????結束了，謝天謝地，美國大選終于結束了。意識形態各不相同的美國人至少可以一起慶祝一下，大選過程中的那些攻擊性廣告、惡語相向以及各持己見終于劃上了句號。

????能同意這一點，或許是我們可取的地方。美國正面臨一些重大挑戰，其中之一就是財政懸崖——如果美國國會不能通過一項解決聯邦預算赤字的計劃，明年1月1日起將實施嚴厲的節支計劃。為了解決我們面臨的這些問題，兩黨政治家及民眾必須消除這次總統大選強化的很多觀念。

????此次大選每位總統候選人花在攻擊性廣告的支出就達到了約4億美元。根據《華盛頓郵報》（Washington Post）刊發、由調研公司Kantar Media/CMAG估算的數據，這些廣告大部分都是負面的。我們大多數人都知道、也討厭這些攻擊性廣告。他們采用了二流電影的廉價噱頭：不祥的畫外音、漸入式字幕、令觀眾不安的音樂和拍攝角度。

????盡管他們根本談不上什么電影天才，但這些廣告在將競爭對手描繪為“異己”方面干得相當漂亮。奧巴馬總統“將克萊斯勒（Chrysler）賣給了意大利人，意大利人將在中國制造吉普（Jeep）”，羅姆尼競選陣營出資的一則攻擊性廣告如是說。如果這則廣告不是共和黨精心準備的，它利用的仇外情緒幾乎可以說是滑稽可笑。當然，兩黨都有問題。民主黨在俄亥俄州發布的廣告口號是“米特·羅姆尼。不是自己人。”這究竟是什么意思？這對于建立有凝聚力的聯盟毫無用處。

????“有幾十億美元用在了分裂這個國家上，”致力于將神經科學應用于商業領導策略的咨詢機構NeuroLeadership Group的執行董事大衛·洛克表示。“接下來將有很大比例的美國人不會聽從，希望看到這位總統失敗。”

????洛克稱，這是因為我們的大腦自動將人們分為“自己人”或“外人”。有效的廣告和尖刻的批評可以強化我們對某人或某個黨派被被歸為“外人”的認識。一旦某人被歸為外人，我們看待這個人的方式就會截然不同，更難產生共鳴。洛克補充說：“第三個隱患是，外人失敗時，我們會竊喜。我們喜歡這種感覺。”

????但為了這個國家，共和黨和民主黨沒有時間調侃、譏笑另一方的失敗。既然我們必須重新攜起手來，我們到底應該怎么做？洛克說，我們必須建立新的“自己人”關系，分享經驗、目標，或者威脅。

????曾經有政府這么做過。前南非總統納爾遜·曼德拉曾獨具匠心地設計了南非舉國共同的體驗，帶領這個種族分裂的國家在1995年橄欖球世界杯（1995 World Cup）上同心協力地支持南非橄欖球隊Springboks。

????上周，超級颶風桑迪襲擊了美國東海岸，給了新澤西州共和黨州長克里斯·克里斯蒂一個非常好的理由與美國聯邦政府通力合作——新澤西州靠自己已不能應對這些損失。桑迪颶風過去之后，新澤西州長克里斯蒂告訴福克斯新聞臺（Fox News)，稱贊奧巴馬總統說：“他一直非常關心，我要求的任何事情，他都幫我辦到了。為此，我要公開感謝奧巴馬總統。就我看來，他為新澤西做了相當出色的工作。”

????It's over, thank goodness, the election is over. Americans all over the ideological map can, at least, celebrate together that the attack ads, snarky debates, and divisive narratives of this presidential race have come to an end.

????The ability to agree on that, or anything, may be our saving grace. The U.S. is facing serious challenges, one of which being the?fiscal cliff?-- severe spending cuts that kick in January 1 should Congress fail to pass a plan to address the federal budget deficit. To tackle the problems we face, politicians and we the people have to undo much of the thinking that this campaign solidified.

????Candidates have spent around $400 million each on attack advertisements during this campaign. The vast majority of those ads were negative, according to data crunched by Kantar Media/CMAG and published in the?Washington Post. Most of us know and hate these attack ads. They pull the cheap tricks of B-list movies: ominous voiceovers, fade-in text, music and camera angles designed to unsettle the viewer.

????Though they are hardly cinematographic genius, what the ads do very well is paint the opposition as "the other." President Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China," claimed an attack ad funded by the Romney campaign. Despite being false, the ad plays on a xenophobia that would be almost comical if the spot wasn't produced in earnest by the G.O.P. Both parties are guilty, of course. The Democratic party's tag line on ads run in Ohio was "Mitt Romney. Not one of us." What does that even mean? Nothing useful for building a cohesive union.

????"There's been billions of dollars spent dividing the nation," says David Rock, executive director of a consultancy firm called the NeuroLeadership Group that aims to apply neuroscience to business leadership strategies. "Now you're going to have a large percentage of the population that is really not going to listen and would like to see that the President fail."

????That is because our brains automatically file people into either an "in-group" or an "out-group," according to Rock. Effective ads and vitriol can lead us to strengthen a person or party's status in the out-group. Once someone enters the out-group, we perceive that person differently and become less able to empathize. "The third area that's quite insidious," Rock adds, "is we are literally rewarded when an out-group member fails. We like it."

????But for the sake of the country, Republicans and Democrats do not have time to bait then gloat one another's failures. So how do we rewire, now that we must? We have to build new in-groups, Rock says, which people do around shared experiences, goals, or threats.

????Government has done this before. Former South African president Nelson Mandela brilliantly manufactured a shared national experience when he brought a racially divided nation together to support its rugby team, the Springboks, in the 1995 World Cup.

????Last week, superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast, providing New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie with an excellent reason to work in tandem with the federal government -- on its own, the state could not cope with the damage. After the storm, Governor Christie told Fox News, regarding President Obama, "He has been very attentive and anything that I've asked for, he's gotten to me, so I thank the President publicly for that. He has done, as far as I'm concerned, a great job for New Jersey."