The New Moderate-Center and How to Portray Perspective Accurately

Ahh…the group every other political ideologue loves to defecate on. Being a centrist can seem, to many in this polarized world, either a sign of ignorance, fence sitting or appeasement. At least have the guts to choose a side and live with the consequences, say those on the left or right. It’s fair game today to dump on centrists, simply because it’s a minority of a minority. And because, not surprisingly, they tend to come from at least a well-off or stable life. The latter point also brings them into the ambit of class and elitism accusations, making the bullseye that much more prominent.

It would have been bearable for the centrists and moderate if there was any silver lining. But centrism as we know it is failing. Like many things in the world, it failed to keep up with the ever-evolving times.

To understand more, we need to distinguish between the types of centrists that classically exist:

• Principled Centrism: Think of this as someone going beyond the binaries of political and social thought. They take everything on a case-by-case basis. They may support freedom of religion but hate the open sale of beef. They may encourage immigration but not like a certain class of people. They’re usually determined by a core set of values, a value stack (if I may use that as a term), that guides what they think.
• Tribal Centrism: You’d be surprised by how centrism appeals to those hating the right and the left. Or any other political binary (liberal/authoritarian, moderate/radical, etc). This is an identity for them, without much thought or ideology behind it. A subset of this is the heterodox community. The key difference is while they abhor the extremes, heterodox folks have cogent rationales for why they choose their stance.
• Moderate Centrism: As gleaned from my title, this is the focus of my piece and is more concerned with the actions taken by the group than the thoughts and ideologies. They believe no extremes are allowed. They form the largest camp or umbrella of centrists, cutting across the right and left, and even authoritarianism and liberalism. As long as you espouse a moderate view of the world, you’re welcome, all other differences be damned. The best example of this would be the Indian National Congress during its mass mobilization days (before Gandhi took over the scene). It was truly representative of everyone united across ideology and division by a respect for moderate means and methods.

Limiting our discussion to the moderate center helps us observe a microcosm of how centrism overall has failed. It can even be seen in tandem with authoritarianism and extremism rising across the world at an alarming rate.

Why did it fail in the first place? When it has so many things going for it in a world full of diversity, aversion to violence, liberal capitalist democracies and a history of the terrors of extremist authoritarian rule?

The failure of most centrist types lies down to the change in how we communicate and think. Think and thank the internet, social media, and even LLM AIs. The cumulative disruptive nature of these innovations is balkanization, rational tribalism and instrumental extremism. To get any visibility or traction, the person with the most obvious view, shouted ad nausem and polarizing others, always wins out. This is, of course, the algorithm at its optimum best. That one word that determines so much of our virtual life. And since the virtual life is becoming so much of our actual life, you see the corresponding effect. Why listen to the moderate asking people to think and be calm? Why follow the centrist fighting for nuance and happiness? Even places like Substack and Medium, known to encourage this sense of decorum and peace, find themselves slowly transforming. You can see in real time, as they move past the heterodox and moderate minority to the masses who crave balkanized groups warring with each other.

If this is the overarching scenario, is there a future for the moderate centrist? Of course. Otherwise, this piece would be a damp squib created just to troll all of you readers. Is that future pleasant and adaptable? Not the way you think. It requires a complete inversion of the usual approach to moderate centrism spoken about so far.

Right now, moderate centrism advocates for equidistance, neutrality, and a conservative, incrementalist approach. Flip that fully and you get what I call neo-moderate centrism. Go all out, stretch to all sides, throw off neutrality, embrace extremist thoughts and seek for radical, comprehensive, systemic change.

How then, you may ask, does one maintain the title of either a centrist and moderate?

The key here is to go all out, everywhere, all at once. To not pick one side but select all sides and embrace its darkest regions as your own. You have to be left-wing, liberal, traditionalist, progressive, authoritarian, even fascist at the same time. Rather than being the small centrepoint dot that marked the earlier moderate centrist, you’re now as big as the boundaries of the ideology spectrum. Not so deeply as ideologues committed to the cause. But in a mile wide and inch deep manner.

Read on to see how this helps you, especially in writing for a diverse, picky audience. The kind of writing where your viewpoint matters more than your language chops.

Writers and creators often encourage those starting out to write/create what they know. This can be the expertise of a professional kind or a personal one.

A lot of politics also works this way nowadays, where the identity determines where you stand.

