Polarization is Progress
Not long ago the USA was not really polarized. White Christian nationalist values were dominant and nobody spoke of alternatives. Not polarized. It wasn't good. Too many people were marginalized.
In my lifetime I've seen a shift in values. We aren't as racist or sexist as we were. Lots of people never shifted from the ancient values. Hence our society is polarized. This is progress.
It is to be expected and it's not much fun.
I see it in Canada in a very mild form. We have lots of people who are traumatized at the thought of trans people. Heck we have lots of people who think that the Liberals are radical leftists and the NDP are just beyond the pale. The NDP leader wears a turban! "This isn't Kansas anymoreToto".
This polarization seems to be global. I'll stick my neck out here and suggest that the common element seems to be the increase over time in the number of people whose worldview is based on science which is an intellectual tradition that doesn't look to a deity for explanations. At present 'unaffiliated' is the third largest faith group globally and the second largest faith group in the USA. There are more people who say they are unaffiliated with a religion than there are Catholics by quite a large margin in the USA.
Up until recently the unaffiliated were invisible and the religious majority mostly tolerated that. As they pushed their way onto the stage they brought pre-existing polarization to light.
As the world shifts from one set of values to another there is bound to be a time when the number of people who share one set equals the number of people who share another set of values. That's a time of polarization.
Just as the unaffiliated got along with the religious by being invisible, we may hope that the religious get along with the rest of us by being invisible.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.