Driving west on I-70 Tuesday evening, I saw flashing police lights on the side of the road.
It was early evening, and I was headed home after spending two days in Columbia, Mo. at a journalism conference at the University of Missouri.
As I approached, I could make out two figures outside a vehicle. The high-crowned hat of a highway patrol officer came into view. The other figure was lying on the ground. And my mind does what it does these days.
Visions of unjust arrests, handcuffs, the next terrible viral video flashed through my head.
When I drove by, I saw something different. The officer was helping a guy change his tire, making sure he got home before dark.
“WHAT’S WRONG with me?” I thought. “How have I become so jaded?”
Two days ago, I got my answer. It came in the form of a recent Pew Research Center report, which showed that Americans were the most likely to say their fellow citizens have bad morals and ethics.
Americans don’t trust one another, and we stand out because of it, ranking dead last in a 25-country survey. We are the only country to say more of our fellow citizens are bad than good—53% to 47%.
Compare that to Canada. Just 7% believe their neighbors are bad people. In Mexico, 83% of people see fellow citizens as morally good. India, the world’s largest democracy, ranked third, with 88% of the population saying people are very or somewhat good.
WE’RE TRAPPED in a cycle of fear.
Increasingly, we don’t trust anyone and expect the worst of everyone. Our social fabric is tearing, and it shows. Political polarization is up, and a rising number of Americans believe violence is acceptable—especially younger voters.
We have so many people telling us to be afraid. I started making a list as I continued the drive home. There wasn’t much else to do.
Give it a try. As you listen to leaders speak, pay a bit more attention to whether they’re bringing a message of hope or fear — a vision of a better, more trusting world, or one full of threats and danger.
So many leaders, especially on the national scene, want us to be scared. People are really easy to manipulate when they’re afraid. We go into lizard brain mode. We only care about ourselves.
I’ll never forget a moment in Colorado several years ago with my wife. Hiking along the trail, we came across a gigantic cow moose. Maybe twenty feet away, she turned her gigantic head and stared us down. Petrified, my wife started running the other way. In doing so, she pushed me right of the way as she booked it in the opposite direction.
I was stunned. How could she? Look, when you’re scared, you’ll do anything to keep yourself safe.
