Josh Allred's Blog

Why is it so difficult for those infected with COVID-19 to quarantine for two weeks? Or to end racism? How come people are still falling for fake news?

I mean it seems simple enough. If your sick, stay at home. Treat everyone equally. Stay off Facebook and Twitter.

Right?

Yet, none of these solutions have worked. Because people misbehave. We tell ourselves stories that justify bad behavior. “Just this once” won’t hurt anyone.

Which means two things:

1. Finding solutions is the easy part. Following through is where the challenge lies.
2. People take problems and make them more complicated then they need to be. (Examples: Taking a science issue and making it a political one. Taking an equality issue and making it about them.)

There is no magic pill to fix these complicated challenges that lie ahead. Anyone who tries to make it seem so isn’t taking account of human behavior.

Oil, food, water, shelter…we focus most of our attention on finite resources.

For good reason, with ecological disaster looming, people in the not too distant future will be faced with difficult choices on how to manage these limited resources.

The problem is, in a finite world, if someone gets a larger slice of the pie then me, my slice must be smaller.

Yet, infinite resources don’t work this way. When we combine your candle with mine, the light in the room grows.

That’s why your imagination is the greatest resource you have.

Because there are no limits to ideas. If one doesn’t work, we can imagine a new one. Again and again and again.

One of the biggest challenges going forward, with a world of shrinking finite resources is to help those see with a fixed mindset a new world of possibility.

When one door closes another opens up.

Possibilities are endless despite the restrictions.

You are not in a situation of no choice, just no easy choices left to make.

Coronavirus has revealed how delicate our supply chains have become.

Relying on other countries for the production of PPE or medicine. The supply chain in the food industry with how hogs have been needlessly slaughtered because the production line can’t handle the excessive weight.

We have sacrificed resiliency for efficiency. And now, we are paying the price for it.

But through this adversity, we can pave a new path for a better world.

In the 1930s, economist John Keynes predicted that with the evolution of technology and production his grandchildren would only be working 15-hours per week.

So why is it that we spend (interesting word spend) 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, for 40+ years?

When are we to realize the flaw in this system.

There is a reason that mental health continues to rise. That amidst all of the progress we have made in medicine, technology, the internet, with food, clean water, shelter…we still is missing something.

That feeling of being connected to something bigger than ourselves. That feeling gives us purpose. It makes us feel larger than life and boosts us to dive deeper into hard, emotional work.

Where did it go wrong? 40 years of deregulation with a great recession and now a global pandemic hasn’t helped us going forward.

The 40-year slog isn’t about getting to the finish line and THEN we can start enjoying life.

Life begins each day, make it count.

HT John Keynes

Scott McCloud points out in his brilliant book, Understanding Comics, that all the action happens in between the panels.

Social media works the same way.

All we see is a glimpse, one point of view, and nothing in between. That space is left for our imagination.

Which isn’t a bad thing except when we let our fears and biases in the driver’s seat. Anxiety kicks in and we automatically go to the worst-case scenario.

Our imagination struggles to see other points of view different from ours because…

We fear what we can’t imagine.

In 1963, eight white clergymen in Birmingham published a letter called the “A Call for Unity” which essentially asked outsiders to stay away and for protestors to resume negotiations.

Protesting is never meant with open arms. Even non-violent ones. They are never convenient because they call for the status quo to change and for people in power to share it.

After Dr. King was hauled away to jail, he responded to these clergymen with a letter that is now known as the Letters from Birmingham Jail.

Here is the audio. Thank you for your words.

It is the idea that we assume our profession is inherently good, even sacred, and is therefore above criticism.

In other words, we are talking about pride.

Pride keeps us from seeing the hidden biases and prejudices in the system we have built.

Pride keeps us from seeing the harm we cause others.

Teachers, ministers, librarians, government officials, running a non-profit, and yes, law enforcement…

No calling is above justice.

The more tightly we hold on to this label that “I am a good person” then we are less likely to examine how we cause harm to others.

That doesn’t mean we need to shame ourselves but rather accept that each of us is a work in progress.

It’s easy to see the flaws of others, to tell ourselves a story that makes us feel better. We need to remember, people are more than just a list of good things and the bad things we see.

Everyone wants to be the hero in their story. The problem is how quickly we are to cast those around us as a villain.

We are being inundated with a never-ending stream of what’s going on around the world.

The problem is the news we think we are participating in is now turning into gossip.

Headlines designed to be clickbait, knowing that we are not going to read the articles but skim it.

It’s a formula now and it’s poisoning the well to receive valuable information.

We think we are staying informed is by being in the know but there is too much information for anyone of us to stay on top of.

The irony is, the less we consume the better we feel. 10 minutes a day is enough to be informed. Any more and we are just amplifying a voice in our head.

It’s implied that the next step we always think about is forward.

We don’t talk about going backwards because we can’t go that way.

Time is linear.

And so, we behave in a linear manner.

Time is also consistent.

People?

Not so much.

What were to happen if the next step we take was deliberate. Deliberate in how we deliver equality or beauty or art. Deliberate in how we raise the status of those we seek to serve.

What were to happen if we consistently delivered on this promise?

We wouldn’t have to fear change if we knew the next step was towards something better.