Speaker 1: Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks,
Speaker 1: and we bring to you today shop Talk number twenty eight.
Speaker 1: No bell, but listener. Vita Scott is apparently mailing us one.
Speaker 1: So Vita, if you're listening to us, I'm waiting on
Speaker 1: my bell. As soon as I get it, I'll start
Speaker 1: ringing it after I number our Shop Talk. It's not
Speaker 1: a lot more grateful, Vita, thanks so much. Actually, I'm
Speaker 1: really appreciative because Alex refuses to go get me a bell,
Speaker 1: so the thoughtfulness of you to send me one is
Speaker 1: unparalleled and very appreciated. How's that great? Actually mean it? Vita,
Speaker 1: thank you. Shot Talk number twenty eight. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about an interesting story that just occurred in my
Speaker 1: life two days ago when I was speaking to some
Speaker 1: senior students at the University of Memphis, and how semantics
Speaker 1: got in the way of progress and the word tradition
Speaker 1: was was misunderstood. And I want to end it with
Speaker 1: a very traditional thing that I think we can all
Speaker 1: subscribe to and do it with an open mind, the
Speaker 1: Code of the West. So, right after these brief messages
Speaker 1: from our generous sponsors, Shop Talk number twenty eight, Bell
Speaker 1: to come from Beta Scott, understanding the importance of talking
Speaker 1: to each other and not past each other, and the
Speaker 1: code of the West. Hey, everybody spell Courtney, welcome back
Speaker 1: shop Talking number twenty eight. I was doing a speech
Speaker 1: for a managerial leadership class that I do annually at
Speaker 1: the University of Memphis, actually this week, and one of
Speaker 1: the things I love to do is I put a
Speaker 1: metric on the dry race board. I just want you
Speaker 1: to think of a of a slide graph, and in
Speaker 1: the middle, the very middle of that thing, I just
Speaker 1: call the middle, and then I tick mark to the
Speaker 1: right things that are typically politically right. So just to
Speaker 1: the very right of the center, I might write small
Speaker 1: government but socially open, and then at the very far
Speaker 1: end of the right, I write Nazi, and then all
Speaker 1: kinds of things along in between GOP and then MAGA
Speaker 1: and the whatever. And then on the left I put,
Speaker 1: you know, just the left traditional blue dog democrat, and
Speaker 1: then a little left of that is maybe belief in
Speaker 1: big government programs, and then all the way down to socialism,
Speaker 1: and then at the very end communism. So what I'm
Speaker 1: doing is creating a range from the center of right
Speaker 1: and left, and then ask everybody in the class to
Speaker 1: raise their hands, and it doesn't matter if they are
Speaker 1: a millimeter right, just barely right, all the way to
Speaker 1: the far right, but if their political thinking is on
Speaker 1: the right of the middle, to raise their hands. And
Speaker 1: then I do the same for the left, and I
Speaker 1: mean invariably it is almost fifty to fifty. I've done
Speaker 1: this with numbers of college level courses across the country,
Speaker 1: in all kinds of different places do the same thing.
Speaker 1: And it is so interesting that even among college students
Speaker 1: says they consider where they fall on that little slide
Speaker 1: rule graph, it's almost always fifty to fifty, and most
Speaker 1: are typically saying, well, I'm just a little right, so
Speaker 1: I had to say right or I'm just a little left,
Speaker 1: as very few that it's extremes, which is really a
Speaker 1: microcosm of our society, isn't it. So anyway, what I
Speaker 1: do then as I say, okay, everybody on the left,
Speaker 1: raise your hand, and I make each of them give
Speaker 1: me a word, one word that defines what makes them
Speaker 1: say they're left. And on this particular day, someone said choice,
Speaker 1: another said freedom, another said fairness, another said equity. And
Speaker 1: then ask the people on the right name something you know,
Speaker 1: and one said responsibility, one said safety, another said traditional value.
Speaker 1: Then it went on down like that. And then what
Speaker 1: I do is I say to the people who are
Speaker 1: on the left, do any of these things that the
Speaker 1: right people identified themselves as bother you? And typically everybody's like, no,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm okay with believing in your country, I'm
Speaker 1: okay with this, that and the other thing. And then
Speaker 1: the people on the left, I say, does any of
Speaker 1: us bother you, any of the people on the right
Speaker 1: bothered by any of the characteristics that people on the
Speaker 1: left self defied define themselves out, And typically there's always no.
