Beware the Peddler of Simplicity

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capital.?Much (this included) has been and more will be written about that day and its meaning.?But much less feels accomplished.?After a (nearly) universal condemnation, the nation quickly reverted to its polarized positions.?“January 6 was an insurrection, a violent effort to stop the legitimate, peaceful transition of power” met “A peaceful protest of patriots, upset at what they believed was a stolen election, got out of hand.”

At the same time, a global pandemic continues and a modern miracle of science – an effective, safe vaccine – has become a football of polarized politics.?“There is no excuse to be unvaccinated” competes with “I have a right to my own body.”?And so on.

While we live in a world with complex challenges, the human brain has evolved to seek out simple explanations.?By nature, we create stories and associations in our subconscious, to make sense of the millions of inputs we received daily. Algorithms are etched into our neural networks, and responses occur in many cases before cognition.

From an evolutionary perspective, this made great sense.?The faster our ancestors could figure out if an image were a lion or antelope, the quicker we could prepare to flee or to fight.?We do the same with people. As Dr. Bruce Perry puts it, “Us-and-them is deeply engrained in our neurobiology. . . We are strongly connected to our clan, but not so much to other clans – we compete with them for limited resources.”[1]

Today, we live in a complex world where myriad and diverse inputs are not easily decoded.?Media take advantage of our desire for simplicity by creating and then amplifying simplified stories that purport to explain current events. But these stories seldom cure what ails us.?Rather, they deepen the divides and lead us father apart.?To achieve better outcomes, we need to do the hard work of finding balance across competing interests and ideas.

Indeed, a great deal of Western thought over the past two millennia has been devoted to finding the right balances in life, for example between individual freedom and collective responsibility.?This thinking was central as the leaders of a newly formed United States replaced the Articles of Confederation with a Constitution, which created greater central authority while explicitly protecting individual liberties.?Creating this balance was not simple. Neither was the structure of the government they created, with each of three branches aiming to balance the power of the other two, another attempt at balance in a complex system.

Finding balance requires public debate and honest discourse, along with a recognition that many truths often co-exist.?For example, people have both a responsibility to be vaccinated to protect others and a right of self-destiny over their own bodies.?Adjudicating these truths requires a pursuit of balance, not a fight for one vs. the other.?

Similarly, the pursuit of a more perfect union is not a battle to see which wins (individual rights vs. collective responsibility; state vs. federal power; judicial vs. legislative vs. executive authority). Rather, the pursuit is an ongoing attempt to create a system in balance, and through better balance a greater chance that everyone is assured the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In a recent OpEd, Edwin Eisendrath noted how exciting it is to be alive today, as “America is becoming the world’s first and only multiracial democracy.”[2]?What could be more complex?

As our country navigates myriad challenges on the road to the world’s first multiracial democracy, here’s one simple rule to remember: Beware the peddler of simplicity.

[1] Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You?” Flatiron Books, 2021

[2] Edwin Eisendrath, “As a radio host and former newspaper CEO and alderman: I say we’re lucky to be alive in this multiracial American democracy,” Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, December 28, 2021