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transformation - Society Builders. Society Builders  

with your host Duane Varan. (Duane) Welcome to  another exciting episode of Society Builders and  

thanks for joining the conversation for social 
transformation. Now allow me to start today's  

episode with a bit of a bird's eye view of where 
our journey together has been navigating us to  

over the past year or so. In episodes 18 and 19, 
we began exploring one of the fundamental pillars  

of society building engaging with the prevalent 
discourses of society. We explored what this means  

particularly from a Baha i perspective and we 
discussed strategies for effectively engaging with  

such discourse. Now I then wanted to take us on 
a journey exploring a SPECIFIC discourse and here,  

of course, I focused on the contemporary issues 
associated with the rampant polarization that  

is currently plaguing the world. I did this so 
we could explore what discourse looks like how  

we engage with a new discourse. Now, I could 
have focused on any number of discourse themes:  

the environment, race unity, the empowerment 
of women I mean these are all great examples of  

discourses that Baha'is would normally engage 
with. And in due course, we ll explore all of  

these and more. But I chose the polarization focus here specifically for a number of reasons: First,  

it was something I knew absolutely nothing about.  In fact, I remember being blown away when I read  

reference to the need for us to bring antagonistic 
people closer together thinking, how on earth do  

you do that? And that was exactly what I wanted 
a challenge I knew nothing about - so that we  

could together go through the process of engaging 
with a new discourse from scratch. An authentic  

journey similar to the ones you will face when you encounter new discourse themes. Second, it had an urgency to it that was reflected repeatedly in guidance from the Universal House of Justice who  

describe the world's situation today as polarized 
and paralyzed , with prejudices polarizing  

societies at a time when unity is more vital to 
resolving local, national and global challenges ;  

calling on us to resist the pull of controversial 
and polarizing debates. And this guidance is a  

reflection on the extent to which polarization 
has emerged as one of the dominant issues of  

our day all over the world. So the gravity of this 
particular theme seemed particularly urgent. This  

is front and center with Baha'u'llah advice that 
we engage with the needs of the age in which ye  

live in and polarization clearly meets that test. 
It responds to one of the most critical needs of  

THIS age. Third, polarization intersects at the 
very heart of the mission of Baha'u'llah. I mean,  

bringing antagonistic groups together this is 
EXACTLY what we re about. It s the ultimate  

expression of the unifying power of the Faith.
Fourth, it s foundational. And what I mean by this  

is that learning how to address polarization is 
a skill that helps us in just about any other  

discourse we engage with because almost all modern discourse will require this capacity for us to  

help bring people together. So gaining new skills 
and insights around depolarization helps lay a  

foundation for our capacity to engage effectively 
with other discourse themes. And finally, I felt  

it was an arena that had great opportunity for 
engaging and collaborating with others and with  

like-minded organizations. And here, specifically, 
this view was shaped by reading the work of Nealin  

Parker who features in episode 27 who, together 
with her research team at Princeton University,  

has identified over 6,700 organizations in the US 
alone working to find paths to depolarization.

So this was the underlying rationale for 
the polarization focus. And what we ve been  

doing from episodes 20 onwards has been getting ourselves up to speed on the scientific knowledge  

that exists in the existing discourse. This is 
where we should always start - by reading society  

listening and coming to terms with the existing 
discourse. And here, we ve been incredibly  

fortunate to learn directly from the leading 
luminaries in the world in this discourse.

And so today and over the next few episodes, we re going to try to bring some synthesis to what we've  

been learning from these amazing individuals and from their research and experience. And in that  

context, we re going to try to explore how this 
relates to Bahá’í perspectives and how we might  

bring new contributions to the discourse at 
present. Now that s an incredibly tall order  

well beyond my capacity, for sure. So we won t get  it perfectly right and it won t be comprehensive.  

