Click here to see current specials
Browse Titles and Formats Ebook Special Offer Audiobook Special Offer See current specials Login

Should I stop telling you these things?

Hey!

Lars here.

I live in suburbia and don’t get out of the bubble too often, so when I manage to sneak out for a night or two and meet interesting people, I’m excited to share those experiences with you.

But I’m thinking I should maybe stop telling you the names of the people I meet.

Because it’s not clear that I can trust all of us to be adults about it.

eg:

Last week I mentioned a conversation I’d recently had with a particular public figure, and I received a veritable vat of venom and vitriol from a very large volume of verifiably venomous viewers.

(That was fun, wasn’t it? :)

Many of you were appalled that I would even speak to such a shifty so-and-so because he once said such mean things about your favorite politician.

And also — get this! — this particular son-of-a-so-and-so secretly wants to…

Destroy. This. Country.

Or something.

And we know this about shifty so-and-so because the CNN / Fox people told us.

Or because we read something in a piece of intellectual flotsam dredged up by Duck Duck Google when we typed in one of our trigger words.

Or whatever.

And that’s how we can pretend to know with 100% certainty that this particular person — Old Shifty So-And-So, we call him in these parts — is, in all clear-eyed, educated, stone-cold-sober, nonpartisan, clear-as-the-zit-on-my-forehead, cold, hard, bleeping reality

a fully and wholly evil person.

Or whatever.

And hear this (some of you said in no uncertain terms):

Old Shifty So-And-So should not be spoken to.

And egads, he should never be listened to.

He should be turned in to the authorities.

The Real Authorities, not these posh political puppet posers we have to put up with now.

The Real Authorities will prosecute Old Shifty So-And-So to the fullest extent.

And so forth.

Or whatever.

But listen. People.

I mean,

LISTEN!

PEOPLE!

It’s great that we feel passionately about stuff.

We all need something to get the blood flowing.

But some of us have taken all of this us-versus-them business way too far.

Some of us are watching entirely too much “news” and reading way too many conspiracy novels.

Wait, I have to correct what I just said. You can never read too many conspiracy novels. ;)

But still. Maybe ease up a little?

Consider, perhaps —

and it is probably crazy of me to even throw this out there as a possibility these days —

but maybe, just bleeping maybe, there’s another side to whatever story we heard on the "news"?

I mean, can we really think that we have the inside information?

Because we saw something on a TV show?

Or because we saw something in a blog post purporting to be written by a “deep insider” but probably written in real-life by a 44-year-old pizza deliveryman who still lives in his dear old mom’s basement?

Seriously.

Weren’t we paying attention to all that stuff about propaganda and hidden agendas and self-indoctrination?

I’m actually not joking about this. This is actually a serious issue.

It's a problem, our willingness to attack attack attack attack attack attack some guy on TV over something we heard some other guy talk about… on TV.

Even the Fox/CNN people say — in high-profile court trials over libel and slander — that they’re not giving you the news. They’re just giving you entertainment. That was their (successful) court defense.

On one level, all of this is hilarious.

But it’s also terrifying.

Because this is us.

We are human. We are not fully rational.

We are mostly emotional and tribal.

We believe what we are told.

Even the lies.

Especially the lies.

All of us.

Me too.

Yet we think we’re informed and sophisticated.

But we’re not informed. Any of us. Not really.

And we’re definitely not sophisticated, at least as far as these matters are concerned.

We’re usually just indoctrinated.

And this is why we can’t have nice conversations.

Because we think we know.

And we’re not curious to learn.

Which means we don’t listen.

Which, for my money, is what’s behind a good bit of this dystopia we’ve been suffering recently.

Our disagreements? They’re not informed ones.

We have no basis for an opinion at all, because we don’t know anything except what we’re told by the TV and some political websites we frequent. Yet we cling like grim death to the borrowed opinions we adopted from our group. 

This is a feature of our humanity, and we are all subject to it.

But it’s not serving us all that well right now.

Right now this kind of behavior is a bad idea.

Here’s the thing:

Contrary to the impassioned pleas we might have received recently from our local party fundraiser, civil discourse is not tantamount to betraying our team.

I think it's actually just part of being a functioning adult.

And finally knowing enough about a topic to be beyond the stage where we think there are any easy answers to be had? That’s when we might actually be qualified to have an opinion… but we probably wouldn’t care to share it because we would know how tenuous and complicated and entangled everything is.

But this adulthood thing? Where we don’t fly off the handle at the slightest provocation because of some propaganda and horse manure we inadvertently swallowed hook line and sinker?

(Yuck, by the way!)

(Also, I'm not judging, because this kind of thing happens to me, too)

Let’s maybe try it out.

Let's maybe even try it on as a value and a principle.

We can work on it together.

It just might suit us.

What do you think?

Lars

PS: I’m certain that this note has angered some people. If you are one of those people, then please know that this post was written (with love and best wishes) with you in mind.

PPPS: I put a bunch of audiobooks together in a bundle. Grab them here, or have a look at the ebook bundle here.

"Have you lost your mind?"

That's what my wife said when I told her about these specials.

She's not even a little bit happy -- "Our daughter starts COLLEGE soon, or have you forgotten?" -- but I think you'll really like the deals we've put together for you.

Shop Now Before Lars Comes To His Senses
Close

50% Complete

Awesome! I'm glad you're joining us!

I don't share your information with anyone, and if you get sick of me, you can unsubscribe at any moment.