The Billionaire Who Wants to De-Woke Disney & Why Gen Z Doesn't Want to Go to College
Sadly, Bullies Do Prosper Later in Life, A Simple Gesture of Kindness, "Dune: Part Two" Looks Better Than it Tastes, Al Green Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Why picking your heroes is so important.
Disney’s Billionaire Foe Blasts Company for ‘Woke’ Films Like Black Panther: Take a look at some of the silliest (also racist and misogynist) opinions about movies you can imagine. Rich people can be such bad thinkers.
Gen Z is the new threat to the American college experience: College isn’t for everybody, but it’s still the best way to better earnings and greater happiness.
Playground bullies do prosper – and go on to earn more in middle age: To old adage that “bullies never prosper” isn’t necessarily so.
Kareem’s Video Break: This simple act of kindness is touching and inspiring.
What I’m Watching: Dune: Part Two is gorgeous to look at, but otherwise just fancy clothing on a mannequin.
What I’m Reading: Between Riverside and Crazy is a dynamic and funny play that is as engaging as a novel. It’s like overhearing a fascinating conversation.
Al Green Sings “Let's Stay Together”: Hop on the Soul Train for this classic love song.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Don't let hollow heroes distract you from saving yourself.
Nikki Rowe, Author
Life is an endless series of making decisions, some easy and some difficult. But each of them causes some level of anxiety. Therefore, life is an endless series of anxiety, some mild and some severely debilitating. The anxiety comes from never being sure whether we’re making the decision that will produce the best outcome. Good intentions can often lead to bad results.
That is why people turn to heroes and saviors to make their decisions for them. If we choose to follow someone else’s teachings, we abdicate responsibility for the outcome of following those teachings. “I was just following (insert hero savior here)’s teachings.” Or, the old Nuremberg trails excuse: “I was just following orders.”
You see the problem. How do you know you’re following a hero and not a villain? How do you distinguish between Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. whose followers fought for civil rights and Rev. Jim Jones whose 909 followers committed mass murder-suicide in 1978? To the followers, there is no difference because they are always positive they are choosing a hero to follow.
I have had many heroes in my life: Dr. King, Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Gloria Steinem, and more. However, the difference between heroes and the cult of personality is that I accept the flaws in my heroes. What made them heroes is that they were just ordinary people who were willing to risk personal comfort to make the world a better place. They didn’t have to be saints. They didn’t always have to be right.
Today’s social media can churn out “heroes” like Twinkies on a conveyor belt. And would-be heroes have become so PR savvy that they can promote whatever image they want to captivate those in desperate need of someone to follow. The same is true in politics. Any objective analysis of the life decisions of Donald Trump would conclude he’s a delusional narcissist who has committed numerous crimes and has done severe damage to the country. Yet, millions choose to ignore those facts to follow him.
Look around. I bet we can all make a list of “hollow heroes” that people follow because of their desire to rid themselves of the anxiety of choosing and because accepting the responsibility for those choices is too overwhelming. They just want to be told what to do, whether it’s by a religion, a politician, a spouse, or a media star. They are followers without consciousness or a conscience. They feel cleansed of blame, baptized into a faceless mob. They are saved.
That’s what the quote warns us against. We must choose our heroes carefully and not blindly rely on them to make all the decisions about what is best. The inability of many Americans to distinguish between heroes and villains is what has caused so much harm. Some think the person feeding them candy all day is their hero while the person offering balanced meals is the villain. They have Pied Piper Syndrome, willing to follow an intoxicating tune no matter where it leads them.
We are our own saviors in that we make rational choices based on our best knowledge. We can’t ever be sure of the outcome when we make a decision, but if that decision is based on solid moral values and solid rational thinking, then it is the right decision regardless of the outcome. Sure, there will be anxiety. But that’s life. Anxiety lets us know we care about our decisions and forces us to evaluate before choosing. Makes us better people. Yes, sometimes anxiety can shut a person down and they need help to cope. They need counseling, meditation, and perhaps even medication. But they don’t need to become blind followers of hollow heroes because the anxiety of having caused so much devastation by following them is even worse.