I make no apologies for my political beliefs, but that's mainly because the social circle that surrounds me shares those beliefs. But, then, I've carefully arranged it that way, primariliy to avoid unpleasant confrontations, or awkward expectations. In this contentious political season, however, I'm really taking a look at some of my assumptions in this area to see if I can't resolve, or at least come to terms with my favoritism to the left and my aversion to the right on the political spectrum.

Most political polarization, I believe, is caused by isolating oneself into a social group that mimics or embraces a particular worldview to the exclusion of all other worldviews. This is one of the drawbacks to the "infinite channels" of media that ungulfs 21st Century civilization. We can all tune in only those channels that ONLY champion our own worldview, strengthening it through agreement and validation from other members embracing those media channels.

This is the opposite, but no less dangerous a situation from the years leading up to the Civil War or even Revolutionary War where media isolation fostered the inbreeding of worldviews eventually leading to political polarization and war.

In fact, the argument that war is obsolete sprang from the phenomena of "super-access"--real-time availability of media input, such as internet capable smart phones, free international Skyping, and thousands of TV channels available on mobile devices everywhere in the world. This instant accessibility was thought to dissallow isolation and preclude one of the central characteristics of war.

But, alas, as we have seen, this instant media access has instead acted to foment insurrection, group think, and intellectual isolation. This is happening in American politics right now--much to the delight of comedians and satirists worldwide. But, it's gotten so exteme now that it's not all that funny.

What are we seeing here with this? To me, I see the outpicturing of technological societies grappling with spiritual isolation. This isolation is self-imposed and amplified by media access. There are infinite reasons now to remain isolated, not reach out, and not attempt to understand those who think along different paths.

From a higher or wider perspective, though, doesn't it seem like people are splitting up into tribes to protect themselves from an infinitely diverse world? Why is there this terrible fear of diversity? Why are we so afraid of other political or spiritual views? Well... I believe it is because we actually fear isolation. We want to connect, but only want to connect to those people and circumstances that reflect who we think we are.

It would seem we haven't really grown up emotionally from being teenagers, who developmentally form cliques with arbitrary rules in preparation for a social world that simply does the same, just on a much larger scale.

The key to the resolution of this has always been the practice of compassion. Compassion doesn't judge. Compassion only seeks to understand, and compassion connects. But, that practice of compassion is only possible when one is comfortable with isolation. It's a paradox--an irony. To be compassionate, you have to surrender your ego, surrender your political stand, and embrace the possibility that others may be completely different from you. And yet, by reaching out a compassionate hand, there is relief of the burdens of judgment, and the freedom to love everything.

In a direct way, it would seem as a society, we have not matured emotionally enough to intelligently use the media technology we have created. If all-access media only leads more rapidly to conflict and war, then that's not the best use of it, it seems to me. Why not use it to reach out to opposing views, reach out to those in pain, reach out to those without hope? It is the first act of compassion to reach out, and by not doing so when surrounded by this infinite web of media access is just not intelligent use of it. Our smart phones are smarter than us--they don't care who you talk to. They don't care what you believe. They are only there to facilitate communication. So how about we use it to bring more compassion into the world?

In vibrant health,