It's possible to overcome deep mistrust

The polarization we are experiencing now is nowhere near as bad as the situation in Europe after World War II. The French and the Germans were about as mistrustful of each other as any two groups can get. They had fought two horrific wars within a half-century, killing many millions of people; there as hardly a family that had not lost members. They had a long history of conflict long before that. Each was proud of the achievements of its own culture and scornful of the other’s. The most basic and destructive human emotions were rampant – humiliation, self-righteousness, vengeance. Yet less than a half century later they were leaders together in a unified Europe, and the thought of conflict between them had become almost unthinkable. Borders were open, people moved back and forth with hardly a thought.

How could this happen?

There were three main elements, as described by Alice Ackerman. The simplest was “the humanization of relations among leaders”: in various symbolic ways the leaders of the nations showed respect for each other and avoided the language of self-justification. More complex and long-term was the deliberate development of a web of interdependencies for both security and economic purposes. Finally, the governments also established many programs for cultural exchange among the citizenry, such as youth and academic exchange.

All that relied on the wisdom of rather extraordinary political leaders. Assuming that we can’t count on that now – probably a good assumption– are there any useful lessons we can draw?

There was one vital element that did not rely on government: an extraordinarily wide effort by private citizens to build relations across the border. A wave of partnerships created feelings of linkage: for example, the practice of “twin-towning”, bringing French and German communities into a sense of mutuality and shared identity. Many other civic partnerships similarly promoted common efforts around research, tourism, vocational training, sports, and other areas of daily life. Historians from both nations got together to revise textbooks and national histories. Religious organizations helped people express their sense of grief and collective mourning. These efforts started almost immediately after the war and continued for many decades, creating a deep network of connections and understandings.

Some of these are are things that we could imagine happening now, that we could all help make happen now. For the deepening conflict with the Muslim world: Twinning with towns in Syria or Egypt could build a sense of understanding and desire to help that could reduce the cycle of mutual blame. Joint histories could build new interpretations of the relation between the cultures. Religious exchanges and shared processes of dialogue and understanding, spread widely enough, could soften the polarization of views.

We’re in a spiral of mistrust, and it will take these kinds of deliberate actions to reverse it.