I’m preparing myself to attend a huge media convention at the end of the month.
It’s called CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) and it’s held every year around this time in Washington DC. For me, jumping back into things like this is really a big deal, and so I’m doing everything I can to test my voice, and to learn as much as I can about the things going on in this country.
I think by now, it’s no secret that I skew conservative in my worldview, and I’ve already outed myself as a Christian in this blog. I’m not ashamed of either of those facts, but I am nervous about being so open and exposed about my beliefs. I live in Northern California where conservative voices are not as common, and there are times when I’ve accidentally found myself in the crosshairs of a potential fight over something that came up in a casual conversation. I’m not afraid to debate, or to stand up for my beliefs.
I just have a deep desire to be understood, and in turn, to understand others.
In my daily life, I try to do everything in my power to lead with empathy and respect, not issues, and I feel like knowing the story behind something helps me understand things more clearly. I might not change my mind about how I feel, or alter any of my beliefs after I learn more, but I do feel like understanding keeps me from burning bridges and cutting people off who are on a journey, too. I don’t know that I’m very awesome at any of this yet…but I’m trying! I’m doing a lot of stepping out of the shadows all at once these days, and even though I’m not even sure anyone actually notices me yet, I get the sense that one false move could be a disaster for me!
I really love to listen to this podcast called What Really Happened. It’s a documentary filmmaker’s podcast, and so the way Andrew Jenks — the creator of the show — unravels a topic is so interesting to me. Recently, I listened to a terrific episode from Season 2 about the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial that went horribly wrong in 2017. The podcast was full of so many angles for considering this terribly tone-deaf attempt at merging art, social movements, and commerce together to make a brand-galvanizing statement, and I could probably blog on 50 different things that inspired me while listening to this podcast!
But the one idea I’m noodling on the most right now is a term that the podcast introduced me to called The Outrage Culture.
During the very short time that this controversial Pepsi ad was public (and legally available on YouTube), it managed to deeply offend just about everyone, no matter their political or social leanings. Although the reasons for hating the ad varied, the fact that everyone was “outraged” by the storyline of the ad was an unusual meeting of the minds for one brief moment in our very divided country. This ad in all of it’s “wrongness” was like a magnet pulling all sides into a single agreement: this ad was a total blunder in every way.
When I was listening to this very well done, and very layered assessment of the life cycle of that ad, I kept returning to the idea that outrage can create consensus among us…even if it isn’t for very long. Finding a momentary space of common ground with “the other side” might even feel good! But it doesn’t seem to last.
But I guess what I realized after pondering all of this for a few days is that I don’t want to be united with others in our mutual outrage alone. I think that kind of uniting is just the rallying point, but if I were to get stuck there, I’m not sure how I’d endure it. I’ve decided that what makes people stay stuck is that we all have different solutions to the things that outrage us the most, and the battles we fight with each other over such things take us off track and “de-unify” us. We start out with the same concerns, anger, and various forms of moral outrage, and then abandon all of that energy to fight over how to make things better.
As I study the issues, there are things that truly do outrage me. I’m deeply angry inside over the pervasiveness of human trafficking in our country. I can’t believe it goes on every day right under our noses! It’s not some faraway problem like I used to believe, but rather, it’s a problem in our own backyard. But human trafficking is not a singular issue with a singular solution. It’s incredibly convoluted and honestly…overwhelming to me. It turns out that t
There’s so much I need to learn…
So from time to time, I’m going to chronicle my journey into the outrage culture on this blog, and the biggest topic that compels me to do this is human trafficking. I’m stepping into the fray knowing that one of my biggest rallying points is how angry, grieved, and broken I am over this reality — and, how motivated I am to help. I’m not stepping into the mix just to fight. I’m stepping in deeper so I can understand, and hopefully, be a contributor to a solution…
