The holidays are almost here and for many of us that means lots of time with family and friends. Time for conversation. Sometimes conversations about that most dreaded topic: Politics.
Ben Cook is a BYU Law School professor and director of BYU's Center for Conflict Resolution. He says that the seemingly acute divisions in American politics recently are only an extension of an ongoing issue.
“There’s been a lot of divisiveness over President Trump and his policies and politics, but things have been kind of deteriorating - public discourse has been deteriorating - for much longer than that,” he said.
So what can we do to make the holidays joyful rather than frustrating?
“So the first thing I usually recommend is asking myself ‘is this conversation about politics really necessary?’" Cook said. "We have this misguided hope that somehow this next conversation, I’m going to prove the other person wrong and they’re going to finally be persuaded about the rightness of my position and the wrongness of their position. And that just doesn’t happen, but often it can strain.
"The second thing is committing to understanding the other side first. And that doesn’t mean we don’t share our perspective, but I just need to know that they’re not going to hear that until I’ve helped them feel that they are understood and they are now safe to listen to me.
"And then the third thing is just committing yourself to being charitable. When somebody is saying something that you think is crazy or maybe even evil, asking yourself ‘why would a reasonable, decent person ask this?’ Because most people are reasonable, decent people.”
