Can We Cool It Off In Here

Can We Cool It OFf In Here

John Paul Derryberry

If you clicked off thinking this was a post about the dangers of climate change, you would be wrong. Well, wrong about this being about climate change, correct in the fact climate change is occurring. I find it odd that so many deny it because the worse outcome is we make our planet cooler and cleaner for no reason. It's still a win, a big win, actually.

No, this is where our dialogue is headed on the national and state levels. But, unfortunately, much like our warming planet, it only seems to be inching up the heat index. Just a bunch of people going to their various channels and outlets screaming lies, ignoring and shutting down any information from dissenters, and openly courting violence. Combative all of a sudden is the en vogue leadership style again. Hopefully, it's the last time this is an accepted form of leadership.

Influential leaders turn down the temperature of their culture. They realize that their emotions about a situation are almost last on the priority list. The goal is to never overreact or underreact. Instead, figure out a path to the proper reaction. It's just that we seem to promote leaders who are too far on the spectrum either way. Either everything is a 911 emergency, and we've got to keep the emergency meter on volcano hot at all times. Everything is a conspiracy to ruin the country, a pathway to losing our moral compass, or it's a nothing point you should ignore. And the decision on whether it's an emergency or not usually is based on personal gain for your opinions.

There is no weighing the pros or cons, no going against your personal beliefs for a minute for the greater good. Instead, we just amp up the tension until the people drinking the cool-aid snap. We can't as a culture go on with the temperature increasing like this. It puts pressure on every aspect of society. It feeds an us vs. them narrative that has formed over the last 6 years. We are careening toward a culture where we are okay if everyone loses as long as the other side doesn't win. It's a scary place.

There are emergencies and problems in the world that need people to ring the fire alarm bell as loud as possible. They just happen to be few and far between. Instead, we need to navigate our culture toward cooler temperatures and against the all-or-nothing mentality we seem to be embracing. But, unfortunately, it will always eventually lead to nothing. Hopefully, someday soon, someone opens a window, turns up the air conditioning, and cools off hot takes reverberating through our society. It's getting too hot here for any real solutions to survive the current conditions.