By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Political polarization just seems to grow in our society as we become entrenched in our ideas and dismissive of others.
A panel of Missouri Western State professors will discuss the trend during a panel discussion tonight at East Hills Library.
College of Liberal Arts Interim Assistant Dean, Edwin Taylor, says one of the questions that will be explored is why have we lost the ability to get along when we disagree politically? Why do we feel the need to vilify and demonize?
“And turn a person who is a friend into an enemy simply because of who they supported in the last election,” Taylor tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview.
Taylor says it’s important to understand what is happening in our society.
“In part, because I as a political scientist, I feel that this increasing polarization is incredibly destructive for our ability to govern, which is very different than winning elections,” Taylor says.
The panel, entitled “Donkeys, Elephants, and All the Drama,” will explore the history of political polarization, the rhetoric of polarization, the social dynamics of polarization, and the contemporary polarized landscape. Chair of the Social Sciences and Humanities and School of Fine Arts, Dominic DeBrincat, is one of the panelists as is David McMahan, chair of the Department of Communication. The panel also includes Psychology Department chair, Kelly Henry, as well as Taylor.
Taylor says the panel of professors will consider why so many have become so inflexible.
“If I’m rigid, if I refuse to move, if I refuse to acknowledge there’s anyway but my way then we’ll never go anywhere, because we’ll never choose to walk on the same road together,” Taylor says.
Taylor says our society must regain the ability to talk to each other and listen to each other.
“Which means we have to embrace a principle of empathy that there’s a reason why people believe these things and the more we seek to try to understand that the better we will know these people and the better we can find ways that we can say, well, these things you believe in, these things I believe in, but clearly there’s some things we both believe in and we can work to try to move forward using those principles.”
Taylor says he hopes those attending the panel discussion will come away with a better understanding of society and of themselves.
“Sometimes when we hear ideas that sort of clash with our principles, it makes us uncomfortable and it makes us have to analyze our own thoughts, but that’s the whole point of conversation and dialogue,” according to Taylor.
The panel discussion begins at 6:30 this evening in the Theater Room at the East Hills Library, 502 N. Woodbine, St. Joseph.
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