The Idea Of Extremes...

Image by Angie Agostino from Pixabay 

I don’t think there is anything or anyone that operates at one polar extreme versus another. Sure, some folks veer more in one direction than another, but rarely, always and only at the extremes.

But you wouldn’t think so from most of the public rhetoric which, by definition, is driven by a desire for attention and alignment (with a predefined ideology - ours or someone else’s). 

And I’m not simply talking about our politicians and those in public office, I’m also talking about our companies, our teams and ourselves. We tend to talk in extremes. Corporations are evil. This individual is a terrible person. 

But is that really the case? The answer, as I think we all implicitly accept, is that it isn’t.

We’re seeing the corporations come together and take incredible steps to support their people, their communities and their customers. We’re seeing acts of generosity and kindness that we wouldn’t normally expect, given the rhetoric against such organizations just a month or so ago. 

We’re seeing individuals who we’d normally not otherwise connect with, reach out and check in. To offer up help as and where needed. To ask for and look for ways to be of service.

That’s amazing. And I think that’s because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. We’re all guided by foundational human values that are common to all of us. That we do look after our own. That we do all have a shared interest in our collective longevity.  That we do all belong.

Some of why we lose sight of this is that in normal times, we’re not focused on the fundamentals. Instead, we dwell on matters that are at the periphery, so to speak, because we have the luxury to do so - we focus on those issues as the defining elements and so, find it easier to veer towards extreme characterizations. (A few might deserve it, but most don’t.)

These are, to borrow the phrase, first world problems. The fact is, we’re part of the same problem, and will be part of the same solution. We’re all part of the same community, even if we sit in different rooms. We’re not at the extremes. We’re all in this together.