Primaries
I awakened this morning from a vivid dream and haven’t been able to shake it all day.
In the dream, I was using finger paints like the ones we used to enjoy in elementary school. Lacking artistic integrity of any kind, I simply created two congruent circles: one blue and one red.
As is often the case in dreams, something magical and surreal took place. The two circles moved towards one another, converging into what can be most aptly described as a Venn diagram.
As the primary colors of blue and red collided and the inevitable secondary color of purple emerged in the middle, words began to appear on the painting that were ascribed to the sections of the diagram. The blue circle read “fear and anxiety,” the words attached to the red circle were “insecurity and doubt,” and the term associated with the purple section was “anger.”
I was reminded of something Brene Brown wrote in her best-selling book, “Daring Greatly.” Anger is not a primary emotion, but a secondary one. Our work is to uncover the primary emotions underneath it, just as we see the primary colors blue and red underneath the secondary color purple. In this case, underneath the anger was anxiety and insecurity.
I’m not typically one to place much credence on dream interpretation, but this is an exception. We know that our dreams are the attempt of our subconscious to problem-solve and make sense of the stimuli coming at us from all angles during the day. In fact, Dr. Gayle Greene, a self-described insomniac and contributor to Psychology Today, wrote about REM sleep (the most dream-rich stage of sleeping): “dreams, far from being idle fantasies, are enablers of the most significant human cognitive functions.”
As it turns out, my dream had everything to do with the current state of affairs in our beloved country.
I am not alone in feeling fearful right now. Like you, I sat last Wednesday with my mouth agape as I watched events unfold in our nation’s Capitol. We were all in collective disbelief. The left was appalled that the right would go to such dangerous lengths to oppose the 2020 election results while the right was appalled that the left was willing to stand idly by as America crumbled.
Let me be clear: I am disinterested in which side is “right.” BOTH the democrats and republicans have valid points. BOTH are right. And BOTH are wrong. The fact that I lean left does not preclude me from appreciating how dedicated the right is to preserving their freedoms and liberties. And whether or not those freedoms and liberties are actually in jeopardy is irrelevant; the widespread perception of that truth is what deserves our attention.
There isn’t a single person among us who is not filled with a spirit of righteous indignation. Confirmation bias is providing the icing on the cake; our minds are telling us that we are RIGHT and CORRECT because the evidence to which we expose ourselves proves it so. That’s what happens when we live in echo chambers.
In 2012, Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a professor at the University of Virginia, penned a book that should (in my humble opinion) be mandatory reading for every American citizen. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion examines social intuitionism and the moral foundations theory as it applies to US liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. Haidt identifies multiple foundations of morality and illuminates which inspire the thinking behind the legislation of each group. He points out the fact that we are all too quick to judge and denigrate points of view that do not align with our own.
Dr. Haidt had no way of knowing what the events of January 6, 2021 would bring but the fact that his book was published nearly a decade in advance is nothing short of serendipitous. If ever there were a time to seek out and consider alternate viewpoints, to cross the proverbial aisles, that time is NOW.