Speaker 1: And the point is that we define ourselves by the
Speaker 1: right and the left. And while the media and the
Speaker 1: political cric class want to tell us that if you're
Speaker 1: on the right, the people on the left your enemy,
Speaker 1: and you don't think anything like them, and if you're
Speaker 1: on the left, the people on the right of your enemy,
Speaker 1: you don't think anything like them. That if we actually
Speaker 1: sit down and discuss these things and actually talk about
Speaker 1: what in our mind actually identifies what we call ourselves
Speaker 1: this right or left, we're not at all put off
Speaker 1: by what makes us right or left. And in fact,
Speaker 1: many of those values are shared, and I make that
Speaker 1: comparison with these students to try to convince them to
Speaker 1: quit listening to the narrative that if you don't think
Speaker 1: like me, look like me, believe like me, vote like me,
Speaker 1: or love like me your manemy. You may have different values,
Speaker 1: and you may have different thoughts about how to go
Speaker 1: about achieving your goals in life, but at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, we're really not that different, And at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, we're really not that put
Speaker 1: off by what we say defines us. And honestly, many
Speaker 1: of those things have crossover sets of beliefs, and if
Speaker 1: we go quit listening to the noise and start communicating
Speaker 1: with each other, it's really not that hard to find
Speaker 1: common ground. And I illustrated through this little exercise two
Speaker 1: days ago when I asked the left if they were
Speaker 1: offset by any of the characteristics self defined by the right.
Speaker 1: A young man raised his hand. And this guy was smart.
Speaker 1: Earlier in the conversation, asked him questions. He knew all
Speaker 1: the answers. Historically he was. He was a smart kid.
Speaker 1: Sat in the front of the class, sat up, listened,
Speaker 1: was taking notes. You could tell he was there to
Speaker 1: learn and you could also tell he had a bit
Speaker 1: of confidence about himself when I really appreciated it. And
Speaker 1: when I got to fundamentals or traditions actually was the
Speaker 1: word which was a right defining tenant, he said I
Speaker 1: have a problem with that one. And I said, you
Speaker 1: have a problem with traditional values and he said yeah.
Speaker 1: And I into the young lady who put it up there,
Speaker 1: and I said, he has a problem traditional value. Does
Speaker 1: that make him your enemy? And she looked at me like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I can't believe you just started an
Speaker 1: argument with this guy in my class. And I looked
Speaker 1: back at him. I said, what about traditional bother values?
Speaker 1: Bothers you? And I said, write it down, don't say it,
Speaker 1: just write it down. And he wrote it down, and
Speaker 1: I asked the girl, I said, write down the traditional
Speaker 1: value you're thinking about. So then I took him and
Speaker 1: I read his and his said, when I played high
Speaker 1: school football, my football coach wouldn't let me have drugs.
Speaker 1: And that makes me angry because I think I should
Speaker 1: be able to have druds. And just because it may
Speaker 1: not be traditional and what older people think is neat
Speaker 1: and tidy, it's cool and frankly, you know, for me,
Speaker 1: it's ethnically appropriate. And I said, oh, so I read
Speaker 1: the girls and I said traditional values. And her said
Speaker 1: the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have
Speaker 1: others do under you. And so I looked at him
Speaker 1: and I said, do you have a problem with the
Speaker 1: golden rule? And he said absolutely not. He said that's
Speaker 1: a great fundamental And I looked at the girl and
Speaker 1: I said, do you have a problem with his dreads?
Speaker 1: And she says no, I actually think he's kind of cute. See,
Speaker 1: we get caught up in semantics. We get caught up
Speaker 1: in what people say, or what the press or the
Speaker 1: political class say. We are supposed to think about a
Speaker 1: specific word or a specific topic, and instead of actually
Speaker 1: having the temerity to define the way we really feel,
Speaker 1: and instead of talking with each other, we often talk
Speaker 1: past each other. And him talking past each other miss
Speaker 1: an opportunity every single day to grow. And at the
Speaker 1: end of the class, that girl and that kid who'd
Speaker 1: never spoken to each other all the way through the semester,
Speaker 1: who at the beginning of the exercise actually thought they
Speaker 1: were completely at odds. We're buddies. What an amazing lesson.
Speaker 1: So as I think about traditional values. I'm reminded of
Speaker 1: a text we got from a listener, Andrew maul m Aue.
Speaker 1: I think I'm pronouncing it right, but I'm Andrew. If
Speaker 1: I just butchered your name, I'm sorry. And he sent
Speaker 1: He sent a list that's called the Code of the
Speaker 1: West and its Traditional Values that apparently is a code
Speaker 1: to the West, a cowboy code. It's a code, as
Speaker 1: he explained it, it's a standard by which ranchers and
Speaker 1: farmers tend to live, and a culture that still respects
Speaker 1: and honors each other. I think we would be a
Speaker 1: lot better if people understood and employed these concepts. One
Speaker 1: live each day with courage. Two take pride in your work.
Speaker 1: Three always finish what you start. Four do what has
Speaker 1: to be done. Five be tough but fair. Six When
Speaker 1: you make a promise, keep it. Seven Ride for the brand.
Speaker 1: I love that. Ride for the brand, the history of
Speaker 1: the where branding comes from, like branding with companies, from
Speaker 1: branding the cows or the bulls company. Branding well, which
Speaker 1: means if you work for a company, ride for that brand,
Speaker 1: work for it, work hard, ride for the brand, talk
Speaker 1: less and say more good Lord. That one probably spoke
Speaker 1: to me like opened up the clouds through the heavens.
