I recently learned a new term in our Sunday School class, and enjoyed several weeks discussing “dualistic thinking” with some very wise people. I learned how many of us believe that we alone have all the right answers to life’s questions; those who think differently are entirely wrong. Thanks in part to the dominating cultural influences of cable news and social media, Americans are being split into tribal groups and becoming increasingly closed off to different ideas. Even listening to ideas from another group becomes threatening, or simply takes too much effort, and we would rather just hear the ideas we already agree with.
While life might be easier if things were so black and white, it also would be awfully bland. Reality is far more complex with grey areas in between, and a balanced worldview needs to be more nuanced than “we’re right and they’re wrong.”
Now dualism can have its place, like when our hometown baseball team gets to host a super-regional series and we try to push the Eagles over the top with our cheering! But when it comes to ideas of culture, religion or politics in this great melting pot of America, we need to have some tolerance in order to make progress as a society, together.
One important area where I notice too much dualistic thinking is in our national debate over how to respond to climate change. On one side, we can find progressives claiming that windmills, solar panels and EV’s will single-handedly solve the problem with a snap of the fingers. In reality, a majority of the world’s population rely on traditional fossil fuels and there will have to be a gradual transition if there is to be any justice for today’s populations.
On the other side, we can find conservatives claiming that there are zero answers for the climate problem, that the most powerful economy the world has ever known would be incapable of transitioning to a new energy sector. Or worse yet, they may claim that no problem exists at all.
With leaders on each side practicing dualistic thinking, we the citizens are stuck in the middle with nothing getting accomplished. And we are running short on time. Measurements of atmospheric CO2 are approaching 421 parts per million, the highest they’ve been in 4 Million years!
Fortunately there are great ideas that consider views from progressives and conservatives alike, ideas that can bring down our unprecedented carbon emissions and preserve our way of life for future generations, all without expanding federal budgets or leaving working class people behind. But with our dependence on cable news and social media, we don’t get exposed to these more nuanced ideas.
One such idea called “Carbon Fee and Dividend” was developed by George Shultz, who served as Secretary of State under President Reagan and Secretary of Treasury and Labor under President Nixon. Some conservative media has mis-labeled it as a carbon tax, but taxes are collected by the government and can inflate the budget. A national carbon fee would not grow the government budget, but would be refunded to American families as a way of offsetting rising prices for fuel and food. In this way we can create an even playing field for developing renewable energy, gradually moving away from polluting fossil fuels without hurting working class people who simply want to fill up their gas tank to get to work.
Something else we won’t find on divisive cable news or social media: there is a new Republican plan to include climate action on their election platform. House Republicans have formed an Energy, Climate and Conservation task force chaired by Louisiana’s Garret Graves, and they are planning to introduce policies that will reduce carbon emissions and create jobs.
Dualistic stories fit well in social media memes and cable news segments, but they often don’t tell the whole story. Just a little bit of digging can reveal a host of more nuanced ideas such as carbon fee & dividend, or the new Republican task force. It’s up to each of us to turn away from the low-quality information being placed before us, to let go of our dualistic ideas where “we’re right and they’re wrong”, and to make more informed choices when it comes time to vote. Progressives do care about the economy, conservatives do care about the environment, and there is plenty of middle ground for us to take action!
Chris Werle of Lamar County is Mississippi state coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Education. Write him at chriswerle@cclvolunteer.org.
