There are two main drivers of human behavior that have evolutionary roots are tribalism and attention to the negative. They both helped us survive. Seeing others who are similar to us are probably related to us and can protect us. Being overly alert to the negative is obviously useful in our survival. Unfortunately, those adaptations aren’t suited for the modern world.
The result is a lot of polarization on any topic. It’s always us vs them. And the media, which is incentivized by capitalism to give what people pay attention to, gives us more trash to fuel to the fire.
The namesake of this substack is a pun on the dialectic. The dialectic is the affirmation of opposed concepts and to find the result of the tension of them. I think a lot about dialectics. There is a legit tension between financial conservatism and liberalism. Conservatism inspires innovation and gives more empowerment to the individual. My parents came to America with the hopes of making it for themselves, which they did. However, on the other ends, there’s merits to socialism. If you have enough to survive, why not raise the whole tide and help others.
I struggle a lot in figuring how if there’s a way to bridge a gap. Purely logical reasoning does not grab headlines and our attention. Hence the art post. Although I don’t think I could convince anyone to be open to another side, I’d hope to open the discussion and perspective of seeing dialectical tensions.