But we can at least scratch the surface here 
and explore some possibilities to at least  

demonstrate the potential of such an approach.
 So today, we start exploring Bahá’í perspectives  

towards depolarization. (musical interlude)
Now once again, I need to offer a bit of a disclaimer  

here to remind you that I speak with no authority 
here. This podcast is a personal initiative it  

does not necessarily reflect the views of any 
Bahá’í agency. So you should weigh the ideas  

here for yourselves. Again, my voice is no more 
important than your voice so explore at your own  

risk (laughs). And an added caution. It s far 
too premature to argue that anything could be a  

true Bahá’í perspective on depolarization. In the 
same way that we don t really yet have something  

akin to Bahá’í art or Bahá’í music or even Baha'i education, for that matter - we definitely  

don t have a distinctive approach to this issue of 
polarization. So I use the term Bahá’í perspective  

here in a very broad sense and not in any kind 
of official sense. It s more that we re exploring  

Bahá’í -INSPIRED approaches to depolarization.
And one final disclaimer we explore this theme  

of depolarization with a focus on what WE can do and not on what we might expect others to do. In  

other words, we re not talking about social policy 
or workplace law or anything macro. We re talking  

about the things we can do in our own lives in 
our interaction with those in our orb what we  

can do directly to help remedy polarization by 
integrating Bahá’í -inspired approaches. OK so  

with those clarifications, let s embark upon our 
little journey here. (musical interlude). Now,  

rather than go through a linear review each of 
our recent episodes, I thought I d weave across  

the interviews to pull out some key themes and 
explore how Bahá’í approaches might contribute to  

these strands of the depolarization discourse. 
Our approach won t be comprehensive it ll be  

illustrative. In other words, I won t cover 
everything we've learned but I'll pull out a  

few key insights to explore how we might integrate Bahá’í -inspired perspectives. And specifically,  

we re going to explore just FIVE of the key 
principles that have emerged across these  

interviews. These are five of the most important 
principles that grow out of the research on the  

science of depolarization. And for each of 
these, we re going to explore how Bahá’í   

perspectives might contribute to advancing the 
discourse further. And so over the next few  

episodes we re going to explore these five 
themes including: * Forces that act as an  

accelerant to polarization and what we can do to 
help prevent that influence in our own lives and  

how to safeguard against ourselves adding fuel 
to the fire. * How polarization dehumanizes  

the other and what we can do to help rehumanize 
the equation. * How we can enhance our capacity  

to listen and understand, which are critical to 
effective depolarization. * How we can help  

break binaries narratives that reduce problems to 
conflict between two opposing forces. * How we  

can enhance the environments under which contact between antagonistic groups are facilitated.
  

Now again, this doesn t cover everything we've learned. But I think it s good ground for  

us to cover which will help illustrate how Bahá’í  
perspectives can contribute to this discourse. So  

that s our game plan. And obviously, that s too 
much for us to cover in a single episode, so we ll  

cover this ground across a few episodes. So let's dig in. (musical interlude). Now polarization  

is a social pollutant. Just like there might 
be toxic particles in the air we breathe,  

if we live in society if we interact with society 
we re going to contract this toxic polarization  

in our everyday lives. It doesn't matter that we 
don t approve of it, that it s not compatible with  

our beliefs if we live in society we re going 
to breathe in toxic polarization every day.

So we can't stop it BUT we can certainly limit 
its influence. But this requires that we become  

more aware better sensitized to it. And this 
requires active reflection reflection on what we  

breathe in what we inhale - but also reflection 
on what we exhale on our actions. Because as we  

become contaminated, we can also accelerate 
and add fuel to the polarization disease,  

despite our best intentions. So we start our 
discussion on strategies to depolarize with a  

focus on - ourselves. This is not about what 
others should or shouldn t do it s about you  

it s about me and what WE can do to both limit 
the toxically polarized pollutants coming in  

but also to regulate our own behavior so we don t 
further contribute to the problem. Now our guests  

on these podcasts have been really helpful in 
helping us understand this dynamic. I think the  

most common space where most of us interact with this kind of toxic polarization is in our social  

media spheres. Now in episode 26, Dr. Lisa Schrich did an amazing job in helping us understand how  

polarization in social media is not coincidental 
it s not an accident. It s the by-product of very  

deliberate strategies designed to maximize 
profit for the social media platforms and  

a function of the work of chaos actors often from 
foreign adversaries actively working to undermine  

social structures by cultivating divisions.
So remember, other things being equal, if you have a  

credible social media post and a highly polarized 
version of the same post, the algorithms on these  

social media platforms will favor the polarized 
and further propagate these over the credible.  