Being a neo-moderate centrist requires one to eschew that thinking. Instead, embrace this three-fold approach to enhance and level up your writing:

• Go deep into divergent identities and ideologies. The goal is to go as far away from your identity as possible. This also means the legwork of research and empathising to get there. Say, you’re a Savarna man. Or a Dalit woman. Embody the opposite when approaching your theme and world. Go into it deeply and vividly. Even if it isn’t accurate in every sense of the word, pursue that goal. The act of writing itself before editing and publishing will free up the gears in your brain.
• Branch out through your writing ouevre. This point builds on the one above. Say that you’re a Dalit woman who wrote from the PoV of a Savarna man. The next work could be from a Baniya capitalist, and the one after could be from a Western feminist. And so on… The goal, when one is writing a neo-moderate centrist piece, is to show a confusing throughline of your work. At first glance. A good metric is to see complaints about inconsistency, confusion and heated debates on your body of work. Eventually, the tide will turn. Readers begin to comprehend your true motives. It won’t be easy. it may take a lot of time. But like anything well earned, the satisfaction is sublime.
• Do also circle back to aspects of your identity interspersed through your writing. This is the secret. One can never jettison their heart, mind and soul when writing. It will seep out regardless. Just ensure it comes out in drips and drops. Those become stronger, since they carry with it authenticity that the reader can absorb. And since it’s infrequent, it’s something the readers will crave. Going back to the example above, never forget your Dalitality or your womanness. Find ways to integrate it with orthogonal characters and viewpoints. You may find surprising convergences or divergences — both of which add novelty and originality to your work.

Addressing one’s approach to writing using this new perspective is one thing. But how to live life as a moderate centrist given the above proposals? This applies to all those seeking a more centered position in life, tired of the polarization. The three points below target this, helping you live and love life as a proud neo-moderate centrist:

• Go the full length. In discussions and debates with partisan family members and friends, don’t hold back. Empathize with their viewpoint completely. Don’t qualify it or nuance any of your positions. However, that’s still one half of the actual length. You must swing the other way, walk back all the way to the other extreme. Do both consistently and constantly enough till you see changes. Most will see you as someone principled rather than ambivalent or scared. Some will refuse to talk to you, or at least on the realm of ideas. Good riddance. Your relationship with them is too good to be smeared by misunderstood politics.
• Leave politics when not needed. Not every point needs to be pounced on. Let people vent, cry and gripe about things happening around them. Be the friend they want, not the debater they may need. Most folks just want agreement to the way they think, helping them navigate a complex, ever-changing world. You don’t have to agree with them but you don’t have to fight either. Listen, acknowledge their feelings and go the psychotherapy route. That’s all it takes. It’ll help keep your sanity as well. We all think so much about the wider world, on things we can’t change as much. But our friends and close ones are near and present. Helping them through life has its own bountiful value.
• Argue in good faith and concede where applicable. People respect those who admit their mistakes, especially in low-cost scenarios. Debates and discussions provide opportunities ripe to be exploited. Given your preferred moderate centrist stance, accepting points that others make isn’t a concession. It’s a ready way to ensure you strengthen your own beliefs. It’s good old Bayesian reasoning. When the evidence or theory changes, so do your views. Doing so also saves you from sinking with your ideology or belief. It makes the other side more willing to concede to points you make. Lastly, all this is made easier by believing that most people are good faith actors. They argue and complain and debate to either know more or ascertain your stand. Engage them as such, with honesty and openness. It rarely fails.

Hopefully, the points discussed so far paint a path forward for the neo-moderate centrist in you. There’s a lot to cover in depth and breadth. For now though, this is a good enough starting point.

One last thing I would address are future directions this movement could go with highest to least probability:

1. It would fail to go beyond a critical mass. It’s easy for any ideology (new or improved) to capture some amount of followers. There are enough people to go around. But going the next step becomes the hassle when you’re faced with masses who see no reason to ally with your cause. The temptation is ripe to pander and appease and compromise. This will determine if the movement evolves, stays rigid or collapses under its compromises.
2. The movement would start to get political traction around the world. It’s no longer just coffeeshop discussions and private affairs. People mobilize in protests around it, they enter party politics either as factions within an existing party or as a new party. There will be new movements and books and talks (in Bangalore International Centre, for example). It’ll become a rolling stone that keeps gathering moss, making it bigger and greener.
3. The ideology starts to harden and splinter off into multiple interest groups. Like the umbrella tent pole the Indian National Congress once provided, it can no longer hold the impatient masses. They’ll break apart and join existing movements or create their own breakaway groups. I consider this the least likely since this group is brought together by a moderate and centrist appeal, both which welcome patience, sacrifice and moderation. There may not be outright rebellion or revolution, but slow incremental change. Change that’s obsessed with keeping the flock together while moving with the times and embracing the demands of its diverse members.

Comment in five years on where do you think this can lead to. It may be highly ambitious to even assume this will get past critical thrust. But that’s how movements are born and how they thrive. By visualizing beyond what’s currently possible. And like any good neo-moderate centrist, one does it gradually, comprehensively and compassionately.

Until next time…