Hajoon “HJ” Yun
Dr. Parrish
ISM II
5 Nov 25
ISM Assessment #8: Interview Assessment with Dr. Matthew Wilson
A week after my conversation with Mr. William McKenzie at the Bush Institute, I had the opportunity to return to the beautiful SMU campus to have a discussion with Dr. Matthew Wilson, associate professor of political science at SMU. During our interview, I was able to gain insights into the intersection between religion and politics and how that might also be fueling polarization in the US and around the world.
First, I learned that political polarization is something that is becoming mainstream all across the globe. From the US to South Korea to the European Union, political parties have begun to adopt more extreme and radical policies that leave minimal space for bipartisan cooperation. This has led to political crises especially in European nations that use a parliamentarian style of government. In the United States and abroad, polarization has been fueled by a rise in social media and the concurrent misinformation proliferation.
During the half way mark of our interview, Dr. Wilson and I began talking about the potential solutions to polarization in the United States. In short, there was no one size fits all solution to political polarization. This revelation was disturbing to me at first, however, upon furthering our conversation, I realized that polarization is a multipronged issue that requires a delicate balance between compromise and standing one’s ground to resolve.
To solve this issue, Dr. Wilson and I developed a proposal together during our conversation. We both conceded that for polarization to be lowered in a political climate, a society must be willing to commit to hearing out the opposing side. Once this step is taken, the situation becomes much easier to mediate. But how do we get people to accept listening to each other? That is a question that has yet to be answered. However, in the meantime, Dr. Wilson and I created a hypothetical situation where if people were willing to listen, then social media algorithms would start churning out content that is more moderate, and in turn, is able to open up the conversation in a civil, peaceful manner.
To conclude our conversation, Dr. Wilson and I talked about the future of the United States. In a political climate where polarization is mainstream, it is up to prospective voters, like myself, to be well informed when it comes to voting. Dr. Wilson commended me for having such a big interest in politics and polarization, which he said was a good indicator of cooling tensions in the future. If more and more students are willing to put the phone down and talk to one another, democracy develops into a stronger version of itself for future generations to enjoy.