What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

by Tim Urban

Growing up, when I observed the Republicans and thought, “Whatever my problems with the Left, the Right is definitely not for me,” I wasn’t entirely wrong. The Republican Party I grew up with was, for the most part, what I thought it was. But I was missing the real story. I mistakenly thought that what I objected to was “the Right.” But the Right wasn’t the problem. The problem was the Lower Right. The problem wasn’t too much conservatism, it was too little conservatism. I hadn’t understood that high-rung conservatism is a critical part of a healthy country and that the Republican Party I knew was actually depriving my country of it. I also mistakenly thought that, since the problem was on the right, there could never be reason to worry about the other side of the spectrum. But the low rungs span the whole political spectrum, and the vortex affects the whole country. I didn’t understand at the time that the same ecosystem changes that had disabled the high-rung immune system on the right could do the very same thing much closer to home.