The New Global Tribe
Do we truly understand our fallacies or are we just running away from them, hiding behind causes and outrage, drawing a line in the sand and saying it's us against them?
Interesting figures throughout history of proclaimed this...it's come from religion, the stoics, great scientific thinkers, politicians, educators, and the list continues. They all pretty much say the same thing.
But we do live in a different world. We are in a mono-culture where everyone and everything is trying to mesh with one another and get along. We used to live in smaller communities, in tribes, in lands that we may live our entire lives and never leave. It's easier to get along with 100 people who live in your same area and have no access to extraterrestrial ideas...you are all more likely to see the world with similar eyes. But globalize everything, and well, you've just disrupted the environment in which humans have evolved. We aren't exactly evolved for this constant barrage of ideas, marketing, opinions, connection, etc. If we really think about it, even the newspaper, which many consider outdated, is radically new to human existence.
I think there are major repercussions to this new world of knowledge...all the ideas, everything that is true, untrue, opinion, and manipulative is right at your fingertips, nay, it is literally thrust in front of your face thousands of times on most days of your life. It becomes culture. It becomes normal. But it's not normal.
While all of this may be overwhelming, and if you let it it can make you feel crazy, I think it's important to understand a few things (or remember these things you already know intuitively). Generally, nothing that happens is about you. In other words, how many things in your life do you take personal that have absolutely nothing to do with you? Today it's NFL players taking a knee, yesterday it was something else and in a month or two there will be another controversy. No one can deny that there are people out in the world that actually mean you harm, they hate you just because you exist with certain characteristics. That's an unfortunate fact of existing. But that's not most people and most situations. I'll just come out and say it, most people in your periphery don't really care about you. They really don't. I don't mean close family, friends, and neighbors, I mean everyone else...all 7 billion and counting. They might want to know if they can trust you and rely on you for help. They might want to know if you're going to try to hurt them or take something away from them. Most people only care about you to the extent that it affects them. Don't take it personally, you do the same thing, a lot. You literally couldn't function as a human being if you tried to care about everyone's' problems on earth all at once.
Take this post for example. I'm letting you in on some of my thoughts. I'm opening up and letting you judge me. It's all right here. I typed this and I can't put the blame on anyone else if you read something you don't appreciate anywhere on this entire blog. Can judgement be painful? Yes! But here is the kicker. If someone says something completely ridiculous about you, it's pretty easy to shrug off for most people. You know in your heart it isn't true and thus it is much easier to let go and move on with your life. No big deal, that person was way out of line. But what if someone actually makes a valid point? What if there is just enough truth in their remark or opinion that it stings? Many people, hiding behind their computers, will simply attack. They are hurt and they ferociously use all the ugliest words they can summon.
All the while it hurts no one but themselves. This reaction is without thinking. This reaction requires no self-assessment or growth. This is how people have a pulse but become essentially like the dead. They are completely reactionary, easily threatened, and easily manipulated. Rather, there is learning and growth in understanding why and how we respond to things we don't like.
There is a clue in your emotion. Whenever you respond strongly to something, the first thing you should ask yourself is why. People who disagree with you are present in the world at all times. They've always been there and they will always be there. What if we took a few minutes, or hours, or even days to think about why something has made us feel a certain way? What if we paused and we went really deep and asked ourselves why this thing makes us feel personally attacked?
Interesting figures throughout history of proclaimed this...it's come from religion, the stoics, great scientific thinkers, politicians, educators, and the list continues. They all pretty much say the same thing.
But we do live in a different world. We are in a mono-culture where everyone and everything is trying to mesh with one another and get along. We used to live in smaller communities, in tribes, in lands that we may live our entire lives and never leave. It's easier to get along with 100 people who live in your same area and have no access to extraterrestrial ideas...you are all more likely to see the world with similar eyes. But globalize everything, and well, you've just disrupted the environment in which humans have evolved. We aren't exactly evolved for this constant barrage of ideas, marketing, opinions, connection, etc. If we really think about it, even the newspaper, which many consider outdated, is radically new to human existence.
I think there are major repercussions to this new world of knowledge...all the ideas, everything that is true, untrue, opinion, and manipulative is right at your fingertips, nay, it is literally thrust in front of your face thousands of times on most days of your life. It becomes culture. It becomes normal. But it's not normal.
While all of this may be overwhelming, and if you let it it can make you feel crazy, I think it's important to understand a few things (or remember these things you already know intuitively). Generally, nothing that happens is about you. In other words, how many things in your life do you take personal that have absolutely nothing to do with you? Today it's NFL players taking a knee, yesterday it was something else and in a month or two there will be another controversy. No one can deny that there are people out in the world that actually mean you harm, they hate you just because you exist with certain characteristics. That's an unfortunate fact of existing. But that's not most people and most situations. I'll just come out and say it, most people in your periphery don't really care about you. They really don't. I don't mean close family, friends, and neighbors, I mean everyone else...all 7 billion and counting. They might want to know if they can trust you and rely on you for help. They might want to know if you're going to try to hurt them or take something away from them. Most people only care about you to the extent that it affects them. Don't take it personally, you do the same thing, a lot. You literally couldn't function as a human being if you tried to care about everyone's' problems on earth all at once.
Take this post for example. I'm letting you in on some of my thoughts. I'm opening up and letting you judge me. It's all right here. I typed this and I can't put the blame on anyone else if you read something you don't appreciate anywhere on this entire blog. Can judgement be painful? Yes! But here is the kicker. If someone says something completely ridiculous about you, it's pretty easy to shrug off for most people. You know in your heart it isn't true and thus it is much easier to let go and move on with your life. No big deal, that person was way out of line. But what if someone actually makes a valid point? What if there is just enough truth in their remark or opinion that it stings? Many people, hiding behind their computers, will simply attack. They are hurt and they ferociously use all the ugliest words they can summon.
All the while it hurts no one but themselves. This reaction is without thinking. This reaction requires no self-assessment or growth. This is how people have a pulse but become essentially like the dead. They are completely reactionary, easily threatened, and easily manipulated. Rather, there is learning and growth in understanding why and how we respond to things we don't like.
There is a clue in your emotion. Whenever you respond strongly to something, the first thing you should ask yourself is why. People who disagree with you are present in the world at all times. They've always been there and they will always be there. What if we took a few minutes, or hours, or even days to think about why something has made us feel a certain way? What if we paused and we went really deep and asked ourselves why this thing makes us feel personally attacked?
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