But this only works if your work is rooted in integrity. Some participants in our workshops engage regularly in political debates, testimony, and hearings. We have them experimenting with consciousness techniques for transmuting challenging energy into compassion and love-right there in the hearing room. Early indications are that this is helpful in defusing charged psychological situations, and reducing tension in heated debates. The fifth principle is don't demonize your adversaries.
People respond to arrogance with their own arrogance, which leads to polarization.
The ideal is to constantly entertain alternative points of view so that you move from arrogance to inquiry, and you then have no need to demonize your opponents. This is hard to do, as we often feel very certain about what we think we know, and the injustices we see. Going into an adversarial situation we can be aware of the correctness of what we are affirming, but there is usually a kernel of truth in what is being affirmed by our opponent-however small. We need to be especially mindful about what we deny, because it is often where our blind spots will be. The sixth principle is to love thy enemy .