel besieged, and then overwhelmed. Instead of pushing me toward action, the news encouraged passivity.

Dealing with a flood of negative news is just like any other form of stress. My objectivity began to reappear when I decided to go online only twice a day. I cut back on my wine consumption, tried to get some exercise and I helped a friend plant a vegetable garden. Dedicated gardeners are some of the most level-headed people I know. My friend showed me how to plant at the right time, keep the weeds in check and make sure snails dont eat the cabbage.

But that still wasnt enough. I needed to do something that would give me insights on the cast of characters that now strutted around the American political landscape.

So I went to hell.

About a month after the election, I revisited Dantes Inferno and, this time, I read all the footnotes. As Dante travels through hell, he encounters examples of the foolishness, fraud and greed that destroyed the Republic of Florence. After a while I began to make a list of contemporary politicians that resembled the Thirteenth Century Italians Dante meets in hell.

For example, Roy Moore would clearly belong with the hypocrites forced to wear heavy lead robes as they walk endlessly around in a circle. And I could certainly see puffy-faced Steve Bannon stumbling through the gloomy seventh circle for those who encourage violence.

There were plenty of candidates for the ditch where swindlers and unscrupulous businessmen were tossed into a river of boiling pitch. But what about the President? Should he end up with the leaders who gain power by promoting division and discord? Or perhaps he should be considered a falsifieran alchemist and counterfeiter of fake ideas.

It was entertaining to create my list of contemporary damnation, but the poem made me realize that I might end up in the Inferno along with everyone else. Right after Dante passes through the gates of hell, he sees a mob of people condemned to follow a blank banner for eternity. These are the cowards that were never truly alive. When faced with evil, they stood to one side and did nothing.

So what was I supposed to do? When faced with a kitchen filled with dirty dishes, I always do the worst job first. In the partisan culture of the Trump Era there is one particular action that seemed really difficult:

Talking to people who love Donald Trump.

Getting A Tooth Pulled

Talk to them? you might be muttering to yourself. Thats the last thing I want to do.

These days many Americans are so angry and partisan that they dont want to talk to anyone who disagrees with them. This idea of staying separate and only talking to similar believers has been reinforced by partisan news services that confirm your current opinions.

Instead of an open discussion between friends, relatives and neighbors, we prefer to sit home and watch professional commentators scream at each other on television. And our desire to turn away from discussion has increased during the last year.

A research paper published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology revealed the level of partisan feelings in America. Psychologists gave two options to a group of adults. People could either read eight arguments in favor of gay marriage or they could read an opposing view. If they would only read the opinion they agreed with, they could win $7. But it they showed some toleration and agreed to read an opposing view, they could win $10.

Most people see themselves as reasonable citizens. The logical choice is to increase your chance to win more money.

But a majority of conservatives (61%) preferred to stay in their opinion bubble and receive less money. And when they gave the same offer to liberals, 64% of them made the same choice.

The psychologists made the same offer tied to a variety of controversial topicsincluding abortion, climate change and the 2016 election.

But the results were the same: no one wanted to hear the other side. Both conservatives and liberals made this choice even though they admitted that they didnt have a clear idea of the opposing view.

And why did they choose this motivated ignorance? Either they thought they would get angry hearing an opposing view or they assumed that the other person would start an argument. A significant percentage of the participants said that talking to someone with opposing views was as unpleasant as getting a tooth pulled.

Its important to note that both conservative and liberal voters feel the same way. We have become reluctant to have a clear, honest conversation about politics with our friends and relatives.

And this refusal hurts our democracy. Fraudulent and foolish political leaders legitimize their power by emphasizing the hot button issues that divide us. In this distorted environment, compromise is seen as weakness and we are encouraged to remain within that information bubble where everyone agrees with our opinions.

Difficult Conversations

So how do you talk to someone who rejects your strongest beliefs?

Try to begin in a positive way. Tell the other person that you respect them and you wonder if the two of you could have an honest conversation about whats going on in our country. Please understand that Im not asking you to take another persons abuse. If they arent capable of a polite conversation, then forget about it.

A wide variety of experimental studies have shown that our partisan problem is not because of false information. People remain in their filter bubbles because they have stopped being curious about alternative opinions. When we talk to a person with an opposing view, one of our secret goals is to motivate their curiosity.

My respect for the power of human curiosity has been bolstered by the research of Yale professor of law and psychology Dan Kahan. In a study published in Advances in Political Psychology, Kahan revealed that Democrats and Republicans who scored high in scientific curiosity were less likely to show partisan bias responding to a wide variety of controversial questions. Instead of proving someone wrong, its better to encourage the kind of thinking that asks questions.