Why Do We Think We Need To Politicize Everything?
A scientific and sociological deep dive into human bias.
Politics don’t matter. Let me explain.
Politics, linguistically speaking, originated as a Greek term to explore the development of citizenship. Today, that word really has taken on more of an ongoing morphology of meaning. For some, in American politics, the word has come to mean: two categories that influence the voting system (i.e., Left and Right). For others, it refers to a body of relationships that leads all the way up to world leaders and tends to include bureaucratic processes that help steer social behavior and values into a direction based on the dominant narrative.
The major issue here is one of systems.
To ensure we don’t get confused here, I am using this term from the field of sociology. Systems are inherently limiting, and yet, today the American public approaches many subjects from a form of ‘systems’ thinking. Hence, why many are inadvertently inclined to argue to change an idea - which functions like a system - is to just continue “reinventing the wheel” - the only reason why most people claim this to be an unarguable truth is that they approach an idea as a system - with certain relationships, beliefs, processes and predetermined potential already in place.
In sociology, systems are defined as the following:
In social science, the study of society as a complex arrangement of elements, including individuals and their beliefs, as they relate to a whole (e.g., a country).
The key way that systems function according to this notion is that the elements, objects, or ideas that arranged. These ideas do not come pre-packaged, or pre-arranged. This means they are continuously arranged by values, beliefs, and a trajectory based upon how a society identifies itself.
Why is this crucial to understand? Well, to truly comprehend why we politicize everything, we have to understand how systems operate - more, specifically politics — which is a system.
Remember, systems are arranged from the culture and values of a space. There is a spatiality, or environmental aspect to how someone might define politics depending upon ‘where’ it emerges. This is why we can explore political systems in Western countries and it appears as one form of interrelations - but, then go to an indigenous group in a foreign context and see a different model at work.
Systems are not universal, but they are contextually influenced.
In individualistic cultures, binaries tend to be the way people approach concepts, mainly because people are conditioned to think that ideas have a natural binarity (i.e., this or that) quality to them. We all fundamentally know this not to be the case, but, because there is something at play, we have a composite set of contributors that lead to the ideological extremism that we are now seeing in America today. Just because systems exist, do not mean it is the best way to organize societies - but, exist, they sure do! Mostly as complex systems.
To fully grasp this, we have to turn to another notion, referred to as psychological splitting. What is splitting, you ask?
“Splitting” is a defense mechanism in which people unconsciously frame ideas, individuals, or groups in all-or-nothing terms (e.g., all-good vs. all-bad or all-powerful vs. 100% powerless). It’s a widely used concept in mental health.
Keep in mind that, this is a defense mechanism that operates under the hood of this overall need to feel safer in an environment. However, this has now been the normalized way to respond to things across society - which includes virtual spaces. It’s a social value. America, as a culture, values splitting.
Most defense mechanisms are ways for people to feel safe in their world. It’s a way to control their world and respond to threats before they even occur. This primes people and their behaviors to justify the presence of defense mechanisms which become how they measure the success of how they respond to things in their experience.
The Mathematics of a Country on Trauma
Let’s put all of these together which will clarify why America (particularly), is prone to only binary thinking - and uses it as an ideological barometer for whether or not culture is moving forward.
If a culture is driven by the value of individualism this then leads people to think that all views should be respected. But, if there are competing beliefs that some ideas are more highly valued than others, then this becomes absorbed into the idea of being an individual with the freedom to come up with their own conclusions.
These competing beliefs then become the new foundation and remove individualism as a celebration of competing ideas that can still be viewed as things to be learned from. So, in short, right now, America is not a country that values individualized ideas - but one that has been overthrown by the evolutionary drive to self-protect itself from the possible threats of having too many ism’s that could lead to a country-wide existential crisis.
So, therefore, we are living in a time of trauma.
When that occurs, systems imbibe that trauma and add that to the lens from which it perceives reality. In this sense, the political system does not stand alone, but actually relies on the trauma narratives to identify how it should operate as a new form of social interrelations.
There is an algorithmic trajectory that is sustained by an ecosystem of beliefs, values, emotions and other contributors that normalize the new metmorphosis of this new form of ideology that needs people to feel justified in employing anger as a way to find joy (and purpose).
The algorithm refers to how any idea is no longer enough on its own, and does not hold the same value without the trauma and fear that a country or society might have been used to previously. In evolution, this is a form of ideological mutation.
This mutation doesn’t simply mutate itself, but then mutates behaviors across society and becomes the proverbial ‘judge and jury’ that many live by. and therefore, over time, progresses into the new way that people should behave.
The truth of the matter, in sociological terms, is that systems are intended to be naturally-changing - however. not in some obscene direction where it is somehow predetermined by the fears and insecurities of a nation.
So, the way out of such a deadlock, is to deconstruct a system from its foundation and begin to alter the patterns that could have contributed to an ideology that no longer serves the dominant narrative, but keeps it from beyond itself.
The politicization of everything is not the same as celebrating diverse thoughts and values across a society - it is fear that hides itself under the guise of what once preceded it. A nation that seeks to politicize all of reality is a nation that needs to heal.
Very well explained and makes sense with regards the trauma response.