johnmaconline

Christian with MAGA.
Muslim with terrorist.
Democrat with socialist.
Republican with fascist.
Rich with selfish.
Poor with entitled.
Rural with dumb.
City with weak.

We like to label, generalize, and categorize. It helps us make sense of our world. 

It also helps us find our people. Since our people are smart, good, and right, those others must be dumb, bad, and wrong. 

But then The World slides in and conflates the labels. 

A mile from our house is a stoplight at the corner of two country roads. It works strictly on a time-based cycle, 24×7. No controlling sensors.

During the day, it’s no big deal because the intersection sees enough traffic that the cycle doesn’t feel off.  

However, it’s maddening late at night. 

Last night we came home late (for us). As we approached, the green turned yellow and then red. For no reason! Ours was the only car around for miles.

What would you do?

Here’s what I did and what I always do at this intersection late at night: First, I cursed to let the universe know what I thought of this travesty. Then, I stopped, looked both ways, and blew through the light. 

Maybe your parents, like mine, instilled the sense of doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching. We’ve worked to instill this in our kids as well. It’s biblical. 

But what is the right thing?

One way to look at it is that the law says you gotta stop and wait. So do it. Black and white. 

Another way is to look at the intention. The purpose of this law is to regulate the flow of traffic safely. If no traffic exists to regulate, no traffic regulator is necessary.

Now think through this again, but replace “stoplight laws” with any other law. The letter of the law is important, but so is intention. 

Another mega-inspiration behind The250 is Bari Weiss’s Common Sense newsletter and her companion podcast Honestly. Want some plain-ole clear thinking and honest questions about what’s happening in the world today? That’s your place. 

By far, the most entertaining output from Common Sense is each Friday’s TGIF, written by Bari’s wife, Nellie Bowles. 

As I’ve stated before, the purpose of The250 is to encourage empathy through opening new perspectives. I don’t do much overt call-to-action because the whole point is that most of our lives are complex and nuanced.

Except “Turn off the news!!” I am unabashed with that one.

In a recent edition, Nellie published real-world data to fuel the fire of my campaign slogan, “Turn off the news!!”

Here’re some graphs that show the emotional trends of news headlines from 2000 until now. Note the full spectrum of news sources as part of the data.

As I suspected.

I will point out one issue, however: the Y-Axis scales on each chart are not the same (as I’ve pointed out with the red boxes). This is the kind of misinformation trickery that sides use to magnify and hyperbolize their point. It has happened here, but the overall results are not skewed.

Do note that the downward trend of “joy” and “neutral” would not appear as drastic as shown if the scales were identical.  

Regardless, turn off the news. 

You know it’s coming, and you can’t stop it.

Of course, you’re not looking forward to it, but it’s more than an abstract discomfort because you’ve been here before. You’ve already walked this road. You’ve been to this destination. You know how this ends.

And it sucks. Deeply and truly.

On these days, how do you show up in the world?

Do you push it behind a facade or wear your heart on your sleeve? Are you able to function normally? Do you appear largely unaffected but in moments of weakness, the emotions escape (and the regrets pile up)? Do you play the victim, or do you victimize?

Luckily, we don’t experience the existential threat of impending doom every day. The doom moments come and go like seasons.

When you look across the table, aisle, or office, it’s worth considering what season your fellow humans might be experiencing.

Consensus is the best approach for many decisions.

How will we govern ourselves?
What are our rules of engagement?
How do we want to spend our resources?
What is the wording we should use in our statement of faith?

Consensus is malleable, adaptable, and follows directly from the group’s constituents — we agree to this at this point in time (even if we don’t all like it). The makeup of the group matters. The moment in time matters.

But consensus does not equate to truth.

Truth is immutable. Hard to come by, hard to understand, hard to hear (sometimes). Truth is not subject to any constituents. One hundred percent of a group may agree to a “truth,” and they all might be wrong.