So the system is rigged to polarize. Now there 
are larger conversations to be had about social  

policy around all of this. But for now, I d like 
us to focus on what this means for us in our own  

daily lives. Now let s pause here for a second. 
Just for a moment, I d like you to think about  

the dramatic social transformation that has played out over the past two decades or so where we have  

become so much more aware of our food diets. 
Today, when you go to a fast food restaurant  

and order a burger and fries, you are keenly aware of how many calories there are in what you order.  

Maybe that encourages you to order small fries 
instead of large ones. And when you re at the  

supermarket buying your groceries, you pick up a 
can and look to see what it s ingredients are. And  

maybe you pick the item that has less trans-fat, 
for example. So we've become a lot more conscious  

and discerning and aware of what we eat.
We still eat bad things, right. But we're just a lot more  

aware of what we're eating and sometimes not 
always but sometimes - we regulate our behavior  

armed with that knowledge. Now our social media consumption is a lot like our food diet it s  

our media diet. And just like we ve become more 
aware of our calorie intake and the ingredients  

we ingest we also need to become more aware of the polarized content we consume. And continuing  

on with the interview with Dr. Schrich, I think 
what she really helped us understand here is that  

what these corporations and what these foreign 
chaos actors are preying on is what she called  

our reptile brain (laughs). I loved this part of 
the interview. In fact, let me remind you of  

that part of the episode:
(Dr. Lisa Schrich) So really, neuroscience is behind a lot of conflict  

behavior. When human beings can sit down calmly and breathing regularly, we can solve problems  

together. We can disagree about issues, but we can maintain a sense of human dignity, relationship  

with others. And we have our prefrontal cortex. 
I'm pointing to my forehead right now. We have  

this amazing brain, as humans, that can link up 
with other people's brains and figure out creative  

solutions to problems. And really, that's what 
conflict resolution, conflict transformation  

building, that's what that's all about, is trying 
to create a setting, a condition where people can  

be their best selves and work with other people 
to find creative solutions to problems. So,  

as a mediator, for example, I'm used to sitting 
in a room with people who are very angry with each  

other, disagreeing something. And it's my job as a mediator to lead them through a process of moving  

from the reptile part of their brain in the back 
bottom of the brain stem, and trying to sort of  

create enough safety in the room that they can 
come up to their forehead, where their thinking  

brain is, where they can actually solve problems 
together. And so even before all this, social  

media, I think neuroscience really underlies a 
lot of the process of conflict transformation,  

moving from just an emotional response to be 
able to think and be mindful of our ability  

to solve problems together.
So I think when you think about neuroscience and social media,  

there's a few things happening. It's showing 
us the emotional content which keeps us at that  

brainstem. My colleagues at the Center for Humane 
Technology call it the race to the bottom of the  

brain stem on social media. So it's this race to show us the most outrageous emotional content  

to keep us engaged at an emotional level.
 (Duane) Now I love this way of framing the  

problem. Polarization feeds the reptile portion 
of our brain it's this race to the bottom of our  

brainstem. And that, in turn, is addictive. And 
our challenge, neurophysiologically, is to instead  

feed the more human, the rational dimensions of 
our brain. Now in Bahá’í terminology, this is  

what we call the struggle between our lower and 
higher natures, between our animal self and our  

divine self between our material and spiritual 
self. Abdul-Baha describes how this lower self  

is captive to nature and how our higher self 
transcends this all. And the whole beauty of the  

human story is that we are creatures endowed with free will so we decide which version of ourselves  

to empower. This reminds me of that story that I 
know you ve all heard it s the story of a Cherokee  

chief explaining to his grandson that there are 
two wolves in all of us one evil and dark and one  

noble and good. The grandson then asks, which wolf wins? To which the grandfather replies it s the  

one you feed. The one you feed. And this is where our reflection and vigilance becomes so important.  

In understanding which self we re feeding with 
our media diets. Now this isn t limited to  

social media. The same kind of communication diet is also true in our interpersonal interactions  

with others. When you re angry with someone and want to vent who do you turn to? You could turn  

to the friend you have who will likely get you 
to pause reflect calm down get you questioning  

whether you really need to be so angry. OR you can 
turn to the friend who you know will agree with  

your anger reinforce it make you feel justified 
feed your anger. So which friend do you turn  

to? And if we re being honest here there s a good 
probability that we'll turn to that second friend  

because it FEELS good. It vindicates our anger it 
justifies it. It makes us feel right to be angry.  

