Episode 81. Anger Sells Better Than Sympathy

What in life deserves our time and attention and what things don't. I hope that as we consider that question along with other topics on this show, that we can all learn to live our lives just a little more intentionally. This is Seth Roberts. Thanks for joining me on Skipping Stones - “Anger Sells Better Than Sympathy.”

Humanity is inherently gullible. We imagine ourselves to be these independently thinking entities when in reality we're so easily shaped by the people around us and by the people that know how gullible we actually are. Our pension for belief and what the people around us are saying makes sense. It keeps us safe.

It keeps us safe from being isolated. It keeps us safe from going to extremes relative to where your group currently stands. But it makes us easy targets to manipulate also. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean it isn't crazy or even evil at times. I think it's good to actually remember that once upon a time, normal meant that if you won a war against someone, you were entitled to rape, pillage, and enslave them at another point in time.

It was normal for ancient Spartans to cast off newborns to die in the sun if they were deemed unfit. And yet at another point in time, throughout much of Western civilization, it was normal to see public campaigns about euthanizing the elderly and the mentally disabled. In spite of that, generally speaking, I think it's a good thing that we're somewhat gullible.

The less trust people have in each other, makes for a more chaotic society. Trusting other people is the bedrock of civilization. Without it, we could accomplish nothing. I live currently without much fear because I trust that the farmers are going to reliably get food to the stores, and in turn, the stores are going to reliably have it available for me.

I trust that the power company is going to keep the lights on for me, and I trust that the city will keep the water running into my home. Trust is the glue that keeps us together. But some people know how to manipulate that trust. They know what triggers are the most likely to prompt action.

Unfortunately for us, the kinds of things that prompt action are not cool headed, reasonable petitions, and they're not even the kinds of petitions that elicit sympathy, anger and fear are what really gets a group of people to move on something. I read a lot of news day to day. And I like to think that I've read enough of it by this point that I've gotten better at reading through the lines.

For example, when I read the news now, I don't pay so much attention to what the articles say. Instead, I try to pay more attention to why the news organization wanted to publish that article in the first place, and what fear they're tapping into in order to get me to read it. When I do this, it lets me see a kind of truth, even if all it tells me is what was important to the editors of the publication.

For years, I rode the emotional rollercoaster that my favorite publications wanted me to ride. I would be shocked. I would be mad. I would be feeling indignant at the things going on in the world. It was beyond my understanding why certain other publications refused to address the same stories as some of my favorites.

At the time, it wasn't very good for me. I would get caught up in these cycles of anger and resentment. It made me despise the people around me that thought differently, and I was a willing sheep being taken advantage of by people that knew my nature better than I did. By and large, my views have not really changed much since I realized how gullible I was, but at least I'm no longer so easily worked up.

News organizations know that when we are afraid, we crave information, even if only hints at information. They also know that when we feel threatened, our response is not to walk away, but to get enraged and want to fight back. If you want to rile people up, make them think a thing is going to threaten the way they currently are living.

I find it interesting that over the course of my short life, the only truly tangible change that's been a result of politics in America has been inflation, which is certainly something to be concerned about, but the way we talk about our politics, you might end up thinking that the world is actually going to crash and burn.

Politicians know that anger sells virtually. Every political ad follows the same format. The opponent wants to do A, B, or C, but they won't stand for it. You would almost think our nation is being run by injury attorneys. Politics is almost less about what the politician is accomplishing and more about what they're preventing the other side from doing.

To clarify, I know that politics do matter, and they can be deeply relevant beyond just inflation. And maybe one of these days everything will indeed crash and burn. But if that's to happen, it's going to likely begin with the saber rattling of someone's news publications. When people get angry, nuance goes out the window.

All we want to do is to take a sledgehammer to whatever we're mad about, but sledgehammers are really only good at breaking things. And most of the time that isn't the goal we're actually trying to accomplish. So unfortunately, we're often using the wrong tool for the job, at least if there's any subtlety needed to accomplish what we actually want.

When we lose our heads to anger, cooler heads are the real winners. They're the ones that are typically controlling the anger to begin with. They're the ones guiding your attention to where they want it. Well, in the meantime, they perform a sleight of hand somewhere else. Sadly, this is never going to change so long as humans continue to be humans.

But maybe you don't have to be the gullible one. It's so easy to see how people with opposing views are being manipulated by their information sources. But try not to be so naive as to think that your news sources are not also trying to manipulate you. This is Skipping Stones - “Anger Sells Better Than Sympathy.” You can find this podcast anywhere you choose to listen to podcasts.

For more information about me, feel free to visit skippingstonessr.com. And if you enjoyed the show, please like or subscribe. If there is a topic you would like me to speak on, please feel free to email me. At info@skippingstonessr.com, new episodes will be released weekly every Monday.