The ancient Latin phrase omne trium perfectum translates to “everything that comes in threes is perfect” or “every set of three is complete.” The reason that groups of three tend to have a greater impact is that our minds are pattern recognition engines which both consciously and unconsciously seek out sequences and relationships in the people and events we experience every day. The mechanism behind this is fairly straightforward: One event can be random, two a coincidence, but three represents the simplest form of a pattern—and our minds are drawn to it.
One example of this is the “rule of three” in writing and composition. It states that an occurrence of three people, events, or items is considered more profound, more complete, and more humorous than other groupings. Our minds remember stories much more effectively than raw data because a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The Holy Trinity; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the Roman triumvirate; and piano chords are a few examples in which we find the “rule of three” in our world.
In U.S. politics today, we have been stuck in the “rut of two.” Our political culture is dominated by an us-versus-them dynamic fueled by the left vs the right, Democrats vs Republicans, and people like me vs the other. The “rut of two” removes any necessity for either side to accept accountability to solve problems. Each side focuses its efforts on unifying its own base and attempting to disqualify the other side. It is literally M.A.D.—Mutually Assured Distraction—and unlike the rule of three, it is not mentally, emotionally, or politically satisfying.
We need to end our reliance on the tired, old, failed ideas of the past and adopt a new approach to politics—a new national narrative based on the three tenets of Reality, Results and Respect (the 3 Rs).
The first pillar, reality, is a recognition that there are actual problems in the world that we all face and that need to be solved. The greater emphasis that we give to the false narratives of both left and right over the facts and evidence of reality, the further we stray from solving those problems. The more we are distracted by erroneous information and false choices between two bad options, the more our serious challenges grow.
The second pillar of the 3Rs is results. The biggest reason we do not hold our political class accountable is that we are distracted by the “rut of two” battle between us and them. The focus of our political debate should be wholly on solving problems, but instead we fritter away our time and money on finding out who can generate the most humorous or outrageous tweet. In turn, politicians spend most of their time finding ways to penetrate social media instead of on solving problems. A results-based approach would reverse that calculus and reward those who focus on solutions.
The third R is respect, and it pulls the other two together. We all have different ways of looking at the world, which has been the case since the very beginning of human history. Therefore, a political process based on the “I’m right and everyone else is wrong” mindset is a wholehearted denial of one of the most consistent facts in our historical experience. Moreover, a lack of respect drives the two sides so far apart that it impedes our ability to focus on reality and results. As psychologists have demonstrated, when people choose one side and dig in, critical thinking and problem-solving grind to a halt. Dan Sperber, the respected French social scientist, points out that at that reason does not aid in the discovery of truth; it only serves to bludgeon our opponents over the head and reinforce our existing views.
As a complement to the 3 Rs, there is another three-faceted aspect of political problem-solving at play. If we are going to solve complex problems, then we need to incorporate an understanding of how these solutions affect all three elements of our society: the state, the market and the community. The state establishes the rules and framework, the market allocates goods, services, and capital, and the community is where we all live our daily lives. In our current “rut of two,” both sides have adopted a linear approach. One side favors the state, the other favors the market, and both sides have separate views on what constitutes the community.
The attempt to solve complex political problems in narrow, one-dimensional, linear ways from both sides, ignores many important elements of effective, lasting solutions. In reality, we cannot fight a culture war and achieve results at the same time. That has been proven over and again. Further, we cannot make policy decisions through the lens of individual identity and solve the problems of our complex, multi-faceted society.
Without a concerted focus on reality, results and respect, we will never strike the most effective balance of state, markets and community, and our problems will only grow worse over time. Innovation provides us with the tools and the framework to combine reality, results and respect to achieve consistent success on all three levels, while building on and accelerating the enormous progress and prosperity we have already attained.