Failure To Communicate Part II: Dogmas and Purity Tests
Cooperation is the human super power, and cooperation begins with an invitation, which means that cooperation begins with communication. The human need to cooperate is the reason that our ancient ancestors invented language in the first place. If they couldn’t communicate, then they couldn’t cooperate, and if they couldn’t cooperate, they were food. When we communicate, we can cooperate, and when we cooperate, people thrive.
We have an epidemic of despair because we have an outdated cultural narrative, and because we’ve lost our sense of community. The epidemic of despair in measured in the increasing annual rates of suicide, addiction, overdose, and prescriptions for the treatment of anxiety and depression. The outdated cultural narrative was launched in 1970, when Milton Friedman convinced the world that the highest cultural priority was short-term profit growth, and that we should sacrifice everything, including conscience, integrity, and the complete expression of human talent for the quest to maximize shareholder value.
Obviously, this deeply misguided narrative would contribute to the decline of our sense of community. A community that de-prioritizes conscience, integrity, and the quest for the complete expression of talent can hardly call itself a community. The other contributing factors to the decline of community are dogma and purity tests.
A dogma is “a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds.” For dogmatists, it’s not enough that you respect their beliefs. You must adopt their beliefs. You must accept their taboos. You must create a safe space for them to feel comfortable in their unfounded authority. There are religious dogmas, atheist dogmas, and political dogmas. Dogmas and purity tests are the Enemies of Cooperation, the Ideological Axis of Evil
“... whoever plays, plays freely. Whoever must play, cannot play”
Dogma and tyranny run against human nature. Cooperation is the human super power. Cooperation cannot be enforced at the barrel of a gun. You will only cooperate with me if I invite you to participate in a project that sounds beneficial to you and/or to our community. You cannot cooperate with me at gunpoint, by definition. You will stab me in the back at the first opportunity, and rightfully so.
A purity test is “a rigid standard used to assess whether an individual or group maintains ideological purity on specific issues, often within a political context.” Dogmas and purity tests destroyed our sense of community because they caused us to focus on areas of disagreement. Then we created in-groups and out-groups based on those disagreements. We need a sense of community because we need to cooperate. We need to cooperate both to survive and to flourish. We need a common mission that is worth setting aside our disagreements to accomplish
You can have your dogmas and your purity tests, but are they eliminating potential collaborators, and is that what you want? The reason that there used to be an unwritten rule about not discussing religion or politics in polite company is that those are the things we tend to get dogmatic about, and they become barriers to communication, community, and cooperation.
Dogmas and purity tests serve one’s ego. They allow one to feel superior, and that’s certainly an individual’s own prerogative. Do we want to sacrifice our community for our sense of superiority, or vice versa?
Cooperation begins with an invitation. If you can’t explain your idea simply, you don’t understand it well enough. When you understand it well, you can invite people to join you. When you don’t understand it well, you become dogmatic and tyrannical. You start looking for ways to enforce your dogmas on the people “who just don’t get it.”
The 12 Skills for Life Community begins with an invitation, an invitation to practice a philosophy that is an attempt to answer a question. That question is: “What is the most effective strategy for living a life of meaning and fulfillment that contributes the flourishing of your community?” I am not here to convince anyone that “12 Skills for Life” is the best strategy. I am here to invite people to participate in this strategy. If you have a better strategy, invite people to join your community. If you demonstrate the most effective strategy, I will join your community.
That’s what culture is. “Over here, this is our strategy for living…”
If you have a better hypothesis about what is causing the epidemic of despair, share it. If you have a better solution to the epidemic of despair, invite people to cooperate with you. If you have a better strategy for living a life of meaning, fulfillment, and contribution, invite people to join you. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough, and if you don’t understand it well enough, people won’t accept your invitation. If people don’t accept your invitation, that’s no excuse to become dogmatic and tyrannical. It’s the reason to develop your understanding and simplify your invitation.