Timely

Marysville, Washington

September 29, 2024

I have cited this video previously. At the time, Haidt was a professor at UVa; he is now at NYU. UVa’s loss IMO.

Haidt has published books and/or articles on the moral underpinnings of our political divide, happiness, coddling of young people and the impact of social media.

This video is about the moral aspects of our political divide. It is 11 years old now. I think most of it still rings true although I wonder if on the dimension of “authority” he would find conservatives register lower on that scale now.

For me, his analysis provides a framework for understanding my evolution. For much of my life I was a conservative. I wanted to conserve those institutions that made our country what it is. I wanted small government, free markets, and probably thought the underprivileged were not my problem. I always voted Republican.

As I have sought to blow up my paradigm and live outside my comfort zone, my political views have shifted. I’m no progressive. But I do embrace change. I care much more now about those who struggle in our economy. I believe there is a role for government to make our society better. I’ll note that I think state government should play much more of a role and we should encourage less government out of DC. I am as I always have been a fiscal conservative and view our national debt as perhaps our most important issue. I don’t view climate change as a political issue. It’s real. I do agree that we need a clearly understood path to deal with it. I also know we won’t ever get that. Which sucks. It’s no different than the debt; we are leaving our country and world worse off than we found it.

We have to stop treating those with who we disagree as wrong and try to find common ground. That’s hard in part because some people want the chaos because they are fed up.