The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Zoom at 7pm UK time on Sun 17th Jan 2021. Then we will have the first of two sessions on a Middle Way approach to politics. This first session will be focusing on our political values and ideologies, whilst the second one will focus more on the practical dilemmas of political involvement of any kind.
It’s important to emphasise in tackling this topic that the Middle Way is a practice that involves working with the political values we start with, then examining and perhaps modifying them. The Middle Way itself does not imply a specific political ideology, so it is possible for two people to each be sincerely trying to practise the Middle Way and yet still greatly disagree about politics. How we handle that disagreement and learn from those we disagree with, however, is a very important part of practice.
The talk and discussion this time will be asking how we can apply the Middle Way to avoid absolutizing political beliefs either positively or negatively, and thus give ourselves the best chance of developing political attitudes that help to address conditions, learning from experience without interference from ideological dogma. In thinking about this, the psychological research into political values made by Jonathan Haidt can be very useful in helping us identify our root values. If we can work with these root values but avoid absolutizing them as the whole story, recognizing other kinds of values as also based in human needs and experience, we can help set up the conditions for making our political values more provisional.
There’ll be a short talk on this topic, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. This time we will also experiment with having a plenary session at the end. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on provisional rules, please see this post. If you would like catch up more with basic aspects of the Middle Way approach, we are also holding a reading group (next on 24th Jan) which will do this – please contact Jim (at) middlewaysociety.org if you want to join this.
Here is the video from this session:
Suggested reflection questions
- What are your most basic political values? How do you think these have shaped your political attitudes?
- What’s your experience of absolutized political ideologies, either in yourself or in others?
- What political values do you find it hardest to relate to in yourself or others, and how could you engage with these more?
Suggested further reading/ listening
Depolarising Politics Talk 1: Political Values, their Polarisation and Integration
Podcast Interview with Robert on Politics and the Middle Way
Middle Way Philosophy 4: The Integration of Belief 4.h (see pdf of Omnibus edition on Researchgate)
The Buddha’s Middle Way 2.e ‘The Buddha’s Politics’
Jonathan Haidt The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (Penguin), parts 1 and 2. (Review by Robert here)