David Brubaker is a Professor of Sociology, and Author of a new book called When the Center Does Not Hold: Leading in an Age of Polarization

In this conversation we talk about polarization and what happens when conflict reaches its highest levels: people stop caring about the issues and the conflict turns personal. When this happens people start to believe that who wins or loses the conflict will have profound cosmic consequences, a battle between good and evil. They believe that the only solution will be separation from their enemy or the complete elimination of them.

We talk about the causes of polarization which David distills down to a combination of inequality, a threat to identity & a stated grievance that people can rally around. We recognize that all of those elements are exacerbated by personal and generational trauma. The sources of our divisions run deep.

We talk about strategies for living and leading in times of polarization. The upshot here is: honor your dignity, honor the dignity of others, speak your truth and then work to stay connected.

Finally we talk about how the only way to transform polarization is to de-escalate the conflict. Given lessons from history, it's not pretty to imagine what happens if we don't. David suggests, and I agree, that we might need to take a collective timeout so that we can have a cool down period.

Polarization is a big theme in this season of Fractal Friends and the perspective that David brings in this conversation is grounded, practical, and inspiring.

Here is the transcript of our conversation.

More Info at the episode webpage: fractalfriends.us/fractalfriends/david-brubaker

David Brubaker:
Cooperativebydesign.com
Congregationalconsulting.org

Music: "Birds of the Night" by Jen Myzel

Work with Duncan: www.spokeandwheel.co