Right will always win. The good guy will get the girl. The movie will have a happy ending.
The thoughts we comfort ourselves with. And why wouldn’t we? In TV shows, movies, and even our own experiences, there’s an optimism that is ingrained in us. For the most part, good things happen.
Enter Facebook.
Facebook as advertised: where you keep up with friends, join groups of people with similar interests, and socialize!
Facebook in reality: where you hit “like” on posts by people you barely know to pretend they’re your BFF in a sea of 500 people you call your “friends”, and you join groups of people who all have the same views as you and avoid the groups of others who think differently.
We all the first part about Facebook: that the relationships we carry on there are fake and superficial. But how much do we recognize the second part: that we surround ourselves with people who agree with us and it tints the glasses we use to look at the world.
This, I think, is much of the problem in Leander right now: so much of the city is on Facebook, but most every Leander group they’re in is slanted this way or that. Everyone thinks “of course X, Y, or Z is going to happen. Look around. Everyone sees it.”
Even your representatives can be guilty of this. If all they see is one slant or another online, or they only receive emails or see speakers from one side, how are they to know that anybody cares about the other sides of things.
We’re all shocked when a decision is made that violates every tenet of our being. “How could they?” “These people need to be removed” “This does not represent our community”. The truth is, we aren’t really good about stepping out of our boxes and showing up.
We sit in our echo chambers, our Facebook groups, our safe spaces, and we comfort ourselves with the fair tales and movie endings that continually tell us that what we believe in will always win. We believe that everyone believes what we believe. We think other people will step in and fix it. We don’t inconvenience ourselves for the few seconds, minutes, hours that it takes to step off of Facebook and take control of the destiny of our city.
I’d encourage you today, to step outside of your comfort zone. Move the needle. Fight for the destiny of the place you chose to invest so heavily in. If you don’t do it, someone who disagrees with you will.