Surfing on Quicksand: Navigating a World of Information, Opinion & Spin

Resource Summary

Polarized Viewpoints seem common as dandelions in today’s world. Evidence rarely changes people’s minds, and that’s not just an impression, it’s what research shows. We get stuck in a “quicksand” of intractable positions.

Surfing on Quicksand explores why this happens and what to do about it. The problem is not so much poor critical thinking. It has more to do with the high cost-in-effort of navigating complex issues we realistically don’t know that much about, alongside the temptations of keeping things simple and maintaining social alignment. Plus there’s the way some political, national, and industry interests deliberately and often deceptively arouse the human hunger to stand strong.

But here’s the good news. Some approaches to looking at the world mostly surf on the quicksand rather than sinking into it. There will always be those who get stuck, but the more we catch the spirit, the more we can build toward a sane and serene human community.