Defusing Armageddon, Part 2
Media madness and dreadful diets are maximizing interpersonal conflict.
“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.” —Benjamin Franklin
Last week, we talked about the propensity of modern media to rile us up for clicks. Many bad actors are profiting by trying to divide America down the middle.
I live in Ohio, famously split down the left-right divide. I have good friends on both sides. If I asked them, most of them would drive hours to pull me out of the mud, and bring me a beer to boot.
There are plenty of things we love in common: family, nature, movies, music, and more. These friends all have American spunk and creativity. But some of them would like to eviscerate the others.
Still, I’m positive they could all come together in a moment if the flames of hatred could be dialed down a notch. But how? Two ideas come to mind:
Stop listening to angry people.
Stop eating crap.
In line with these edicts, it’s time to quit demonizing our neighbors, especially if they are good cooks. Honestly, if you love tamales and enchiladas, how can you hate Mexicans? Persian food? My Iranian neighbors moved years ago and I’m still mourning the loss of their amazing kebabs and saffron rice.
Food is the perfect equalizer. It’s hard to quarrel when you have a mouth full of deliciousness. The ignorance at the heart of fear dissipates when you break naan with someone new.
Sharing your dinner
Eat for your gut microbes as well. But be picky; you have good bacteria and bad bacteria. The former love fiber, and the latter love sugar. So, skip the sugary cereal that has an entire grocery store aisle devoted to it. Yes, it tastes fabulous, but you’re starting your day with dessert.
To keep your good microbes happy, treat them to a lot of veggies and ferments like yogurt and sauerkraut. Eat a variety of foods to increase the diversity of your gut microbes. Diversity is the key to gut health, which may be the best defense against a crazy world that is purposely trying to make us simultaneously angry and afraid.
Americans have come together before, and when we do we are formidable. At our best moments we are proud to be a melting pot, and we benefit enormously from thousands of wildly different perspectives. Diversity is our super-power. Like the microbes in our gut, diversity ensures a healthy, resilient ecosystem. That’s what it takes to solve the problems that vex us. Those problems are what deserve our anger, not the people around us who will help to fix them.
War is great for arms dealers, and crappy for everyone else. It adds friction to transactions and cuts into profits. People under siege can’t buy cereal. Capitalism, for all its excess, loves peacetime, not war. The good news is that we are already seeing advertisers peel away from negative media. Fear mongering as a business model may have its limits.
Our children and their children are waiting to see which path we take: Do we break up in fear and anger, or stride into the future together? This should not be a tough decision. We can make a better world tomorrow if we want to. Just hug it out. And eat your veggies.
References
Cryan JF, O'Riordan KJ, Cowan CSM, Sandhu KV, Bastiaanssen TFS, Boehme M, Codagnone MG, Cussotto S, Fulling C, Golubeva AV, Guzzetta KE, Jaggar M, Long-Smith CM, Lyte JM, Martin JA, Molinero-Perez A, Moloney G, Morelli E, Morillas E, O'Connor R, Cruz-Pereira JS, Peterson VL, Rea K, Ritz NL, Sherwin E, Spichak S, Teichman EM, van de Wouw M, Ventura-Silva AP, Wallace-Fitzsimons SE, Hyland N, Clarke G, Dinan TG. The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. Physiol Rev. 2019 Oct 1;99(4):1877-2013. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00018.2018. PMID: 31460832.