Jonathan Haidt’s mind-blowing book The Righteous Mind looks at the research around morality and why we vote the way we do.
PICTURE: Hannah Busing/Unsplash
His compelling research says that left-leaning voters put compassion and fairness above all considerations when working out their morality, while conservatives value sanctity, loyalty and authority.
His research shows that we need all five areas for a functioning society – that is, the left would sacrifice society for the individual while the right would sacrifice the individual for society. Healthy societies balance these.
In other words, our shrill, polarised political debate is no good for anyone. Rather than shouting each other down, the left and right need to understand each other’s arguments and come to some healthy compromises, for the sake of everyone.
Jonathan Haidt – he’s well worth a google search.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
