At this week's Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with Eric Torres, a doctoral student at Harvard School of Education, about political identity and the history and future of polarization, which he studies and, come this fall, will teach a course at Harvard on. Eric developed his fascination with these issues through his undergraduate studies in philosophy, metaphysics, and ethics. As he saw the country shifting and dividing, he found himself pondering what makes for productive dialogue and arguments, and wanting to be involved in helping foster and facilitate them. Eric feels that it’s not that politics are getting further apart, it’s that our political identities have become wrapped up in sectarian conflicts since the 1960s and that we now make judgments about people’s character and morality based upon their political views. He feels this stems from a swirl of factors including elite political behavior, social media, demographic shifts, income inequality, and the decline of religiosity, all of which drive us to act in more tribal ways. Today, too often political identity is grounded in anger and socio-emotional needs rather than civic responsibilities and participation, but it doesn’t have to be so. Eric helped us think about how we can forge individual and collective political philosophies that “rebel” against the toxic political environment. We hope you’ll join us in this rebellion. Thanks for listening!
