Josh Allred's Blog

The combination of the trauma of losing meaning in our work and the mass marketing efforts to fill that hole with stuff—we saw a dramatic fall in religious institutions starting in the 1960s and ‘70s. With the current trends, Christians could make up less than half of the U.S. population within just a few decades. It’s a dramatic shift from centralized religious institutions to a do-it-yourself spirituality. Many critics at the time blamed the hippies, secularism, as well as, the rise of atheism, and the mysticism surrounding hallucinogens as culprits. But in actuality, surveys show that a belief in God, an afterlife, and prayer increased during that period. Large religious institutions were shrinking not because of the “wickedness” of the world. Worshipers were still as spiritual as ever but sought a place that better fits their belief system. The rise in choice, individualism, and the marketing efforts of smaller churches slowly picked off enough people to make a dent in participation in mainstream institutions.  

Slowly, Gurus, Prophets, and Sages grew a platform to have their voices heard. Today, in the social media era, we call them Influencers. As New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat has pointed out, “It was a golden age if you wanted to talk about UFOs or crystals, the Karma Sutra or the I Ching.” 

The cruelty and evil displayed to slaves during the early days of the United States is perhaps unmatched in any period in human history. Slaves were indoctrinated that they were born inferior. It was preached that it was part of god’s plan. Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians (King James Version, which is what was used at the time), “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ.” There are plenty of other passages that god sanctioned this type of behavior that justified slave owners. 

In 1828, Federick Bailey was born into the world of slavery with no legal rights or protections. He was separated from his mother during his infancy and sent to his grandparents. His father was a white man who may have been his mother’s slave owner. At six, he was separated from his grandparents and was sent to a plantation. Bailey was then sent to Captain Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia at ten. Bailey felt fortunate when he was sent to work in the home. In the home, Bailey began interacting with books and letters and discovered “the mystery” of reading. Bailey made the connection that the lines of the page correlated with the sounds people were making. Bailey began studying Webster’s Spelling Book. He memorized the alphabet but struggled to understand the sounds made to the letters. Bailey broke down and finally asked Sophia Auld to help him. At the time, slaves were prohibited from learning to read. Whether it was ignorance or empathy, Auld agreed to teach young Bailey. When Captain Auld discovered what had happened, outraged, he ordered it to stop immediately. Captain Auld explained to Sophia in the company of Bailey:

“A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now, if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” 

Bailey later recounted, “I now understood…the white man’s power to enslave the black man. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.” It’s important to note that in 1860, it was estimated that 5% of African Americans could read and write. By 1890, it was 39%. It wasn’t until 1969 that literacy grew to 96%.

Without Sophia’s help, Bailey continued to find ways to teach himself how to read and then taught his fellow slaves. Bailey wrote, “Their minds had been starved…They had been shut up in mental darkness. I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul.” Bailey eventually escaped and fled to New England, where slavery was illegal. He then changed his name to Frederick Douglas and became a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, statesman, and the most important civil rights movement leader during the 19th century. 

During the 17th century, tulips were at one point one of the most expensive commodities in the world.

The reason was because we treated it like a scarce resource and humans have a hard time with the fear of missing out. As a result, the price skyrocketed. To the point where investors were betting futures on it.

We get excited about a lot of things. But most the time, it’s part of the moment. The next comes and the old doesn’t seem to have its appeal until it becomes nostalgic for a few who miss that time.

We don’t know how everything works. We just accept it that it does.

It took 100 years to figure why asprin can relieve pain. Yet, we still marketed it and took it.

So much of our world is left unexplained because we dropped in the center of the cannon. The story of humanity isn’t over but we have come such a long way. And so much is unrecorded or goes unnoticed. Leading to gaps in our knowledge.

The Dark Ages, which started after the fall of the Roman Empire until about 1500 C.E., conjures up images of famine and pestilence. But in actuality, during this period, we saw perhaps the greatest distribution of wealth with widespread prosperity than any time beforehand. The reason why plagues were a problem during the period was because of the sharp decline in sanitation. The reason? Monarchs crashed local economies by giving chartered corporations centralized power over the financial sector. When looking at the historical records of wars, genocide, and plagues, one simply has to follow the money.

The label we make doesn’t match the entire experience. We do this when talking about our experience with a graduate problem or a vacation. We can’t possibly summarize our experience, but we still try.

This is vastly different from waiting for the opportunity to come. We can be patient and wait for our shot. But we can also choose ourselves.

I have found waiting to be much more harmful in the pursuit of art.

There are a lot of loud voices now on the internet.

Perhaps, listen to the quieter voice. The one that has something to say without the platform.

A healthy dose of an alternative perspective, even if you don’t agree, will serve you well in avoiding the trap of echo chambers.

There is a collective shame in the culture when someone can’t hack it.

Often, we label them something as less than human.

On top of that, we have our own shame. Because deep down we all have a soft spot. A place where our insecurities lie.

Battling these two waves is part of the challenge of leading, initiating, and for creating art.

We have first understand that we belong in this space. And next, we put our best foot forward.

Once you create, then the choice next is to make it better.

It’s something I have been deeply fascinated about lately. The culture and its role it plays on shame. Particularly on women and minorities.

The culture reinforces rules to get people to fall in line. It never ceases to amaze me how we all bought in to the security money brings or how we obey traffic signals. I’m not calling for moving away from that. But it is quite amazing how we believe following rules is the moral thing to do. And when we don’t, the culture is quick to process, label, or outcast you.

Following the rules is important in working together. We all benefit when we slow down in a school zone. What interests me, however, is when we create extra rules to insulate ourselves from our pursuits. “I can’t possibly get to my art tonight because I have to do the dishes.” Sometimes these things we think we have to do are just an excuse from doing the things we say we want to do.

As kids, we played this all the time. In fact, we jumped at the chance to be the one who led the rest of the group. So, what happened?

The hard part about taking action is that it isn’t something we are used to doing anymore. That has been stamped out of us. Meaning that we have been trained to be compliant workers: follow the rules, follow the steps, follow the map.

Leading is about throwing away the map and deciding which direction to take. We don’t want to mess things up and when we do the people around us look at who’s in charge to blame. This is the crux of leadership. Understanding which voices to listen to and which to ignore.

As kids, there was no wrong answer about where you wanted to lead the group. Perhaps, we should return to some sort of semblance.