336 Million Soapboxes
Each of us has a soapbox to stand on, and shout from.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s limit ourselves to the United States.
That makes 336 million soapboxes — if you include kids, who in fact do like to bellow things excitedly from atop soapboxes (which in our house are actual boxes).
Some people have a big, elevated soapbox with a huge audience. And some people have a small one that’s flat on the ground with only a handful of listeners gathered nearby.
Some people, the ideologues and the influencers and the creatures of social media — like yours truly — choose to utilize their soapbox extensively. And some people opt to leave theirs in the garage, keeping a low profile for the sake of maintaining peace.
But we all have tiered platforms in various realms of our life, online or in real life, from which we are permitted to speak our truth, and hopefully the unvarnished truth, about what we experience. About what we see going on in our community and in our country as a whole.
These soapboxes, these tiered platforms, grant us a voice. In fact, in the era of social media we have been granted more of a voice than at any point in American history. We can, with a few clicks of a keyboard, warmly or stridently inform hundreds (or thousands) of our friends and family and casual observers how we feel about issues that matter to us.
Last week was a week stacked high with soapboxes. Hundreds of millions of them, in fact. Both before and after the election, my fellow Americans — and this fellow right here — climbed up on a soapbox and spoke out about what we believe in. Whether that was a progressive vision, or a conservative vision, or an independent vision, or a “voting is pointless” vision. Each of those visions is based on some combination of verifiable facts and subjective feelings.
And unless we’re conflicted, each of us is utterly convinced of our own vision. Now more than ever, we tend to dig our heels into the muddy trenches of our increasingly entrenched views. Which makes it harder and harder for us to listen to each other. We shout our sincere (and strident) beliefs, but we doubt that others’ strident beliefs are similarly sincere.
None of which is to say that all views or beliefs are equally valid, or equally harmless. Nothing could be further from the truth. Beliefs, be they political or sociopolitical or religious beliefs, are innately capable of great benefit and great harm.
But if we’re going to shout sincerely from our soapbox and not grant each other the space to do the same, instead impugning the worst possible motives to our neighbors, then we will be a nation of “noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.” (Yep, Mom, I still know my Biblical references.)
Almost everyone I know in Pennsylvania, and in the United States as a whole, made our views known last Tuesday. We all cast a vote that we were sure, or mostly sure, would help make our country a better place. Or in the minds of some, at least a less bad place. We all wanted the best possible policy and/or person to guide us forward.
And yet somehow, despite all that sincerity of belief, half (or more than half) of my friends and family voted for one man. And half (or less than half) of my friends and family voted for one woman.
This is how democracy works. Especially in an echo-chambered pair of silos like the ones we currently inhabit. We’re all sincere. We’re all strident.
And we’re all in profound disagreement.
But despite both the Right and the Left being mystified at the beliefs and the votes of half our fellow Americans, we must find a way to not assume that our differently-voting neighbors have malicious intent. (Even though of course, some people exist who do have malicious intent.)
But most of us are doing the best we can with the unfortunately limited and siloed information we have been given, or have given ourselves over to. Most of us genuinely love our neighbors and want a better country for our children. All of us, on both sides of the political aisle, want America to be great.
So get up on your soapbox. I certainly will, and do every single day.
But make sure you let your neighbor get up on hers too.
And if you want her to listen to you, listen to her.
Otherwise, we’ll all be shouting into the void.
And America will become a deafening void.
Thanks for writing this, Jeremy. I was thinking of a post Trey Ferguson wrote a couple of weeks ago (https://pastortrey05.substack.com/p/an-american-autopsy) in which he talks about the breakdown of democracy in America. I found it very informative. For instance, he points to the 2013 Shelby/Holder decision, which now makes it easier for voter suppression (particularly suppression of minority voters) to happen. It's important that we each express our individual voices through our votes -- but it's discouraging that there are systemic things going on that may prevent that from happening fairly and equitably. So yes, as you say, we do our neighbours a disservice when we point fingers at individuals for voting "wrongly." We'd probably be better off looking at the bigger picture and whether every person IS getting a fair chance to climb on that soapbox!
This is so well written, Jeremy! This is a sentiment that I am struggling with right now. Most of my family voted for him, while my wife and I voted for her. It’s been so tough to not get demoralized and take their votes personal. I’ve been wrestling with trying to see the good and the helpers, but this time especially is tough. Still, I’m certainly glad I found your writing at the time that I did! It’s really been helping me sort through my own thoughts.