Will you be canceling your Spotify premium, too?
Differences divide. And people confuse sameness with closeness.
In a society where we haven’t learned to productively resolve conflict and welcome opposition constructively without worrying our identity is under threat, we continue to lead and teach from a place of fear. This might begin to explain our intergenerational collective trauma.
Listen to any beloved spiritual leader, thinker, scientist, philosopher, teacher, and human rights advocate and activist, and you’ll hear them speak of love, respect, and acceptance.
They encourage peace, patience, empathy, compassion, civil rights, empowerment, activism, freedom of speech, freedom of choice.
Yet here we are, in awe of such people, speeches, words, moments, and quotes, and so bitterly disconnected from our accountability to them.
Ever wonder why it’s easy to sway someone’s opinion?
Consider marketing to understand how the concept works.
Think of the last thing you bought and why. Think about what you want and why.
In marketing:
We analyze what people yearn for.
We remind them that they deserve to have that which they yearn for.
We create more yearn for what they yearn for.
We attach whatever it is we’re selling to that which they yearn for.
We make it accessible for them to buy and consume.
We keep them yearning for more.
And the more money a company, brand, or person has, the easier it is to employ all the tools necessary to support the narrative.
The more airtime is bought and given.
More advertising is created and spread.
The more influencers are paid to seed the message.
The more exposure media will give it.
The bigger the reach, the more people will see it.
The bigger the influence, the more people will believe it.
The more momentum, mass appeal starts to mobilize people even further.
This gives way to more trust — as there starts to be power in numbers.
And so, the cycle continues.
Siding with popular opinion is no coincidence. No one wants to be that “loser” kid no one talks to at the school dance, right? So, when someone of prominence takes a stance on an issue, people will jump in to support it.
And this is because everyone desires a sense of belonging, and by partaking in popular rhetoric it makes people feel important by proxy.
And anyone who dares threaten this “reality” by calling it out, is framed as evil.
We live in a world full of diversity and difference — it’s what makes it interesting and entices progress.
We’re bound to at some point disagree with someone we love, someone we look up to, someone we trust — it’s life.
To take a strict stance on something you disagree with and use your clout and influence to let it be known, can be disruptive. Good or bad. Before you do so, think.
If your values don’t align with something, it is within your right — as it is within everyone else’s as well — to take a stance and speak up. Your voice, however, doesn’t get to cancel someone else’s — both voices deserve to co-exist. Respectfully.
But if you only employ this behavior in some circumstances while making exceptions in other similar situations while turning a blind eye, rest assured you are far from exemplary behavior. It doesn’t serve anyone to behave in a self-important, self-righteous manner but yourself. Sadly, people will still subscribe to what you say or do and will echo and help amplify such self-centered behavior anyway, confusing it with courage, confidence, and superiority — this, too, is very telling of our society.
Before you leave a conversation, ask yourself: “will I not be better off staying to continue to exert change by carrying on with the conversation?”
And if you think that actions speak louder than words, remember that it is words that mobilized you into action in the first place.
So, please, if you are to pull out from Spotify, or to applaud any person for doing so, you might as well get offline altogether as the web isn’t waved with the noblest of intentions. And while you’re at it, question where the petrol for your car comes from (you may not share the same ideologies of say, Saudi Arabia, and may want to protest, that too). Also think about your beauty products as they may trace back to Nazi money. You see, the world sits on mountains of disinformation and dishonesty, some more dangerous than others.
But, if we don’t hear others speak their lies, how are we to counter them with the truth?
What is the truth in the absence of a lie?
Complex questions that require resilience and critical thought.
Know this, you stand on minimal self-worth when you feel that a difference in opinion threatens your very existence and thrusts you into action to blatantly censor, silence, discredit and dismiss instead of intelligently debate.
Democracy begets freedom of speech.
There is no room for violence of any sort: overt or covert, active or passive.
If you disagree, I support your right to leave or stay in the conversation. Simply, bear in mind that: for there to be balance and equity, both our voices must be heard.
And in the name of science, let people ask questions. Let the scientists speak freely — free of politics and money. Let there be challenge. Let there be constructive conflict — it’s the only way science evolves, the only way forward, and it’s the only way humanity improves.
Let’s agree to disagree.There’s more virtue in diversity. Let the other speak. And may you listen and ask more questions. Only then can we hold each other accountable for our words and actions.
Originally posted January 31, 2022: https://www.zanthology.com/articles/theres-a-growing-trend-in-society-self-righteousness
