Understanding and dealing with "Agendas"

Agendas. We all have one (or many).

It is simply what is behind the motivation for a human being to do something. For the most part, it isn't evil. I mean we create agendas to do the simplest tasks. Like to combat hunger, we eat. When we get weary, we sleep. It is a reaction to do something based on a need. Sometimes agendas are simply communicating with one another. We all have egos, the need to be needed, etc. Our own needs in these areas is exposed. We humans understand agendas since we all share them in common.

The issue typically comes down to trust. Do you trust that the agenda of someone's actions is not in conflict with your own well-being? For example, if someone comes to your door and knocks, do you let them in or do you first attempt to find out what their agenda for being there is? If they were invited in, then it is usually obvious - you trusted them enough to invite them in. But if you didn't invite them, why are they there? Are they hostile? Are they threatening? Is your natural inclination to be defensive and careful, or is it to be opening and welcoming to anyone that comes to your door?

The downside of making an incorrect judgment before exposing yourself to another human's agenda defines the level of self-confidence one has to deal with situations and people. Some people are really good at dealing with conflicts that may come from the "wolf in sheep's clothing", once the agenda of the other party is exposed. Others, not so. Often a sense of caution that one carries all through one's life is determined by their ability to handle themselves in a conflict situation. Or there could also be just blatant naivety and over-trusting of everyone. It is far less stressful to trust everyone and we are taught this at a young age. However it also is obvious to any aggressor if you give them the benefit of trust before they have disclosed their agenda with you. That slither of opportunity may be enough for some to get in and wreak havoc in your domain.

A balance must be kept between losing all faith & trust in people, and the stress that causes on the individual with overly trusting everyone and exposing yourself to external threat.

Agendas on a global scale

The Internet allows us all to communicate for basically free with anyone in the world. What a wonderful gift to humanity that I can have a real time conversation with anyone, anywhere. No more writing letters, posting them, waiting a week for them to arrive, then the same in return to get a response. Or a phone call that costs $20 to another country. We are truly blessed.

With that, however, comes with an assumption that we understand the agendas of different cultures. What might be acceptable behavior in one region, may not be in another. The "Nigerian Prince Email" scams (often referred to as 419 scams) are common, and in some parts of the world expected. But to the western world they prey on our trust of the other party. It never ends well.

The fact is you don't know the agenda of the person (or persons) that are sending you the phishing email in the first place. Do you blindly open it, exposing yourself to a con? Or do you reject it without consideration and put it in the spam or Deleted Items folder in your email? The balance is tricky and we train ourselves to follow a protocol after a while due to the sheer volume of email that we all have to deal with. The downside of a blessing in the Internet is a misuse of it to spam us with emails, because our interests may not be aligned with the agenda of the sender.

I think that after 20+ years of email being a "thing" in our lives, we have all learned to apply protocol to our interaction with it or become a victim of it. But why is it that it takes this long for people that realize that until they feel they know the agenda of the other party, that they should be cautious?

In 2018, as I write this, it is clear to me that agendas are something that need to be determined before any decision making is done by anyone, on any issue. And that although dealing with our peers, family members, friends, etc. typically means you do not need to assess agenda since you know the party intimately, we don't have the same relationship with others, particularly in the areas of commerce, business and politics.

The most difficult agendas to determine

When dealing with people at an individual level, it is easier to try and assess agendas. Simple question & answer interrogation (done in a friendly manner), where you can witness the tell-tale behavioral reactions (like facial changes, fidgeting, "body language", etc.) means that you often determine truth from lie.

But how do you do that when the other party is a non-human, or a group of humans? How do you determine if the agenda of a government or corporation is being truly disclosed?

The most horrendous examples of power & money theft from people comes from larger institutions. Particularly when people are at their most vulnerable. When mass population is feeling a common need for something that isn't being fulfilled (e.g. hunger, helplessness, unfair distribution of wealth & assets, threat from an outside adversary, etc.) then that need can be exploited. We have seen this in history. Following WW1, the German people were laden with the burden of repatriations which caused a massive drop of wealth to all citizens. Exploiting this common need, populism rose, eventually leading the country to elect a tyrannical dictator with an agenda that wouldn't be truly known until years later when it was too late.

In retrospect, it was obvious that the populace were swindled. This is probably the worst case scenario, but something that in recent memory should be considered. A simple mistake by enough people at the voting booth created that.

However in 2018, we face the same choices. Not specifically political, but also in terms of the food we eat, how we invest our money, the schools we choose for our children, the insurance company you choose to do business with, the doctor you select for a medical procedure, etc. These are daily choices we are all forced to make.

The culture today is very different than it was 50 years ago. I remember growing up in a family that taught me that honor, ethics and "doing the right thing" meant something. I was raised a Christian and the teachings of "Do unto others as you wish to be done to you" rang clear. And that dignity matters, as did charity. In later life, I read the teachings of Buddhism and learned that you have to sacrifice your own ego, for the well being of others. That your greatest legacy is what you empower others with, and how that positively affects their lives.

