Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we’re left, right or center. He studies how and why we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and open-minded and suggesting the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most. His new book is “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.”
If you watch Haidt’s lecture (available below) you begin to understand more and maybe question yourself more. Haidt says,
“If our goal is to understand the world, to seek a deeper understanding of the world, our general lack of moral diversity here is going to make it harder. Because when people all share values, when people all share morals, they become a team.”
Our righteous mind, dedicated to a specific moral view, is “designed” to:
- Unite us into teams,
- Divide us against other teams and
- Blind us to the truth.
“If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between “for” and “against” is the mind’s worst disease.” — Sent-Ts’an
But listen to Jonathan Haidt and keep on open mind
There’s a lot to think about.