Summary:
You can be right, or you can change the world–but not both.
For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what it means to make the right choice. At Revolution 2.0™, we really are about changing our America. We’ll get to changing the world along the way…:).
Transcript:
You can be right, or you can change the world–but not both.
For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what it means to make the right choice. At Revolution 2.0™, we really are about changing our America. We’ll get to changing the world along the way…:).
From a very personal perspective, I have lost a lot of love in my life by insisting on being right. I lost the love after the argument when I was proved wrong. And I lost the love after the argument even (especially?) when I am proved right.
If you want to avoid those type of hurtful losses, challenge yourself: What is the result you are seeking in any debate or simple discussion where there may be disagreement? If the result you seek is to somehow make yourself feel good by trying to make the other person look bad, then repeating clichés, slogans and insults might work for you. Or backing them into a corner. Interrupting and not listening. Doggedly hanging onto your argument despite how reasonable and fact-driven the other person might be. Or appeal to others who agree with you who are observing the discussion by saying things—on topic or not—that will trigger their support for you and incite them to jump in on your side. Playing to the audience, in other words. All of these tactics will allow you to feel good about “your side”.
What would happen if you–if we–changed the definition of “your side” away from defending our position at all costs, to being open to the possibility of gaining an even better view of the issues under discussion? Then “our side” would have been improved, yes? And by handling the discussion this way, the other person is far more likely to do the same with us. (That person started with a “side” as well.) What can happen here is that the two sides come closer to becoming one side. Let’s use this possibility to have some fun with arithmetic. If two people are arguing, not listening and insisting on being right, it can be represented arithmetically: 1 – 1 = 0. One minus one equals zero. Each participant detracts from everything the other has said, with zero learning or progress. The other person had a “side”, too. And they are just as convicted as we are.
Similarly, two people in a discussion with the idea of listening, learning and possibly improving their viewpoint can be represented by: 1 + 1 = 3. One plus one equals three. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Both sides have learned, and, who knows, may team up rather than remain opposed.
Imagine a world if we sought first to find common ground. Among men and women of goodwill, there is always common ground, if you make an honest and patient search for it. For example, could anyone disagree with the common ground in pre-K-12 education being the best possible education with the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars? Yet discussion rages in this area with all sides assuming that the other sides have some sort of self-serving goal. At Revolution 2.0™ we work to create that world,, not just imagine it.
To discuss/argue in the productive way recommended at Revolution 2.0, we’ll have to let go of defending our egos as the desired result, and substitute making things better as the goal. In other words, we would change the desired result from being right to finding and implementing what’s right.
Know your desired result, e.g., are you trying to win or are you working to improve yourself and the world around you (you can’t do both), find the common ground, agree on facts (the law calls those pesky things evidence), apply non-agenda driven reasoning, and look out. You are on you way to 1. Improving the specifics of how the topics under discussion are handled in the world and 2. Discovering that we are not so different one from the other after all. Nurture this process with love and patience, ground it in gratitude that you get to be involved, and there will be progress. Repetition, while maintaining patience, love and gratitude, will keep real progress increasing on all fronts, and increasing at an increasing speed.
Today’s Key Point: Change yourself; change the world.
“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.
My family and I could have made an impact on our town.
Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”
Written by an unknown Monk around 1100 A.D.
At Revolution 2.0, we are here to change America. That’s our version of “being right.”
All of this ties to the core, driving principles at Revolution 2.0, which are:
- Personal Responsibility; take it, teach it and,
- Be Your Brother’s Keeper. The answer to the biblical question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is a ringing, unequivocal “Yes.” There is no other answer.
If we apply those two core principles simultaneously, never only one or the other, we will always be on the right path. Depending upon what we face, one principle or the other may appropriately be given more emphasis, but they are always acted upon together.
Revolution 1.0 in 1776 was built by people talking to other people, agreeing and disagreeing, but always finding ways to stay united and going forward. Revolution 2.0 will be built the same way.
Please visit the new store. Fun stuff, including hats, mugs and t-shirts. Recommend other items that you’d like to see offered.
Join me. Let’s grow this together.
Links and References
Love As A Pre-Existing Condition
Contact
As we get ready to wrap up, please do reach out with comments or questions about this podcast or anything that comes to mind. You can email me at will@revolution2-0.org, or connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And you can subscribe to the podcast on your favorite device through Apple Podcasts, Google, or Stitcher.
Now it is time for our usual parting thought. It is not enough to be informed. It is not enough to be a well informed voter. We need to act. And if we, you and I, don’t do something, then the others who are doing something, will continue to run the show.
Remember: Knowledge by itself is like running a winning race, then stopping just before the finish line.
Will Luden, writing to you from my home office at 7,200’ in Colorado Springs.
The core, driving principles at Revolution 2.0, are:
1. Personal Responsibility. Take it, teach it.
2. Be Your Brother’s Keeper. Taking care of our brothers and sisters.
If we apply those two core principles simultaneously, we will inevitably be on the right path.
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2 Responses
I’m sure finding a lot to agree with you about Revolution 2.0. Sure hope a lot of people get on board.
Jim, let’s recruit together!