The stories of Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker and nearly every Disney princess suggest that the only way to defeat your enemies is to unite with your friends. But what if your friends are wrong?
Fictional worlds are easily divided into good versus evil. However, in our society there are not simply two extremes; and your friends have the potential to be nearly as dangerous as your perceived enemies. Our society likes to categorize people into binaries. This division leads many people to believe that those on their team are “good” while the opposite group is “evil.”
Relying on this “team” mentality creates a society in which we think that we can only believe or trust the people on our team. This trend of pitting groups against each other will only lead to small-minded individuals and a divided nation.
Listening, exclusively, to your team creates an echo chamber where you only ever access information that confirms your beliefs. When birds of a feather flock together they lose the ability to improve. An article in Psychology Today found that echo chambers are a, “threat to debate and intellectual development,” and that they “limit our freedom to learn and to tolerate differences of opinion.”
We live in a diverse world with entire spectrums of beliefs, ideas and experiences. We only limit ourselves when we choose to dismiss ideas and beliefs that we fear may challenge our own. We have much to gain from learning to listen to those with different beliefs and experiences.
It is a lie that membership in a group defines a person’s beliefs. Being a Republican does not mean that I accept all the stereotypical conservative beliefs and reject any other beliefs or ideas. Our society has become overly defined by norms and boundaries. We will do better as a society as we each take the initiative to educate ourselves and decide what we truly believe. We, then, can more fully appreciate what others believe.
When I choose to see individuals rather than the list of groups they are a member of, I am able to perceive our shared beliefs. I am better able to relate to my friends and family, and more willing to have conversations with individuals about their unique beliefs and ideas.
Politically, I find that I relate to G.K. Chesterton when he said: “If I’m too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals, I might be right where God wants me to be.” In disrupting the norms that divide us we find that we have an awful lot in common.
Shared beliefs unite humanity as a whole. Martin Luther King Jr stated, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
We can be aware of another’s beliefs without rejecting our own. An article in Forbes found that we can learn a lot about society by having conversations with people that have differing beliefs. This is what will change society for the better.
As we break down the walls that separate us we discover the strength of our shared humanity, link arms with those with whom we may not fully agree, and push forward towards a bright future in which respect and compromise enable us to change the world. We have far greater impact for good as a united society of unique individuals than as a divided society of like-minded teams.
This may have been what Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling was implying when she wrote, “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”
Alexis Ruesch
Alexis Ruesch, Washington, Utah, graduated from Dixie State University with a joint bachelor’s degree in communication and sociology.
