America suffers from a dysfunctional political culture. As citizens, we need to diagnose the cultural malaise eating at the heart of our nation and dividing our populace. Only by doing so can we devise a remedy moving forward. A pandemic of political isolation predicated upon citizens feeling unimportant in the American political process strikes the hearts of many. In the reflections of our phones, we can behold ourselves staring back at us behind flashing images of troubling news and social media, filled to the brim with unaddressed dissatisfactions about society’s current state of politics and culture. 

Our concerns are of the utmost importance for how we live our lives, but we paradoxically prevent ourselves from resolving them through political conversation. We stifle our voices out of fear of conflict and rejection by our peers. Furthermore, we create a culture inconducive to open political and civil discourse. By shutting out views different from our own and creating information silos, we teach ourselves to avoid talking with each other about what matters most in society: how we as a collective American people can govern ourselves in a way where we can maximize our potential, pursue our dreams, and achieve human flourishing. 

According to a 2023 Pew Center report, only 4% of U.S. adults believe our government functions “extremely or very well.” Meanwhile, only 16% of the public say they trust our government “always or most of the time,” and 65% state they “always or often” feel exhausted when thinking about politics. Our dilapidated culture of civil discourse prevents us from achieving the societal reforms we all want to see, and public opinion indicates we want a change in how we approach politics. 

We refuse to look this monster of political self-suppression in the face; worse, we are taking too long to strategize our fight with this behemoth. Let’s talk, America. It’s time to stop avoiding the political elephants and donkeys in the room and start communicating with each other again. By “communicate,” I don’t mean complaining about our situation without aiming for a productive end. I also don’t mean engagement in ideological shout-downs. Altercations, where neither side is heard, do not count as real communication. Every one of us needs to examine ourselves and each other about what constitutes the best political practices and policies. In pursuit of this reformed civil discourse, I have started observing everything wrong with civil discourse in my own life and how we as a country can attempt to get it right.

Amid the 2024 voting season, I held many political conversations with friends across the political spectrum, ranging from hard-right conservatives to idealistic anarchists. Despite their ideological differences, most of my friends agreed on two things:  Firstly, they expressed disillusionment with our current state of politics. Second, they are uncomfortable discussing politics with others. Understanding the first concurrence, I honed in on the second sentiment. Why does so much of our generation avoid talking about politics? 

In response, my friends shared reasons such as, “I don’t want to cause unnecessary conflict,” “People want to talk and not listen so I don’t bother sharing my opinions,” “I don’t care about politics because they don’t directly affect me,” and “I’m not a big follower of the news because I can’t tell what’s true anymore.” My friends are not the minority. According to a 2020 national survey by the Cato Institute, “62 percent of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying what they believe because others might find it offensive.” Since 2020, I only imagine this percentage increasing. 

I also hesitate to discuss politics with others. In my conversations, I sometimes notice a disingenuity in my interlocutors. I observe how people often regurgitate media headlines, claiming them as their own opinions. When I start to question them for a more detailed explanation of their perspectives, they either cannot tell me more or refuse to engage in further conversation, insisting on the correctness of their viewpoint. For many of these cases, I believe that if my partner in discussion conducted research past the headlines of newspapers and social media, they would arrive at a more nuanced opinion unique to themselves. I understand that digging past headlines requires time and effort that many people cannot spare. However, the mass adoption of manufactured opinions increases the possibility of falling into the dangerous trap of groupthink. Our generation’s decreasing ability to think for ourselves prevents us from engaging with genuine and original opinions that can lead to creative solutions for the plethora of policy issues we face.

Fear of conflict, breakdown of communication, political disaffection, distrust of our media, and inability to engage with real opinions. These are the components of the dialectical culture Americans face today. It leaves me to wonder, can we as a nation reinvent the fragments of our broken conversations into a productive national dialogue based on our commonalities rather than our differences?

Before continuing, I must clarify: I do not think that simply abandoning the project of civil discourse is an option. Our government predicates its functioning upon the political participation of its citizens. Thus,  the self-isolation of citizens from the American political process holds catastrophic implications for the existence of our democratic government. This means that we must try with all our might to restore the civility and quality of discourse that we have lost over time. Although many Americans lose their voices in the cries of the mob and sacrifice individual thought for the convenient siloes of groupthink, I believe in a way out. I turn to the ancient Platonic dialogue Gorgias because it contains some guidance that may help us in the modern world.

Toward the end of the Gorgias, Socrates debates the politician Callicles about what constitutes the best life. In the midst of this heated discussion, Socrates makes the following statement:  “he who is going to make a sufficient test of a soul’s living correctly or not must in fact have three things, all of which you have: knowledge, goodwill, and outspokenness.” Socrates also delineates the difference between a discussion based on the love of victory (i.e. winning an argument for the sake of winning) and a discussion focused on attaining the truth (conducting a discussion for seeking truth rather than winning an argument). From Socrates’ statements, we derive some key principles about how to engage in civil discourse in our personal lives.

