“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”
Harper Lee
Listening to Brené Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness, something really struck me. Referring to society in the US, she said “we’re staying quiet and small in our bunkers and loud in our echo chambers”.
Living in echo chambers
I believe this is the root of so many of our societal problems. We only hear one side of the story, and we hear it from the loudest and most extreme voices. To Brené’s point, we’re all living in our personal echo chambers. And it’s not working out so well.
What I mean is most Americans get their news from only one source, and it’s the one that feels the most comfortable. Likewise, we tend to socialize with people who have similar ideologies. And when we do spend time with people who have different views, we avoid discussing heated topics – which includes almost everything these days.
Finding common ground
When I started this blog a few months ago, I first shared it with family and friends. To be honest, I hadn’t talked to many of them ahead of time about my concerns about climate change. In retrospect, I realize I was living quietly in my bunker, afraid of uncomfortable conversations.
I assumed many people in my universe may not care about climate change, or think I was crazy for wanting to start a blog. And yes, I know what they say about assuming.
But what happened really surprised me. Several people I wouldn’t have expected reached out to me to say they were happy I’m writing the blog. It turns out they are concerned about the changing climate too. Had I stayed in my bunker, I never would have realized we had this in common.
There is no way to solve the problem of climate change without finding common ground and compromising. And that will mean coming out of our bunkers and talking to one another.
Breaking out
So, here are some things we can do to break out of our echo chambers:
- Get news from different sources with different perspectives. This might give you some ideas.
- Talk to people about your views – on climate change and other hard topics.
- Ask other people what they think, and really listen.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.