The truth can easily make us uncomfortable. Therefore, we lay our heads on the soft pillow of consensus. Unfortunately, that pillow isn’t always so soft.

If you arrest an immigrant drug dealer, our consensus is you’re a racist.
If you’ve had an abortion, our consensus is you’re going to hell.
If you do not market the narrative, our consensus is you’re knowingly promoting disinformation.

These statements may be true, but what makes them true is not consensus.

Groups are constantly conflating truth and consensus through black-and-white assertions. Doing so gives them power and helps their members feel smart, right, and comfortable.

But you’re smarter than that.

Have you ever had a moment where sitting, observing, or simply taking a large cleansing breath led to an overwhelming sense of contentment?

Sometimes we need to be the vessel.

Have you ever had a moment where grinding, sweating, and never giving up led to an overwhelming sense of contentment?

Sometimes we need to be the hands.

I need Dr. Rick.

According to my adult children, Progressive Insurance bases the entire Dr. Rick series on me. They just assume a reality TV film crew follows me around all day to source the material for the next barely-fictionalized Dr. Rick insurance advertisement. 

They cringe at what I might say to the restaurant server or the tradesman working at my house. They roll their eyes and steal glances at each other as I extoll the virtues of defense on championship teams or getting to the airport early. 

And blue hair? Are you kidding me? There is exactly one reason to dye your hair blue — to elicit comments.

I’m that guy. I’m the cliche.

(Although, I do have one shred of vanity. You’ll never catch me in these.) 

My kids are horrified, but I’m OK with it because I’ve earned it. Yes, I’m a bit stodgy and predictable. I get excited about mundane things. I try to head off future problems. I sometimes find value in over-communicating. I’ve been there. Done that. Got the T-Shirt.

I’m also OK with it because I’m no longer trying to fit in with some curated group of people. I don’t need to be the cool dad or the young, old guy. I’m just gonna be myself — the cliche.

What cliche have you become? Are you OK with it?

One thing I’ve learned from over fifty years on this earth is that the path to success is littered with breadcrumbs.  

A bajillion books, online courses, and coaches exist to help you and me figure out how to follow those breadcrumbs. Lots of people will happily take our money to get us to that magical land of success. 

“Follow us and we’ll teach you exactly how to get where you want to go!”

But the proper question isn’t how. It’s who.

Who makes people feel the way you want to make people feel?
Who shows up in the world the way you want to show up in the world?
Whose perspective is the perspective you want?

Maybe the breadcrumbs we need to follow aren’t leading us down the path of how. Maybe they’re leading us to who. 

It’s obviously campaign season. One knows this because the yard signs are everywhere.

Most times, the purpose of advertising is an overt, clear, transactional call to action — buy this, travel here, hire me.

But the purpose of political yard signs is more subtle. Yard signs announce one’s tribe affiliation.

“This is the team that I align with. You should too.”
“Wanna be my friend? You should vote for this person.”
“This is the person that sees the world the way I do. The right way. If you want to see the world the right way, this is your person.”
“I’m a smart person, and this is my candidate. The other candidate is for dumb people.”

Quite frankly, political yard signs confuse me.

Yes, crime is surging in some areas.  
Yes, sex education has gone off the mainstream path in certain places.
Yes, some from the extreme right and left could plausibly be labeled anti-democratic.
Yes, the climate is changing.
Yes, many have died from complications associated with COVID.  
Yes, inflation is up. 

But what has been your personal experience?

The World is trying to anger you and make you afraid. It does so because its currency is attention, and the more angry and afraid you are, the more attention you give it. 

Attention-grabbing headlines aren’t about awareness or public service. They’re about sales.
Attention-grabbing headlines aren’t meant to help you. They’re meant to make you crazy. 
Attention-grabbing headlines don’t solve problems. They create more problems. 

You probably have personally experienced one or more of the issues the headlines scream about. But has a headline ever helped you deal with it?

Personal experience isn’t everything when it comes to solving big problems, but it sure can help when deciding how to spend one’s limited budget of worry.