If your preferred political choice these days is “none of the above,” rest assured this is not a symptom of apathy or indecision, but most likely a sign of robust mental health.
The political landscape in many Western countries, including Canada, has become increasingly polarized and extreme during the past decade. This shift to the ends of the political spectrum has left many of us feeling left out and disenfranchised.
Part of my executive coaching practice consists of working with leadership teams, and through these assignments I have become an avid student of group behaviour. The more I work with groups, the less satisfied I have become with the customary representation of political and social views as a straight line that spans from the progressive left to the conservative right.
My own experience, backed up by some credible research, suggests that “an authoritarian is an authoritarian,” irrespective of their political stripes.
A few political scientists have played with this idea, bending the spectrum into a horseshoe so that the extreme left and extreme right are almost touching at the ends. This model can lead to some uncomfortable conclusions. If you hold an absolute “my way or the highway” view on a variety of political or social issues, take a second and imagine that unconscionable person on the extreme opposite side of those same issues. What this horseshoe model suggests is that you might share more in common with that person than you would ever want to admit!
A recent article published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology picked up on this idea and examined the similarities between left and right-wing authoritarianism. The study did acknowledge some subtle differences, but concluded there were many more similarities between left and right extremes. These similarities include a focus on social uniformity, moral absolutism and prejudiced and punitive thoughts toward perceived enemies.
This study reminded me of the book The Psychology of Genocide, in which author Steven Baum classified the population into three groups: perpetrators (15-20%) and those who were prepared to dogmatically follow orders; bystanders (60-70%) who were malleable and could be coerced to cooperate or resist; and rescuers (15-20%) who would actively resist immoral direction in the face of great personal danger.
Baum’s work was recently reinforced by a Pew Research Center survey that examined authoritarianism across 24 different countries. Most Western countries scored in the 15-30 per cent range for people expressing a preference for authoritarianism. Canada was at 27 per cent and the United States was at 32 per cent.
All of this data leads me to my own uncomfortable conclusion. We have in our midst a group of people representing 20-30 per cent of the population who are the problem: the authoritarian-loving perpetrators. Some of these people present as progressives and others present as conservatives. In the era of social media where extreme voices become massively amplified, this 20-30 per cent of the population has hijacked our politics, our relationships and our very well being.
It has to stop.
The challenge for the 70-80 per cent of us who are reasonable “normies” is to not get sucked into the vortex of the extremes, but rather to find common ground with other normies.
I have lived and worked in several countries, and in several bright red and bright blue states in the US. I know good people who identify as conservative and good people who identify as progressive.
In the current polarized environment, many of these good people cannot even tolerate being in the same room with each other. This is so unfortunate, because if they took some time to listen and understand, and if they didn’t fear recriminations from “their side,” I am certain many of them could find common ground on many issues. And when they did inevitably disagree on some topics, it wouldn’t have to seem like a fight to the death.
In “depth” psychology, which considers conscious and unconscious motivators and experiences that influence behaviour, we think of a mentally healthy person as someone who has evolved beyond group-think. A person who is internally validated by their own experiences and moral compass, and not externally validated by some social media influencer or political party. These are the people whom Baum called the “rescuers.”
We should be encouraging each other along this journey to become rescuers. There is no room for bystanders as we endeavour to rescue our politics and culture from the authoritarian-loving perpetrators.
