Stop bickering and look out for the asteroids! An interview with Jonathan Haidt

The Washington Post:

Voters are already casting early ballots. The candidates have been crisscrossing the country, dodging megastorm Sandy (although they halted campaign activities Tuesday in the wake of the storm). Both parties are practically turning swing states, such as Ohio and Florida, upside-down in an effort to shake out every last vote.

Campaign ads seem to be everywhere, plaguing cord cutters and cable and satellite subscribers alike. It’s the homestretch of a tight race, and as the candidates continually remind the electorate, the stakes could not be higher, so why take a risk and vote for the other guy?

New York University Stern School of Business Professor Jonathan Haidt agrees that the stakes are high, and the challenges, he finds, go well beyond who wins the next election. The problems facing the country — including growing income inequality and the oncoming fiscal cliff — are much like asteroids barrelling down on the planet. Meanwhile hyper-partisan politics is preventing us from seeing our common problems and joining together to find solutions. Haidt issued his asteroid warning during remarks at the TedxMidAtlantic conference which convened this past Friday and Saturday and sat down for an interview shortly thereafter.

Read the whole story: The Washington Post