The Righteous Mind: A Book Review

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

The most powerful lesson from Jonathan Haidt’s book is understanding why people act the way they do in terms of politics. I have been shocked by how people react politically. I simply couldn’t understand why a conservative or a liberal will not see something that is very obvious, and because I have been on the liberal or conservative side depending on the issue, I have heard people tell me that they don’t understand why I can’t see what is practically obvious.

We are seeing things differently because we have fundamentally different worldviews, and all of them are deeply relevant. The greatness of Jonathan Haidt is that he himself did not allow his worldview to becloud his writing, despite this being

his book, he did not allow his own worldview to make him miss the view of others.

It rightly diagnoses the differences in worldviews of different people, and in the end, it makes the powerful argument that all are relevant and history is shaped by the interaction of these different worldviews.

This book is not so much a HOW to make better conversations, but it is a WHY our conversations are as toxic as they are. I believe that before we can begin to mend the walls of our disagreements and toxic 21st Century debates, we must understand each other. And this book has done that to us very well.

Jonathan Haidt used so many researches, reports, and historical examples to make his point at every point. I enjoyed his organization of the book and how he makes you walk in the shoes of others to see why they are behaving the way they do.

This is a highly recommended book if you are interested in understanding our religious and political polarization.