But while it feels good but it is probably not the 
most productive response. And this is what both  

Amanda Ripley in episode 20 and Dr. Peter Coleman 
in episode 21 - this is what they were describing  

in our attraction to conflict entrepreneurs 
people who are really good at feeding and  

inflaming our anger at weaving polarized reaction 
at reinforcing our sense of being victimized.  

You're looking for someone to reinforce your 
sense of anger and they re there to gratify.  

Now in this context this often FEELS good. But, 
again, that doesn't mean it's productive. In fact,  

it's probably making the situation worse.
So just as we need to be discerning in our social media  

encounters we also have to be discerning in who we 
confide in in who we turn to in our moments where  

our emotions flair up. And, of course, we need to 
be on double duty on these occasions not to allow  

this all to deteriorate into an opportunity for 
backbiting. Enough said, right. OK so whether we  

re talking about social media or interpersonal 
interaction we need to be vigilant so that we're  

minimizing our contact with forces that will 
feed and enflame polarization. We need to feed our  

higher nature to rise and transcend above this all 
so we are less a creature of our rampant emotions  

and we can better channel our divine selves.
 (musical interlude). And there s another side to  

this equation and that s that we also need to be 
on guard lest we become an agent of polarization  

ourselves despite our best intent.
You read a social media post. It angers you.  

Your emotions get triggered and you immediately 
post a reply that you later realize has only  

further enflamed the problem. It's critical 
that at those moments we pause and wait before  

posting a reply so that our emotions can settle 
down a bit. And that we then bring the voice of  

wisdom and not just the voice of our emotion to 
our response, if a response is even merited.

And as we discussed in our interview with Dr. 
Schrich, it s much easier to have this kind of  

uncalibrated response online than it is in person 
because when you say something to someone in  

person, you see their reaction to your words and 
that reaction is often disarming. You see that  

your words are making a person sad, for example, 
and so you temper your response. But online,  

it's easy to become indifferent to such response. 
So we become more callous, less sensitive and more  

likely to further fan the flames.
Again, a number of our guests talk about this need for  

self-reflection over our own actions. Let's remind 
ourselves here of what Amanda Ripley shared with  

us in episode 20: (Amanda Ripley) Yeah, I think it's important for me to first acknowledge that  

we all can be conflict entrepreneurs. And this is 
actually one of the things that Gary reached out  

to me when the book first came out and he heard 
me on the radio and he was like, yeah, just be  

careful with that because you might create a whole  new us versus them. And so I do try to remind  

myself that every day I just wake up and try not 
to be a conflict entrepreneur because especially  

on social media, but even just around the office 
or in your neighborhood, it is easy to do that.  

It's a way to bond with people by complaining or 
blaming someone else. (Duane) And I really loved  

the stories that Gary Friedman shared with us in 
episode 22 about his own journey. Here was one of  

the world s leading mediator trainers explaining 
how he slipped up. He s sharing the story of his  

engagement with local governance in his own small  locality let s listen in: (Gary Friedman) We had  

problems in the community. People said, we need 
somebody to run the meetings. I said, I know how  

to run meetings where there's conflict and they 
said great. So they elected me in a landslide.

And then this was to the local, just our local, 
250 houses right on the ocean in California.

And my idea was, let's get the whole community 
involved. And so all the people that voted for me  

come to the meetings. It's your community. And of 
course, one of the great surprises, two surprises  

neither of them should have been. One was they 
didn't come because they thought they'd elected  

me. I would do that. And secondly, the people that 
were against me, they came to every meeting and  

they just started taking potshots at me right 
off the bat. Well, as a mediator, I was used  

to really heavy conflicts. Horrible things would 
happen in the room, but it was never aimed at me,  

and this was aimed at me. And as the me, what came 
back into my life was the old trial lawyer. I knew  

how to defend and attack, and before I knew it, I 
was off and running. And everything I believed in  

about how people should be with each other, I was 
contradicting from moment to moment. And it was  

terrible experience because I was defensive.
 And I wouldn't say drunk with power, but kind  

of I loved the idea of having power. I kind of 
hadn't had it. As a mediator. I give it away,  

so I'm happy. But this was kind of intoxicating. 
We can make real change. And of course, that was  

seeds of destruction right there and created a WE 
/ THEM relationship between me and the people that  

were against me. And so I went through a really 
horrible period where my wife said to me she'd  

come to the meetings with the dog and then leave 
after a while. And at one point she said to me,  

'you know, I don't even recognize you. This is 
not the person that I've been with for the last 40  

some OD years. This is some old version of you.'
 And so I really took that to heart because I knew  

that she was right and she always is right. 
And so I went through a period of deep soul  

searching. (Duane) So if this can happen to Gary 
Friedman, one of the world s leading experts in  

this arena and a really, really nice guy I mean, 
if it can happen to Gary, it can happen to us too,  

right. So this speaks to Baha'u'llah's 
admonishment that we be guarded in our speech.  

