The polarizing force may be primitive, but sometimes it plays out for all to see. The ideological posturing of American liberals and conservatives represents a fine example.  It isn't a pretty thing. Conservatives rail at liberals, liberals scorn the conservatives.  Far more interesting than the debate is the acrimonious nature of the debate itself.  Each group believes that it possesses the only humane, logical, and correct philosophy. Each group believes that choosing the opposite beliefs requires an act of overt immorality. And so conservatives and liberals engage one another in hopeless debates, each seeking some small edge, each reacting to the other with a disbelief and disgust hidden behind a feigned civility. Why so?  If the debate were based on rational principles employing logic, would it be so?  Of course not.  Each one is reacting on a moral plane.  They react to the perceived values of the other.  Conservatism and liberalism are seen as moral goods.  The real motivating force lies not in reason, but in the underlying values of either side.

We think of individual minds and individual cultures as single,  integrated entities, but they are not.  A series of opposing forces contest within the mind and culture of humans.

One Face, or Two?

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