The Guardian, October 1, 2021. If anything is obvious from the past five years, it is that unless we start substantially to work together, we stand little chance of overcoming critical threats like COVID-19 and climate change that now imperil our existence. However, for anything like that to happen, we will first need to learn how to mitigate the vitriol and adversariness that characterize and impede far too many human interactions. This column in the Guardian was originally titled “Cultivate curiosity, and really listen: how to persuade people whose politics you don’t agree with”, a title far more in keeping with what I suspect to be the non-partisan intention of the author. Doesn’t everyone need to cultivate curiosity and really listen? Labelling and dismissing each other over our views on vaccines and Covid masks, yelling epithets and pepper-spraying at Fairy Creek, automatically adopting a homeless-addict-criminal stereotype for anyone unable to find an affordable place to live. Perhaps there is no better time for an article like this and for thinking about the approaches that it poses. While the column may not give us all the needed answers, and though it is admittedly overwritten, perhaps it can still generate a few ideas as to where and how we might begin. [ARTICLE LINK]