Baha'u'llah refers to human utterance as an essence 
which aspireth to exert its influence and needeth  

moderation , and He enjoins His followers to 
speak with words as mild as milk in a manner  

consistent with our station of true understanding 
and nobility. So this is painting a picture,  

right. Of us being highly aware and conscious of 
the potential impact of our expression of aspiring  

for nobility in our manner of expression.
 And the Universal House of Justice, I think,  

gives us this incredibly sharp focus with these words:
We return to the phenomenal  

characteristics of speech. Content, volume, style, 
tact, wisdom, timeliness are among the critical  

factors in determining the effects of speech 
for good or evil. Consequently, the friends need  

ever to be conscious of the significance of this 
activity which so distinguishes human beings from  

other forms of life, and they must exercise it 
judiciously. Their efforts at such discipline will  

give birth to an etiquette of expression worthy 
of the approaching maturity of the human race.

It is precisely this etiquette of expression 
which we so desperately need at this critical  

juncture. Content, volume, style, tact, wisdom 
and timeliness. But until this etiquette evolves,  

we can at least aspire to it in our own 
conduct. So we've talked about both the  

information we ingest and our expression and I 
know that this can be nuanced and complicated at  

times. At the end of the day, it s a skill. 
And fortunately, this is something we CAN  

train for. As I shared in episode 21, Dr. Peter 
Coleman has developed a course a challenge only  

requiring a few minutes of your time over a 21 
day period designed to help sensitize us to our  

own threats to polarization and I ve included a 
link is this episode s description. Or, as Gary  

Friedman explained in episode 22, you can complete 
his 40 hour course at UnderstandingInConflict.org.  

And in due course, I'm sure there will be a Bahá’í institute courses you'll be able to join. But  

I wanted to remind you of the very precious gift 
we have to help us navigate through this terrain  

a gift that is here and now that will help 
you TODAY- immediately. And here, of course,  

I'm talking about the example of Abdul-Baha.
 In fact, that s our short hand. Any time we re  

not certain either in terms of the content we re 
exposed to or our own expression the test is super  

simple. Just imagine that Abdul-Baha is there with 
you. And if you're OK with what you re hearing,  

reading, writing or saying then sally forth. You're good. But if you re embarrassed then something  

is probably not quite right and you should 
adjust accordingly. This is a powerful tool  

which gives us immediate access to the voice of 
our conscious which, more than anything, can help  

us navigate the challenges of our times.
So this is your emergency plan. When in doubt, visualize  

Abdul-Baha in your presence and that will help 
you weigh your words. (musical interlude)
  

Now we've run out of time for today and we 
only got through the first of our five key  

themes connecting what we've learned from 
the science of depolarization together with  

Bahá’í principles. So we have four themes to go 
which will probably take us a couple of episodes  

to cover. But it s exciting stuff, right!
So thanks again for joining the conversation  

for social transformation. I look forward to 
continuing our exploration of Bahá’í approaches  

to depolarization That's next time on Society 
Builders. (music starts). Society Builders pave the way. To a  

better world to a better day. A united approach to building a new society. There s a crisis facing  

humanity. People suffer from a lack of unity
It s  time for a bet-ter p-ath to a new society. Join  

our conversation for social transformation
 Society Builders. So engage with your local  

communities and explore all the exciting 
possibilities. We can elevate the atmosphere  

in which we move. The paradigm is shifting. It is  so very uplifting. It s a new beat, a new song,  

a brand new groove. Join our conversation for social transformation. Society Builders
  

The Bahá’í Faith has a lot to say helping people 
to discover a better way. With discourse and  

social action framed by unity. Now the 
time has come to lift our game And apply  

the teachings of the Greatest Name. And rise 
to meet the glory of our destiny. Join our  

conversation for social transformation. Society Builders