As we enter 2022, it is easy to pessimistic. The world’s democracies elect populists of the left and right who offer dishonest and simplistic solutions whilst the world’s autocracies grow emboldened and more powerful.
In the UK we are more divided than at any time since the early 1980’s when the Thatcher government battled the miners’ union in what proved to be the death throes of the old Keynesian post-war consensus. The effects of the leaner, more individualistic monetarist policies where self- interest and self-advancement are revered is with us still.
Today, we have new sources of conflict, Brexit, global warming and even wearing a mask during a pandemic. These flammable conflicts are now doused in the petrol of social media whose algorithms reinforce controversial and confrontational behaviour (a choice made by these companies that could develop algorithms that reinforce consensual, kind and progressive behaviour if they chose to).
Creating all this chaos and conflict is us; some talking apes. Much of our brain is as undeveloped as in our cavemen days. Democracy requires that societies search for truth, revere facts and evidence and work together for the common good but our brains want simple answers from people who seem like they are in our tribe. Our brains just want us to survive even at the expense of others so if our leaders can scapegoat a vulnerable group that isn’t us, we feel an urge to join the oppressor for safety. If our leaders can make the vulnerable seem like a dangerous threat, so much the better.
So far, so gloomy. But we talking apes have also evolved the cognition to understand facts, to understand the benefits of compassion and to challenge the lies and self-interest of those in positions of power.
The urge to be right is stronger than the urge to be happy. Cognitive dissonance describes this urge. One difficult gift we can give ourselves is to actively search for things we have been wrong about and to change our mind in light of this new evidence.
Existentialists say, “existence precedes essence”, whatever your beliefs or your behaviour you can in every new moment choose different beliefs and behaviours more suited to the now. Our outdated beliefs and behaviours may no longer serve us but they give us a sense of who we are. In creating ourselves anew we acknowledge the loss of old comforting certainties but become free from the shackles of our past.