The Myth of Social Consensus

The Coming Tomatoes

As we make choices about what to invest our time and energy in…or as we climb up on our soapboxes to challenge the world about some cause…we’d like to think the perspective we’ve arrived at is so “obvious” that the world around us will instantly come into consensus.

But I’ll save you some time: it won’t.

Someone, somewhere has a whole line of tomatoes ready to throw your way.

Nah. I’m far from a pessimist. I fiercely believe in ideals–not that they exist now or will always come to fruition, but that goodness is worth striving toward and that current circumstances can in fact often be improved upon…yes, even against the odds.

But you have to know something. Anything that truly qualifies as a cause will always leave you with a mixed audience of both yes-men and nay-sayers.

Striving for complete approval, to convince every skeptic, is a waste of breath. And a waste of mental expectation.

The trick then is to listen to skeptics only enough to glean wisdom from their feedback and listen to supporters enough to encourage you forward in bringing your desired ideal to expression.

Maybe even count those critics as proof of effectiveness.

Let every boo be proof you have bravely pushed the world farther than it wanted to go. Let every hiss reward you with the knowledge your message was received.