An Army of Normal Folks - Getting Caught Up With Labels

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

For our "Shop Talk" series, Coach Bill pontificates on labels, semantics, talking past each other, The Code of the West, and The Code of the Hood. It's more eclectic than ever. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with An Army of Normal Folks and we bring to you today Shop Talk number 28. No bell, but listener Vita Scott is apparently mailing us one. So Vita, if you're listening to us, I'm waiting on my bell. And as soon as I get it, I'll start ringing it after I number our shop talk. It's not know what more grateful with buying us a bell. Oh, Vita thanks so much.

I actually am really appreciative because Alex is refuses to go get me a bell. So the thoughtfulness of you to send me one is unparalleled and very appreciated. How's that? Oh, great. Great. Actually mean it Vita.

Thank you. Shut talk number 28. Great, I actually mean it Vita, thank you. Shot Talk number 28. We're going to talk about an interesting story that just occurred in my life two days ago when I was speaking to some senior students at the University of Memphis and how semantics got in the way of progress

and how semantics got in the way of progress and how the word tradition was misunderstood. And I wanna end it with a very traditional thing that I think we can all subscribe to and do it with an open mind, the Code of the West. So right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors, Shop Talk number 28, Bell to Come from B to Scott, understanding the importance of talking to each other and not past each other and the Code of the West. The end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight.

I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?

Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, Spill Courtney, welcome back. Shop Talk number 28. I was doing a speech for a managerial leadership class that I do annually at the University of Memphis, actually this week. And one of the things I love to do is I put a metric on the on the dry erase board. I just want you to think of a slide graph.

And in the middle, the very middle of that thing, I just call the middle. And then I tick mark to the right things that are typically politically right. So just to the very right of the center, I might write small government, but socially open. And then at the very far end of the right, a right Nazi, and then all kinds of things along in between GOP and then MAGA and then whatever. And then on the left, I put, you know, just the left traditional blue dog democrat, and then a little left of that is maybe belief in big government programs. And then all the way down to socialism and then at the very end communism. So what I'm doing is creating a range from the center of right and left, and then ask everybody in the class to raise their hands. And it doesn't matter if they are a millimeter right,

just barely right all the way to the far right but if their political thinking is on the right of the middle to raise their hands and then I do the same for the left and I mean invariably it is almost 50-50 I've done this with numbers of college level courses across the country in all kinds of different places do the same thing. And it is so interesting that even among college students as they consider where they fall on that little slide rule graph, it's almost always 50 50. And most are typically saying, well, I'm just a little right. So I had to say right, or I'm just a little left as a

very few that it's extremes, which is really a microcosm of our society. So anyway, what I do then is I say, okay, everybody on the left, raise your hand. And I make each of them give me a word, one word that defines what makes them say their left. And on this particular day, someone said, And on this particular day, someone said, choice. Another said, freedom. Another said, fairness. Another said, equity. And then asked the people on the right, name something, and one said, responsibility.

One said, safety. Another said, traditional values. And it went on down like that. And then what I do, as I say to the people who are on the left, do any of these things that the right people identified themselves as bother you? And typically, everybody's like, no, I mean, I'm okay with believing in your country. I'm okay with this, that and other thing. And then the people on the left, I say, does any of this bother you? Any of the people on the right bothered by any of the characteristics that people on the left self-defied, define themselves of?

And typically there's always no. And the point is that we define ourselves by the right and the left. And while the media and the political class want to tell us that if you're on the right, the people on the left, you're enemy, and you don't think anything like them. And if you're on the left, the people on the right are your enemy, you don't think anything like them. That if we actually sit down and discuss these things and actually talk about what in our mind actually identifies what we call ourselves as right or left, we're not at all put off by what makes us right or left. And in fact, many

of those values are shared. And I make that comparison with these students to try to convince them to quit listening to the narrative that if you don't think like me, look like me, believe like me, vote like me or love like me, you're man to me. You may have different values and you may have different thoughts about how to go about achieving your goals in life. But at the end of the day, we're really not that different. And at the end of the day, we're really not that put off by what we say defines us. And honestly, many of those things have crossover sets of beliefs. And if we go and quit listening to the noise and start communicating with each other, It's really not that hard to find common ground. And I illustrated to this little exercise. Two days ago, when I asked the left if they were offset by any of the characteristics, self defined by the right. A young man raised his hand. And this guy was smart. Earlier in the conversation asked some questions.

He knew all the answers historically. He was he was a smart kid. Sat in the front of the class, sat up, listened was taking notes, you could tell he was there to learn. And you could also tell he had a bit of confidence about himself when I really appreciated it. And when I got to fundamentals, or traditions actually was the word, which was a right defining tenant. He said, I have a problem with that one. And I said, Do you have a problem with traditional values? And he said, Yeah yeah and so I went to the young lady who put it up there and I said he has a problem with traditional values does that make him your enemy and she looked at me like oh my gosh I can't believe you just started an argument with this guy in my class and I looked back at him I said what about traditional bother values bothers you? And I said, write it down. Don't

say it. Just write it down. And he wrote it down. And I asked the girl I said, write down the traditional value you're thinking about. So then I took them and I read his and his said when I played high school football, my football coach wouldn't let me have drugs. And that makes me angry. Because I think I should be able to have drugs. And just because it may not be traditional and what older people think is neat and tidy. It's it's cool. And frankly, you know, for me, it's ethnically appropriate. And I said, Oh, so I read the girls and I said traditional values and her said the golden rule do unto others as you would

