This is usually the best course of action. Anyone not able or willing to look for common ground together is usually unworthy of having a discussion with.
Most topics require precision of detail to get to any true understanding. People not willing to take the time to explore in greater depths, by employing sweeping generalisations with little or no data, should be avoided. They demonstrate little desire to think beyond their cerebral island or one track mindset.
If you have a difference of opinion, try to find some common ground. Do you agree on certain aspects of the topic? Are there periphery ideas that you see similarly?
You may disagree about football being the best sport in the world. However, you could agree sports is important for health reasons, that football is one of the top 10 most watched sports and that it is one of the lowest cost sports in its basic format – you only need a ball.
Walking away with a few agreed points is a real win, even if you still disagree with the original point. It humanises the other person and you will feel less animosity towards the other person. This way you can feel good about the person while disagreeing. This is much better than the name calling, the frustration and being disgruntled.
It’s good to find common ground when you are speaking with others. That’s why we look for common relationships, geographies, schools and other meaningful connections.
Keep them in mind. It’s a great thing to do.
Divisive is a common word these days. Though I find it a strange word to use. People have so much in common and things will continue to get better.
Most people have the following in common: They would like peace, prosperity, kindness, low or no crime and even good and effective political policies.
Would you like to live in a calm and safe neighbourhood? I think most people would aspire to that. Should children be able to go to school to learn? Hard to imagine too much resistance to that in normal times.
Listening to people on most issues and concerns, they seem to want a similar destination for each topic. There may be some differences as to how best to get there or exactly what the final destination looks like. But there seems to be so much less to argue about. And certainly most of those things are superficial in their nature. Or they require only a minor tweak.
No matter how much some people want to focus on the high drama of negative, angry or inflammatory news reports, I am confident we are in a much better position than any previously seen.
One example of this is that the global average life expectancy in 1900 was 31 and in 2017 it was 72.2. Additionally it is very peaceful and many people’s standards of living are much higher than in 1900.
We have so much in common. Let’s focus on what those things are.
