How do you push an agenda?

The aberrant way is to divide the people.

Create a culture of Us versus Them. Take bigger groups and split them into smaller factions. Pin them against each other. Label them as insiders and outsiders.

We have been taught from a very early age that only the fittest will survive. It is a dog-eat-dog world.

But, of course, we don’t run from sabertooth tiger anymore. Our world is safer than it has ever been.

No matter where we stand for on critical issues—religion, health care, gun control, abortion…—we have far more things in common than what we think.

The problem is we do a lousy job classifying each other. Race, religion, wealth, status, politics, height, weight, IQ…we pick these categories because they’re easy to identify and measure.

But just cause it’s easy to measure, it doesn’t tell us a thing about how much someone cares about the people around them. It doesn’t tell us what they believe.

These are signals for us to make assumptions.

The alternative then, is to pick something that isn’t easy to measure. The soft skills like intention, action, posture, charity.

Most of us see ourselves as good people trying to do good things. Yet, it is difficult to assume others are good people trying to do good things.

99 out of 100 times, when given the right opportunity, people will choose to do the right thing. Most people want to do good work.

Wouldn’t it make more sense then to build a culture of better opportunities? Wouldn’t it be better to start trusting people more and give them the benefit of the doubt?

Seems like a better approach than steam rolling the people around you.