Bidding Bad Ideas Farewell

"Individuals can denounce and resist a way of life; Only a community can live a way of life into being and then bequeath it to succeeding generations."

 -Jim Corbett, Sanctuary for All Life

The marketplace has sent many ideas to the boneyard. We don't drive around Ford Pintos anymore because they blew up when rear-ended.  Through both legal means (thank you Ralph Nader) and a lack of public acceptance the Pinto is no longer on the road.  

But not all bad ideas make it to the bone yard.  We still have xenophobia and racism alive and well in our politics today with entire political parties defending its right to exist.  We fought a world war over Nazi's thinking they could exterminate an entire class of people just because of religious and ethnic affiliation and now, 70 years later, we have witnessed the resurgence of the Alt Right. 

The question we need to ask ourselves is why? 

Why does the Pinto die and racism and xenophobia survive?  If we start with the preposition that ideas serve a purpose and play an important role in society then we must (whether we like it or not) accept the fact that people are getting some value out of racism and xenophobia.  

Now don't misunderstand ... I am no advocate of these bad ideas ... but to understand this issue and build a more inclusive and equitable society we must provide that same unmet need with a better and more functional idea. The square wheel works, but boy oh boy the round wheel is so much better!! 

So what is our round wheel? 

What can Quakers offer the world that takes the place of tribalism and circling the wagons?  

In this particular question, I think, we Quakers have much to offer.  Some very good round wheels! 

• Community: There may be no better substitute for a bad idea than giving a person a direct experience of community that has them understand viscerally (in the gut) the power of solidarity. A community that revolves not around negative values but positive ones.  That is solidarity in love vs hate. 
• Equality: It is a radical notion that people are equal.  It really makes no sense from an historical perspective. Our lived experience shows us that we are not treated equal in spite of lofty goals of our founding documents.  The cardiologist and the lawyer make $300 an hour, but the guy flipping burgers makes $8.  The billionaires control the levers of power that the rest of us toil under.  How can these two kinds of people be considered equal? Their equality may only be on the basis of the fact that they exist. And by their very existence they have a fundamental right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; an equality before the law and also before God.  To date a goal un-achieved, but something to strive for. 

Taking just these two ideas it is possible to extrapolate how much better life would be for everyone if we brought community and equality further into the realms of human interaction.

Queries about bad ideas:

• Is an idea that I hold dear a source of oppression for others? 
• Does an idea held by society forward the conversation about human development or end it? 
• What is the logical endpoint of an idea, namely does it expand a humane world or contract it? 

Query about good ideas: 

• How can we infuse our daily interactions with equality and community? 
• If an idea works, how can we improve upon it? 

Joseph Olejak

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