For many years I’ve subscribed to my own, homegrown economic indicator. I call it the Ass Clown Index. That is, you can generally determine the status of the American economy by how many ass-clowns you encounter in given time period.

Courtesy of Humberto Chavez via Unsplash

So, what is an Ass-Clown? See this clip from the movie Office Space for an explanation.

When the Ass-Clown Index is at its peak you tend to get cutoff more in traffic. You tend to see more people sending entrees back to the kitchen for some type of palatorial adjustment. And, you tend to see people making fools of themselves in airports over the slightest inconvenience. I wrote about that here.

When the Ass-Clown Index is peaking, these same people refuse to accept that anything negative is their fault. Everything good is them; everything bad is, of course, not them.

These kinds of people can leave you with the impression that the world has become less friendly. That people aren’t as nice as they used to be. That something has changed. For the most part, it hasn’t.

*Courtesy of Alexandra Mirghes, Unsplash.com,*

As Dr. Hal Brady once wrote, “nature really does abhor a vacuum and because we have allowed virtue to decline, including kindness, we are experiencing societal rudeness, disrespect, cruelty, accusations, public meeting mania, thoughtless rhetoric, shouting matches, encouraged harassment, hatred and violence.” Amen, Dr. Brady.

I once heard him preach that “we are never closer to God than when we practice the simple gestures of kindness and hospitality.” That was twenty years ago and I still think about it. He defines kindness as “an attitude of unshakable and unwavering goodwill to others, whether we like them or not.” I think he nailed that one.

Like Dr. Brady, I believe that most people in this country are good. I believe that most people in this country are kind. And, that we are the friendliest country on earth.

The only exception is Twitter. I know Elon Musk bought Twitter, but I think it’s still ruled by the same group of snarky, tenth grade mean girls.

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Someone on Twitter recently refused to read my stuff cause I divorced Drew Barrymore and I am just not a funny comedian. I tried to point out that I’m not Tom Green, the comedian, and I was, in fact, never married to Drew Barrymore. But, it was too late. The angry mob of tenth grade girls piled on with wild abandon. There was frothing and gnashing of teeth. I was accused of littering. Littering?

And, those snarky, mean girls have a potty mouth. Mentions of the f-word, shit and asshole, or related variations, rose 41% from full-year 2019 to 2021 on Facebook and 27% on Twitter.

Once those tenth grade girls grow up they migrate their anger to NextDoor, which I like to describe as Twitter for old folks.

Courtesy of Jonathan Harrison via Unsplash

Even before the internet was fueling polarization and peddling toxic content, there was plenty of anger in the world to distract people. But not everyone fell for it.

Some of the greatest figures in history refused to fill their minds with that noise and confusion. Instead, they embraced the goodness in the world. Sir Winston Churchill, enjoyed laying bricks and painting at his Chartwell estate. In the meantime he saved us from speaking German and celebrating Hitler’s birthday every April. Mister Rogers daily routine began at 5 a.m. with prayer, reflection and Bible reading. Each morning he prayed for his family and friends by name. Anne Frank used her time to quietly journal and left the world a timeless glimpse of appalling history. What if Anne Frank had spent all her time in seclusion on Twitter arguing with Hitler supporters instead of writing in her diary?

Researchers at Stanford recently found that 74% of the conflicts we often observe on-line are fought by 1% of the audience. Even worse, most of those conflicts aren’t even fought by the people that started them.

But, given the vastness of the internet, we tend to come into contact with more Ass-Clowns in a day than our parents or grandparents did in a lifetime. And, because of our inherent negativity bias, we often remember the Ass-Clowns.

But, setting the Twittersphere aside for a moment, let’s come back to the real world. I think there are signs all around us that the world is crawling with nice people. And, as I often say, nothing beats nice. Nothing.

I’ve started to catalog the random acts of kindness I witness. Like how people ask “what floor?” when you enter an elevator. Or, how people return their grocery cart-and yours-to the collection area. Or, how people will let you cut in front in traffic and how we wave to say thanks. How men still hold doors open for women.

I recently read a poem by Danusha Laméris called Small Kindness. I thought it summarized my thoughts perfectly.

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by.
Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”

Perhaps that the world is oozing with kindness; the true dwelling of the Holy, if we only seek to find it.

As the Irish poet John O’Donohue once wrote:

There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect.
The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness

I think Dr. Hal Brady, Danusha Lameris and John O’Donohue were on to something. There is something deep in our souls that depends on the presence of kindness. Even in the midst of a world that can often seem harsh and negative, we crave goodness. Despite the plethora of Ass Clowns there is a kindness deep down in everyone that is just trying to get out.

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The World is Full of Good People

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