Speaker 1: Remember some things aren't for sale. I love that know
Speaker 1: where to draw the line the Code of the West. Now,
Speaker 1: I will say, if you go into certain I would
Speaker 1: bet if you went into certain parts of our country
Speaker 1: in urban areas and said, how do you feel about
Speaker 1: the Code of the West, the old traditional code of
Speaker 1: the West, they would either not know what you're talking
Speaker 1: about or tell you they don't bind all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I bet if you said, do you believe we
Speaker 1: should live each day with courage, take pride in our work.
Speaker 1: Always finish what you start. Do it has to be done.
Speaker 1: Be tough, but fair. When you make a promise, keep
Speaker 1: it ride for the brand, talk less and say more.
Speaker 1: Remember some things aren't for sale. Nowhere to draw the
Speaker 1: line it would all be agreed to. Conversely, I imagine there's
Speaker 1: some things from urban areas that a lot of the
Speaker 1: people that don't live in urban areas don't understand. And
Speaker 1: when they hear it, they bristle, but they haven't taken
Speaker 1: the time to actually understand it, where it comes from,
Speaker 1: the basis of it and why. And so oftentimes we're
Speaker 1: talking past each other, at each other, and not with
Speaker 1: each other. So traditional values go both ways. I love
Speaker 1: the Code of the West, but my time at Manassas
Speaker 1: tells me there's a lot about the Code of the
Speaker 1: Hood I appreciate too. And the only reason I appreciate
Speaker 1: both the Code of the Hood and the Code of
Speaker 1: the West is because I've been in both places. We
Speaker 1: got to quit talking past each other and talk with
Speaker 1: each other. We've got to explore and understand. There are
Speaker 1: traditional values that exist all around us that can benefit
Speaker 1: us all. But until we truly understand them and explore
Speaker 1: them and have conversations about them, we are oftentimes just
Speaker 1: going to continue to misunderstand each other. So it here
Speaker 1: to the Code of the West. It here to the
Speaker 1: Code of the Hood. Listen to one another, talk to
Speaker 1: one another, and maybe the next time there's a guy
Speaker 1: with dreads sit next to a traditional valued girl who
Speaker 1: don't understand one another and think they're enemies, and the
Speaker 1: odds maybe if they have a chat, they can end
Speaker 1: up friends. Wouldn't it be beautiful if we had an
Speaker 1: army of normal folks that did that across our country.
Speaker 1: I'm Bill Courtney that shop talk number twenty eight. Before
Speaker 1: we sign off, guys, send me ideas. I mean, the
Speaker 1: last couple of shop talks have been about stuff you've
Speaker 1: sent me, and uh, heck bell coming from one of you.
Speaker 1: So send me ideas email only any time at Bill
Speaker 1: at normal folks dot us. If you have some ideas
Speaker 1: to talk about, I will discuss them if I think
Speaker 1: there's any value to add. Lastly, we're hosting our second
Speaker 1: live interview in Memphis and I I've told you about
Speaker 1: this a few times, but I'm gonna say it again.
Speaker 1: It's on November seventh with Todd Carbaniki, who is the
Speaker 1: director of Elf, which is my favorite Christmas movie. He's
Speaker 1: the writer of Sully, which is awesome that Tom Hanks
Speaker 1: land the plane in the Hudson movie, and now, most recently,
Speaker 1: the director of Angels Studios upcoming film. Bonhoffer Pastor Spy Assassin, y'all,
Speaker 1: Dietrich Bonhaffer was a German pastor who tried to rally
Speaker 1: the church to stop Hitler. He was involved in Operation
Speaker 1: seven to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland and ultimately joined
Speaker 1: the famous Valkri to assassinate Hitler, and he was executed
Speaker 1: in concentration camp. I recently watched the movie they sent
Speaker 1: me an invest screener of it, and it's incredible, and
Speaker 1: the research done to make this movie correctly had to
Speaker 1: have been extensive. And the guy who directed It's gonna
Speaker 1: be with us live on November seventh in Memphis. We're
Speaker 1: gonna record it. It's gonna be one of our next
Speaker 1: Army of Normal Folks episodes. It will be about a
Speaker 1: forty five minute interview and then the audience will open
Speaker 1: for questions, which will also be part of the podcast.
Speaker 1: The audience questions will be just as much part of
Speaker 1: the podcast as my questions. We've already got two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty six RSVPs, but we can seat six hundred,
Speaker 1: so y'all please come. It'll be a great night, be
Speaker 1: an opportunity to meet a dude who's worked with some
Speaker 1: cool people and been involved some cool projects. And it
Speaker 1: should be informative. It should be a celebration of a
Speaker 1: guy named Dietrich Bonhoffer, who is the epitome of what
Speaker 1: it is to be a member of the Army of
Speaker 1: Normal Folks, somebody we can learn a lot from. So
Speaker 1: that's it. Thanks for joining sh Op Talk. Thanks to
Speaker 1: our producer, Iron Light Labs. I'm Bill Courtney. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next week.