Fund Drive with Chris Mooney: The Republican Brain

We live in precarious times. While the entire world is suffering from one serious crises or another, in America it has become clear our economic and political structures on which modern industrial society is built are crumbling: Politics is more polarizing than at any time since the Civil War, our social and physical infrastructures are under serious duress – if not already collapsing – and our damaged ecology is nearing the point of no return. At a time when we need more unity and clear thinking than ever, we have instead seen a disconnect between Republicans and Democrats – or, more precisely – between conservative individualists and authoritarians, and liberal communalists and egalitarians. Chris Mooney focuses on some aspects of this divide in The Republican Brain, asking political and scientific questions concerning the possible reasons the American Right seems to embrace an alternate-universe version of reality.  What lies beneath this phenomenon and whether or not we can do anything about it is what we will be discussing today…