The Antidote To Polarization: Make, Protect, Teach

The world’s feeling all pulled apart again.

In the extra tense sense.

In the extra intense political turmoil meets social strife on sensationalist social media sense.

I keep going back to the way Ben Hunt explained this idea to Paul Millerd and I on an episode of Just Press Record.

I’m paraphrasing for brevity, but this is important.

It’s a common denominator that exists, in direct defiance to the polarization we’re all feeling.

Take 3 minutes and hear him say it. Here is an edited transcript (shortened up some, with my highlights too) but the core concept is simple -

Make. Protect. Teach.

That’s the secret to us not getting pulled apart.

Everywhere in the world, you will find men and women of good will doing small acts of kindness and service. Everywhere in the world. Without exception.

And also without exception, when you talk to these men and women, doing small acts of service and goodwill, [you’ll find] they think it doesn’t matter.

We have been told from birth that what matters is NOT our individual acts of goodwill and service - what I call making, protecting, and teaching - but what matters is what you do in service to a corporation or to a political party.

And it’s the most frustrating when I talk to my kids, and my kids’ friends, who say “I want to matter, I want to make a difference.” [They think] the path to mattering and making a difference is to go work for this political campaign, or company, or organization.

That’s a lie.

What matters are those small acts of kindness and service. And it requires someone to stand up and say, “This is what matters.” And if you can get people to say, “It is?” It’s like scales falling from eyes.

Yes, I am a human being because of these small acts of kindness and service. 

(you want to hear this full clip, just click this)

It’s a cop out to blame the Republicans and Democrats, it’s a cop out to blame the conservatives or the liberals, it’s a cop out to blame the BIG _____’s or the BIG ______’s, or at least it's a cop out if you blame "the big" exclusively and then sit back down in front of your computer screen in frustrated frustration.

Be angry, that’s fine, but then check the blame at the door and take responsibility for what you can take responsibility for.

Take responsibility for the smallest thing you can. Start there. It’s not big. Yet. But it can be.

Figure out what you want to do. What you want to make. What you want to protect. What you want to teach. Then, go out and DO it.

Yes, the world is more polarized than ever. But don’t forget what Ben said. Don't forget what makes us human. Don't forget what will keep us together, because it's the only thing that really, truly, honestly matters.

Think small, think compounding:

Acts of kindness and service.

Acts of making.

Acts of protecting.

Acts of teaching.

Acts of community building.

Acts of community maintaining.

Acts of exercising our humanity.

Acts of connecting.

Acts of reconnecting.

Acts. Actions. Small scale. They compound. They will grow, we just have to repeatedly do them, so they can survive in this big, ugly, polarizing world we’re living in.

Keep your hope alive. Keep our hope alive, my fellow men and women of goodwill, doing your small acts of kindness and service. It matters now as much as ever.

Here’s my original write-up and the full conversation:

And you’ll also want to see Ben’s keynote from Epsilon Connect 2024, Human Being in the Age of AI, which gets even more into why these stories matter so much to us now: