Not Everything that Sounds Good is Good, Not Everyone that Sounds Crazy is Crazy

About ten years ago, maybe twelve… I really can’t remember the exact point in time, I started learning about Agenda 21, the UN Agenda adopted at the “Earth Summit” in 1992. I was only 9 years old at the time this agenda was taken up. I knew nothing of it and I’m guessing, most people, no matter how, didn’t either. The agenda includes phrases like “global sustainable development”, “managing fragile ecosystems”, “enhanced transparency”, “greater diversification” etc. Sounds lovely right? All the right buzz words and phrases readily integrated in corporate speak, today. It sounds very intelligent, empathetic and aware. It sounds good.

Not everything that sounds good, is good.

We go through our days really with little time to look deeply into the functioning of the larger systems around us. Unless we are directly involved, it’s hard to grasp all that is happening. Most would say, who has the time?! There’s laundry to do, meals to make, work to do in order to even buy the clothes that eventually need washing and the food that will need to be prepared. We maintain relationships, go to work, go to school and by the end of the day slip into the comfort of entertainment that is readily available on tv because we are too exhausted to learn about the workings of the world. As long as our immediate world seems to be working, we can check out.

So when your friend who feels some weird sense of responsibility to at least try to understand the bigger picture, starts talking about some “agenda”, you easily dismiss her. You may not call her crazy to her face but the lack of conversation and look on your face says it all.

Not everyone that sounds crazy is crazy.

Late fall we met up with some of our very best friends over at Purdue for a quick get together at a local restaurant. (These are the kind of friends that can think I’m crazy and still love me… thank goodness). During our meal one of my friends brought up some new legislation regarding management of waterways on personal property. She was mentioning how ridiculous and basically over reaching it would be. I piped up immediately, “that’s Agenda 21 at work, I deserve an apology!” Of course, I was laughing when I said it and 100% joking on the apology portion of the statement but 100% serious on the Agenda 21 part. She knew it and agreed. Sweet redemption… lol.

Why am I telling you this story? Honestly it isn’t even close to what I intended to write when I clicked “new post” and started typing. I’m telling you this story because I see so many non mainstream views being dismissed and even trampled with ease. In America, where we claim to value diversity, we so easily dismiss the diverse if it is not the type of “diverse” we have been told to accept. Where is that getting us?

I was really behind on mandatory work education (I’m an ICU nurse) a lot of which was very corporate in nature. When I came to the “cultural bias, diversity and inclusion” training, it was a bit hard to stomach. Mainly because it was as if we are supposed to pretend we have all these deeply held biases toward individuals who look different or practice a different religion and acknowledge that, meanwhile dismissing the elephant in the room: diversity of thought.

Working in the world of healthcare over the last year and being vocal about concerns I have has been very eye opening on that front. Diverse thought is not only not taken seriously, it is unwelcome. This is not a problem strictly bound to the healthcare world. This is a problem that spans every industry and most institutions (churches, schools, even relationships). Look at the handful of phrases I highlighted above that are included in Agenda 21. That language and phrasing is everywhere: company mission statements, monthly work meetings, corporate education, podcasts, community plans, and classrooms across America. Yay, that’s great, we are united toward the same goal….right? What goal? What does any of that even mean? Practically, what do those statements look like when implemented in society? What does implementation of those statements even require?

Nothing is by mistake.

When I started talking about Agenda 21, a very real thing that anyone who wants to can easily look up on the internet, my closest friends even thought I was going a little coo-coo for cocoa puffs (flash back to a 90’s cereal commercial). It’s probably a pretty normal response to someone talking about a world wide “agenda.” If you don’t want people to look into something, make it sound conspiratorial off the bat and people will dismiss it without a thought. The name is on purpose.

For those who maybe did look, I have no idea if anyone did. The language sounds not only benign, but agreeable and likely to many, even desirable. If you want people to go along with a plan, make it sound good. Many won’t get into the “what does that look like applied” phase of thought.

Eventually everyone, every company, every institution is using the same phrasing, the people are thinking the same thoughts and they have no idea where those thoughts even came from. They probably even think they themselves came up with what they are thinking and doing. Is that diversity?

As we have increased the use of the word diversity we have concurrently increased the expectation of conformity. So many unaware that external diversity is promoted to cover up the desire for internal (thought) conformity: make them feel their differences are valued so long as they don’t hold the expectation of being different in an unapproved way.

Presently, The World Economic Forum has been accused of implementing The Great Reset. Sounds crazy right? “The Great Reset”, name it something that sounds conspiratorial so most will dismiss it before they even look, then apply the same agreeable language and poof, you get the majority of society, that says they champion diversity, to dismiss something they haven’t even looked into and call the people crazy who have.

If you want to know what’s happening in the world, it helps if you look.

I know life is busy, but I think people are finally noticing the things happening in the world at large ultimately trickle down to impact our immediate world. What sounded crazy to people I talked to ten years ago, currently isn’t so nuts. What sounds crazy now, might only sound crazy because 1) the titles given to the topic, on purpose, literally sound crazy 2) someone else has told you it’s crazy 3) it hasn’t yet impacted your immediate world, at least not in a way you yet notice.

It would do us some good to practice diversity in the thought department.  After all what could it hurt… better yet, what could it hurt if we don’t?

Link: John Kerry’s response regarding Biden, America and the Great Reset.