Division is destroying the world and our ability to live in it, and nobody wants that. Unfortunately, the psychology behind this division - the division of left and right - is so powerful that it's taken on a life of its own. It's based in the psychological roots of humanity: The power of social cooperation and the basic individual will to survive and reproduce.
These roots may seem contradictory, and sometimes they are, but there are many ways in which they support each other. Without large-scale social cooperation, we'd still be living in clan groups, wandering the world in search of our next meal. In holistic terms this may be healthier way of living, but it would also be static. In nature everything changes - it must be so. Change is the eternal constant. Without it, time stops and nothing really exists.
Power mongers have always harnessed whatever tools were available to maintain and increase their control over the world. This is their nature - it's why they are powerful - but these tools have advanced such a degree that progress has been brought to a stop. We are regressing, and disaster threatens on many fronts. The dichotomy that has brought us so far has been turned against us. The two basic aspects of human evolution - individual self-interest and social cooperation - are now used to turn us against each other.
We must find a way to communicate, negotiate, and coexist harmoniously, so to the article in question I reply:
Stop trying to debate conservatives into "caring about what happens to their fellow human beings" and focus instead on their self-interest. There's great power in human collective, right? It's the reason humanity is so powerful in comparison to other life forms. Alone, we're relatively defenseless against nature; Guided by power-hungry leaders, we've nearly destroyed nature.
The root of our political problems isn't so much about a lack of "caring for others"; the problem is in this cult of ideology that infects both side of the proverbial aisle. In my experience, most conservative people (humans, not politicians) actually do care about others, in order of family, friends/neighbors, community, nation, then world. For example, it seems to me the conservative mindset is generally based on starting at the center - the "me" - and working outward; kind of a "fix it for me and it will be fixed for others, too". In contrast, the liberal mindset is on starting with everyone - the whole - and working inward: "Fix it for everyone (and it will be fixed for me, too.)
We (humans, not politicians) basically want the same things but can't wrap our heads around negotiating the way to do it - and this is mostly because we can't get past the distraction of our own ideologies. We can't seem to learn to "speak each other's language" - to compromise and negotiate, or even to give due consideration to each others positions. We have to see through the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) influence of media that promotes this petulance both sides exhibit toward each other (not to mention promotion of ignorance of critical issues - and that's on both sides).
It's quickly coming to a question of [division, to promote power for predatory capitalists and their politicians] vs. [the ability of 'we the people' to learn negotiate and compromise despite our differences in ideology and reclaim our right to collectively guide our own destiny].
United we stand, divided we fall.
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