Kindness in Politics

President Monson didn't say much last General Conference. Even considering both of his talks, he only spoke for about seven-and-a-half minutes, which is about half the length of a normal, single General Conference talk. Given how little time President Monson had to say what he wanted to say, what he  said during those seven-and-a-half minutes should be considered with an especially high weight of importance. Also, he's the prophet, so we should probably give his words extra weight anyway.

Then, it should be considered significant that President Monson spent the first four of his seven-and-a-half minutes telling us that we ought to be kind. "Kindness," he said, quoting Elder Wirthlin, "is the essence of a celestial life. Kindness is how a Christlike person treats others. Kindness should permeate all of our words and actions at work, at school, at church, and especially in our homes." And also, I would add, in our political discussions.

As a writing tutor, I get frequent opportunities to help college students with their papers, which sometimes contain political messages with which I disagree. Yet, I try not to challenge these students' viewpoints. That's not my job. My job is to help them become good writers, no matter what they choose to write. Essentially, my job is to be kind and to help them convey their messages well, even if I disagree with those messages.

Kindness is, according to my observations and opinion, unfortunately rare in our political discourses. People don't seem interested in considering the perspectives of their "political opponents," and they seem to listen to each other only so they can find ways to refute each other. People seem more interested in winning arguments and getting their way than they are in having conversations and learning what would truly be best for everyone.

It's hard to imagine how much nicer the world would be if people were kind rather than contentious, if people listened to each other rather than talking and shouting over each other, and if they tried to understand one another rather than trying to label each other. If people were kind in their political discussions, we'd be able to solve more problems. I'm sure we'd still have disagreements, and plenty of them, but we'd be able to talk about them rationally and get to the roots of the matter instead of trying to convince each other that they're wrong. Political arguments rarely go anywhere productive, yet if we discussed the issues respectfully, we'd all understand the issues a little better, even if we don't quite manage to resolve them.

I don't expect, or even dare hope, that our political leaders will ever learn to be kind to one another, but we can, no matter where we stand on the political spectrum. We can disagree, strongly, on matters of great importance to us without having to be unkind to each other. I may be wrong, but I currently believe that we can always choose to be kind. The prophets have told us that "Kindness should permeate all of our words and actions," including, in my opinion, our political ones.