Overzealousness

Are we becoming a society of overzealous people? Do you take your sports teams a bit too serious? Do you argue with your friends, family or strangers over “your” point of view vs. theirs? We are in the middle of an election campaign and listening to the arguments between the political parties (and their supporters) definitely demonstrate arguing points of view. Have you seen the fans in the stands are games get into fights? Hey, we all want to belong to something bigger than ourselves. Where do you draw the line?

I like studying people and how they interact. Going to sporting events can be an interesting observation vantage point. Being in Arizona, brings out many of the visitor teams fans. When you get the mix of homers and visitors – the fun begins. Have you ever just listened to them go back and forth? The arguments for who is better, why this team will win and the other will lose is pretty interesting. Rarely are the arguments rooted in facts, just feelings! If you hurt those feelings, the words can and have led to violence. Unnecessary violence!

I love the diversity of my network! We are quite a different bunch of nuts. The political parties, sports teams and activities that we follow are all over the map. It is great for me. I get to get many different perspectives. It helps me learn.. What I am finding over the past 5 years is that many more folks are getting into the overzealous support. Taking it way too far. I like a good debate or discussion. When that discussion becomes something that is more than just a discussion of facts and gets too much into the feelings. Some folks would say that their feelings are part of their passions for the subject or team. Maybe so, if you stick to facts rather than just feelings. How many times have you heard, “that is just plain stupid” after someone says something. No facts, just their opinion or feeling! People are feeling individuals, attack their feelings and watch out.

It is time for us to really look at what, who and how much we put our membership into that we support. Time for us to make sure that we are armed with facts and important statistics in order to have a meaningful discussion. We also need to make sure that we are listening to those “other” folks. You just never know when you will learn something. I don’t want like minded folks only in my network. It does me no good. We just need to be armed with information and apply the “right” level of feelings to our discussion.