Fear

The big secret in American society is that most of the "issues" that get talked about aren't real. I don't mean that abortions don't happen or immigrants don't exist.  I mean that the real "issue" is fear.  Nearly every political argument can be looked at from the perspective of fear.  "Whose fear is controlling this argument?"

The first answer to that question is usually obvious.  For example, immigrants are at the foundation of this country.  They add to the richness of our culture and do nothing, as a group, to harm our society.  But they've become a political topic.  Why?  Well, we know that the real reason is that they are a tool that is used to get the political base active.  But why is that effective?  It's effective because people are commonly afraid of people and things that are outside their understanding.  Immigrants, obviously, come from somewhere else, making them different and hard for some people to understand.  Therefore, people are afraid of immigrants, and politicians work actively to keep those fears alive. Immigration is an issue because of fear.

If you look long enough, you can find the fear in nearly any political issue.  It's usually not even slightly difficult, because most of the issues are only issues because they make effective tools for politicians.  If you find an issue that doesn't seem to revolve around fear, look again.  You'll probably find it.  If you don't, you may have something worth really looking at.  Instead of a political tool, your issue may have real importance.  Of course, because it doesn't have enough fear to make it an effective political tool, it will probably never be discussed.  But at least you'd know you've found a real issue.

Fear is one of those issues that is layered.  The first answer to "whose fear is controlling this argument?" is "the people who allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians into believing ________."  But the second answer is a bit trickier.  The second answer is usually "anyone involved in the argument."  That can be hard to hear, huh?  But it's true. If you look deep enough, you'll find that opposition to an argument that uses fear as a political tool is also based in fear.  Otherwise, why would we respond to a political tool? By responding, we're being manipulated.  And if the people who are originally being manipulated didn't have anyone to argue with, what would happen?  The arguments would die and the politicians would no longer be able to use those topics as tools.

Which leads to the obvious conclusion:  If we're talking politics, the first thing we should do is look for our fear.  If we find that, then our discussions can change.  We can talk about how we feel about a topic instead of yelling at the opposition.  We can talk about manipulation and how our political process works instead of vilifying our political counterpart. If those type of changes take place, if we come at life from a place of connection to our emotions, our world will be much different, and much better.