Firstly, both parties must speak from an educated place of knowledge about the topic. If either of the parties holds an opinion not based on substantive reasoning and evidence, the debate cannot be fully productive. Trying to debate rationality with opinions based on emotions locks speakers on two different playing fields, even though they are trying to play the same game. Prior to engaging in political discussions, we as citizens must make our best effort to educate ourselves about the issues affecting our nation. Conducting our own comprehensive research and thought experiments allows us to think for ourselves and synthesize information into nuanced opinions independent of the sweeping generalizations that various media agendas promote. Formulating individual positions allows us to participate in a more authentic debate, where the participants argue their true opinions. This rules out the frustration of fighting thoughts that the other person does not hold and makes parties more willing to grant the other intellectual respect. I do not find much noble about fighting for and protecting a view that one does not know to be true: knowledge catalyzes conviction.

Both parties must approach the discussion with goodwill. By goodwill, I mean a positive and genuine concern for the well-being of another, specifically, a desire for their soul to be in good condition and avoid suffering or evil. Approaching a political discussion requires a common goal: the pursuit of truth and understanding of the topic to the furthest possible extent. Keeping this common goal in mind makes the participants equal partners, rather than opponents sparring to gain dominance. Nurturing goodwill allows us to approach people of different perspectives with an open mind and assume the best intent of their arguments rather than the worst. Trying to understand who people are and what context forms their beliefs leads us to see opponents as fellow humans with valuable insights and stories to share. It is essential to recognize that we do not know everything about the topics we discuss. Talking to others builds our knowledge bases and promotes intellectual respect and humility. Political humility is a prerequisite to promoting our society’s collective well-being. Thus, there exists a common interest in trying to engage in collaborative debate to discover what constitutes collective well-being and how we can achieve it.

Socrates stresses the importance of outspokenness in important discussions. Outspokenness denotes a fearless representation of one’s authentic views in a conversation. As I noted before, many Americans are afraid to share their political views due to cancel culture, as even on UT campus, we have witnessed unpopular perspectives shouted down in public. We do not even need forces such as the government to censor us: we do it ourselves. In the process, we lose countless perspectives on how we can improve America. Regarding my own perspective, I am of the view that our nation needs to focus on speaking the truth again. If we truly care about our country, we need to put aside our fears of political pushback and do our part in sharing our thoughts on how to improve America. Our nation’s diversity of backgrounds creates a diversity of perspectives, and we need them all to create policies that improve the well-being of all groups in America. Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy put it well by stating that the best way to unite the country is to “close the gap between what people say in private & what they say in public.”

Finally, we need to focus on loving and pursuing the truth rather than victory in our conversations. This means that going into our conversations, we should be open to changing our views if provided with convincing enough evidence and reasoning. If we state wrong information we must welcome correction, knowing we are one step closer to mutual understanding and betterment among our citizenry. We are seldom forced to defend and keep all of our initial viewpoints: dying on an incorrect hill wastes valuable time on pointless arguing. We need to prioritize the rigorous pursuit of the common good above our egos and personal feelings. Improving America is a project larger than the individual. However, America is also a project of the individual.  Knowing this, we should ensure that we make our voices heard and protect our interests. Each citizen can discern the balance between loyalty to ourselves and our country through self-reflection.

I want to end on a bit of a personal note and explain why the revival of American civil discourse matters so much to me. My great-grandparents were political refugees from North Korea. They had built a life of community service and visionary leadership but found it stripped away once the current communist dictatorship took power. Targeted for potential public execution for their refusal to support the suppression of individual rights, my grandparents fled to South Korea. My great-grandparents stood for the right to free speech and the ability to participate in civil discourse. Through civil discourse, they pushed against the cultural taboo of educating women and inspired a forward-looking vision that improved the well-being and prosperity of their community. They preferred to leave behind everything they knew rather than give up their right to speech. 

I take their legacy and make it my dream. My great-grandparents did not sacrifice their former life in North Korea to have me be part of a citizenry that strips away their ability to speak freely. I care about a free government, and a free government requires free citizens who can speak their minds. Hence, l believe that restoring civil discourse in America needs to be one of our foremost priorities. We need to revive a populace that thinks for themselves instead of becoming dependent on the news and social media. We need to convince ourselves that our policies matter because when we become apathetic citizens, we become active contributors to the cycle of incompetent leadership and policies that do not address our needs. We need to allow ourselves to talk about what matters most and confront our shortcomings as a country so we can move forward. Many factors have contributed to our culture of avoidance, but through intentional effort and commitment to knowledge,  goodwill, outspokenness, and a love of truth rather than victory, I know that America holds the power to change our cultural tide and create a society where we can talk candidly once more.