Election demographics showed us this, but not this –

Study Report

Ok, the majority of our voters chose Barack Obama to lead our country. The demographics especially spotlighted that minorities, women and students have a far different value system than what Mitt Romney and the GOP seemed to want to foist upon us.

But they didn’t yet tell us this –

Now that we’ve got our election results settled, for the time being, there is still a whole lot that is up to us to tackle, other than voting. That is, if we truly want to become a country with a highly diverse population that works well together, for the good of all.

If the “good of all” is truly our desire, as the demographics seem to suggest, how can we go about achieving the result?

Main point: How exactly do we go about overcoming the polarization that shows up in our politics?

From our Possible Human, Possible Society Study –

• Better than 85% of the people we interviewed report that their vision of a healthfully functioning U.S.A. includes building bridges to overcome the problems of diversity that hinder unity (i.e. overcoming polarization).

So far about eighty of our targeted 400 by December 31, 2015 have been interviewed.

• Fewer than 10% of those interviewed say they make any effort, at all, to interact with people who are markedly different from themselves.

‘Markedly different’ is described as having differences of ethnicity or culture, religion, value systems or viewpoints including political perspectives.

Contemplate this, if you will, and the significance of fewer than 10% of the collective in our country being unwilling to interact in meaningful ways with anybody distinctly different from themselves. Especially in a country where more and more people, every day, are born who are, most likely, different than those with whom you grew up and/or have ever known, especially if you are white.

This sampling includes individuals from each of the four sub-groups for our study.

Question: If you are ready to accept (especially if you are white and middle class) that you are living more and more in a world full of strangers and strangeness, is there anything different that you think you might be willing to do to help this country be all that it was meant to be and can be?

More to come.