EP 324 Must Politics Be War?

Tribalism is the term that has entered our political lexicon as we attempt to define the raucous, contentious political phase we have entered in this country.  That seems dangerous for a society that is built on the the ideals of fairness, justice and liberty.  All of which would seem to require that we trust each other enough to settle our political differences in an amicable fashion. After all, America hangs together, as a society not built on ethnicity, on the adherence to those values.  Kevin Vallier, professor of philosophy and author of the book ‘Must Politics Be War?’ is challenging us to restore our trust in the open society.  He shares thoughts on overcoming the cynicism and callowness of our politics and offers the nearly discarded notion that you don’t need to share strangers’ ideology in order to trust them. And in the spirit of this episode, imagine that increased diversity as our society is now experiencing need not correlate with a decline in social trust.  Let’s think about this as we enter this highly charged political season and see whether we still have the ability to reason together because more things work about our politics than are broken. Is that even possible? It’s, at least, worth a shot.  Expect an unconventional conversation over the next 30 minutes.

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