Practical philosopher Bart Brandsma sits down at a table. He pours himself a glass of water and starts a monologue. Boring? Not at all. In six episodes of approximately 35 minutes, he introduces us to his Polarization Thinking Framework, which is the result of years of studying this phenomenon. That started in 2001, when, after the attacks on the Twin Towers, the world suddenly consisted only of Muslims and non-Muslims. Brandsma himself was assigned the role of non-Muslim. Is it possible, he wondered, to escape black-and-white thinking and that role and what should I do to do that?
Since then he has started to delve into the us/them thinking. Polarization has a number of basic laws and roles. Sometimes you are pushed into such a role, sometimes you take it yourself. Based on his knowledge he made a polarization map. This sounds quite academic and clinical, but it certainly isn’t. This is because the monologues are well constructed, Brandsma regularly summarizes, and because of the inserted polarization fragments from the media that clearly show how it works.
In a broadcast about the return of the wolf to the Netherlands, a journalist asks a scientist: “Are you from Team Wolf or not?” The scientist is a little confused. “No,” he says, “I study the wolf.” “Oh,” says the journalist, “and personally, for or against?”
You are classified, classified, placed opposite each other, Brandsma wants to say, as a scientist you have to be prepared for that. Even if you think you are providing neutral knowledge, you are producing fuel, be aware of that.