Alas today these are whispers in history, it would appear. The very same Christian churches are lumbered in the media with scandals. The very same media who have an agenda to make money from selling advertising between the endless barrage of content they push. Whether it be on TV, news feed on the Internet, social media, etc. They push out messages to garnish attention - not to share important information. There's a little bit of that left, but it is skewed towards shock journalism rather than factual reporting.

The barrier to entry to be a "journalist" or a "publisher" has never been lower. Whereas printing a newspaper cost a lot of money to invest in printing, creating content and distribution, those barriers are now minuscule compared with the past. I can write this blog and reach millions at literally no cost to me other than the time it takes to write the content.

Do you believe everything you read on the Internet?

A running joke, right? Well you are reading this. Do you believe what I am telling you? Why should you? Maybe some sentences here strikes a chord with something you either believe or don't agree with. Enough to keep you on the page reading. If you got this far, something is either aligning or infuriating you. Either way what is my agenda?

If I was to tell you, "I don't have an agenda", I would be lying. Everyone has an agenda. If you are to read or believe anything I write, I need to disclose what that agenda is.

I believe that in order to understand and assess the agenda of things we are forced to make decisions on each day, we need the wisdom of the crowd. We need to be able to see the opinions of everyone in order to form an opinion. That means the more, the merrier. Statistics are not valuable without lots of metrics (measurements). I have been blessed with a sensitivity to things that let me question popular thinking. A "contrarian view" so to speak. When someone tells me something, I generally feel that I'm a good judge of character. What does that mean? That I can determine agenda quickly - often by a sense I can't explain. Maybe you have a similar trait.

The thing is, I could be wrong. I often am. Yes, I'm tarred with the same human faults as everyone else. But I'm open to sharing my thoughts so that I can learn from others by their feedback.

And I have an ego. Yes, it is true. In fact so do you. You have the same ego and needs that we all have. At least if you are a functioning human being you probably do. Sure, there are those that may have disabled psychological traits and they are often those that we want to avoid. But in the end, we all want to be heard. We want to be recognized as someone who can offer a comment and people will listen to it. A validation, so to speak.

This blog and my other publications are simply there to do three things:

• Enable me to express my feelings on subjects, thereby addressing an egotistical need
• Encourage a "crowd sourcing" event that will allow a large number of statistical parties to voice their opinion on matters, to determine or unveil things that I was not necessarily thinking about
• On a more charitable note, to share things I have learned with everyone in an attempt to raise the performance of all of our lives, but sharing common learning. To effectively share stories of things I encounter and learn so that you may not fall prey to the same mistakes or potentially benefit from the same success.

I don't want you to trust me blindly

I don't need a following of blind faith here. I don't want the burden that comes with that. I'm no saint. I'm no prophet.

I want you to critically think everything I have to say, and openly engage with alternative views. We are all humans and all deserve mutual respect, so the only thing I ask is that the method you use to communicate embraces a positive and non-slanderous method. If you use slander in a comment, or "troll" as it is commonly called these days, I won't respond. I encourage anyone else not to either. I will do all I can to deny feedback and break the feedback loop that trolls desire. You won't get heard here with that attitude.

However if you have a counter opinion to anything here, I will hear that and I will respect and respond to it. Just as we all should. The days of "ceremony" in how we all communicate have been lost, and one of the goals I have here is to bring it back. Decency and respect needs to be, above all else, job #1 for us all.

But with that, don't trust what I tell you blindly. Make up your own opinions and remember, we are all welcome here to express them. That's the beauty of free speech.

Striking the balance

So I leave you with this thought....

You need to look for agendas before you accept any statement made by any person, corporation, institution or government. Individuals are less likely to have sophisticated means to obfuscate agendas, so trusting our friends, family, co-workers, etc. is probably a given.

But don't blindly trust your political party of choice. Don't blindly trust the products being sold to you at the supermarket. Don't blindly trust the social parroting of statements that lead to racism, mass following of an individual, enacting of policies that favor some at the expense of many.

Understand that corporate interests are usually not aligned with ethics and decency. It might be masked that way, but when enough humans get in a board room to determine corporate policy, it is rare for some to stand up for ethics and decency at the expense of them potentially being fired, demoted, etc. The interest of the individual often outweighs the interest of the group, and inaction is commonplace. If one leader has risen so that no one is willing to challenge their leadership or their policies, then no balance can be retained. When that happens, we all lose. Products are made with toxic components, poorly manufactured, sold to us with lies and deceit, attempts are made to mass hallucinate the population into doing things that are against their own self interest. You get the picture.

Diligence is key. We must ever be on alert and we must be constantly attempting to uncover agendas. By understanding this, we can learn who to trust and who not to trust. We can take information given to us and put it in a "To Do" folder, to be analyzed later for authenticity.

And most important, remember that large agendas that enslave masses are implemented in small pieces. A decision that might seem insignificant now, could have dramatic effect later, when combined with 10 other insignificant decisions and eventually it is too late, once the true agenda is uncovered.

I'm not being a conspiracy theorist here. I'm saying that in today's fast moving information age, all things must be sanitized to determine agendas before we blindly agree, follow and engage with them.