have others do unto you and so I looked at him and I said do you have a problem with the golden rule and he said absolutely not and he said that's a great fundamental and I looked at the girl and I said do you have a problem with his dreads and she says no I actually think he's kind of cute. See, we get caught up in semantics, we get caught up in, in what people say, or what the press or the political class say, we are supposed to think about a specific word or a specific topic. And instead of actually having to demerit to define the way we really feel, and instead of talking with each other, we often talk past each other. And often talk past each other and in talking past each other we miss an opportunity

every single day to grow. And at the end of the class that girl and that kid who'd never spoken to each other all the way through the semester, who at the beginning of the exercise actually thought they were completely at odds were buddies. What an amazing lesson. So as I think about traditional values, I'm reminded of a text we got from a listener. Andrew Maul, M-A-U-E. I think I'm pronouncing right, but Evandro, if I just butchered your name, I'm sorry. And he sent, he sent a list that's called the code of the West and its traditional values that apparently is a code of the west a cowboy code it's a code as he explained it it's a standard by which ranchers and farmers tend to live in a culture that still respects and honors each other i think we would be a lot better if people understood and employed

these concepts. One, live each day with courage. Two, take pride in your work. Three, always finish what you start. Four, do what has to be done. Five, be tough but fair. Six, when you make a promise, keep it. Seven, ride for the brand. I love that. Ride for the brand. Do you know the history of the where branding comes from? Like branding with companies? From branding the cows? Yeah, that's where the idea or the bulls branding. Yeah, brand writing well, which means if you work for a company Ride for that brand work for it work hard ride for the brand Talk less and say more Good Lord that one probably spoke to me like opened up the clouds to the heavens

Remember some things aren't for sale. I Love that Know where to draw the line. The code of the West. Now, I will say if you go into certain, I would bet if you went into certain parts of our country in urban areas and said, how do you feel about the code of the West, the old traditional code of the West? They would either not know what you're talking about or tell you they don't buy into all that stuff. But I bet if you said, do you believe we should live each day with courage, take pride in our work, always finish what you start, do it has to be done, be tough but fair, when you make a promise, keep

it, ride for the brand, talk less and say more, remember some things aren't for sale and know where to draw the line? It would all be agreed to. Conversely, I imagine there's some things from urban areas that a lot of the people that don't live in urban areas don't understand and when they hear it, they bristle, but they haven't taken the time to actually understand it, where it comes from the basis of it and why. And so oftentimes, we're talking past each other at each other and not with each other. So traditional values go both ways. I love the code of the West. But my

time at Manassas tells me there's a lot about the code of the hood. I appreciate too. And the only reason I appreciate both the code of the hood and the code of the West is because I've been in both places. We got to, we got to quit talking past each other and talk with each other. We gotta explore and understand. There are traditional values that exist all around us that can benefit us all. But until we truly understand them and explore them and have conversations about them, we are oftentimes just going to continue to misunderstand each other. So adhere to the code of the West, adhere to the code of the hood, listen to one another, talk to one another, and maybe the next time there's a guy with dreads sitting next to a traditional valued girl who don't understand one another and think they're enemies and at odds,

maybe if they have a chat, they can end up friends. Wouldn't it be beautiful if we had an army of normal folks that did that across our country? I'm bill Courtney. That's shop talk. Number 28. Before we sign off guys, send me ideas. I mean the last couple of shop talks have been about stuff you've sent me and uh, heck my bells coming from one of you so send me ideas email me anytime at bill at normal folks dot us if you have some ideas to talk about I will discuss them if I think there's any value to add lastly we're hosting our second live interview in Memphis.

And I told you about this a few times, but I'm going to say it again. It's on November 7th with Todd Carbonici, who is the director of Elf, which is my favorite Christmas movie. He's the writer of Sully, which is awesome, the Tom Hanks, Land the Plane and the Hudson movie. And now, most recently, the director of Angel Studios' upcoming film, Bonhoeffer, Pastor Spy Assassin. Y'all, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor

who tried to rally the church to stop Hitler. He was involved in Operation Seven to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland and ultimately joined the famous Valkyrie to assassinate Hitler and he was executed in concentration camp. I recently watched the movie. They sent me an invest greener of it and it's incredible. And the research done to make this movie correctly had to have been extensive and the guy who directed it's gonna be with us live on November 7th in Memphis we're gonna record it it's gonna be one of our next army of normal folks episodes it will be about a

45 minute interview and then the audience will open for questions which will also be part of the podcast. The audience questions will be just as much part of the podcast as my questions. We've already got 266 people now 266 RSVPs but we can seat 600. So y'all please come. It'll be a great night, be an opportunity to meet a dude who's worked with some cool people and been involved in some cool projects and it should be informative and it should be a celebration of a guy named Dietrich Bonhoeffer who is the epitome of what it is to be a member of the army of normal folks, somebody we can learn a lot from. So that's it. Thanks for joining Shop Talk. Thanks to our producer, Ironlight Labs. I'm Bill Courtney. We'll see you next week.

Hey, everyone. It's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well.

I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Charlemagne the god.