{"id":32272,"date":"2023-04-17T08:59:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T15:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=32272"},"modified":"2023-04-08T14:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T21:05:45","slug":"32272-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/32272-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pixar, Factfulness, and Stockdale’s Paradox"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a comedic, yet troubling scene in Pixar\u2019s Inside Out<\/em> the main character, Joy, who is named for the emotion she represents in the psyche of her human, Riley, knocks over several boxes while riding a train. Some of the boxes were labeled \u201cfacts\u201d and the others were labeled \u201copinions.\u201d After knocking over the boxes, thus scrambling facts and opinions, Joy laments \u201cOh no! These facts and opinions look so similar.\u201d Riley\u2019s imaginary friend, who is also on the train, reassured Joy \u201cAh, don\u2019t worry about it. Happens all the time\u201d as he carelessly grabs the facts and opinions and throws them back in the boxes.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In a world rich with information presenting itself as facts, it is a challenge to discern what facts are truly \u201cfacts\u201d and what information is void of truth. If I spend too much time on social media, I become overwhelmed by the flood of \u201cfacts\u201d presented to me. While scrolling through, it is impossible to critically research and assess each fact to determine if what I am seeing\/reading is valid.<\/p>\n

Because of this, much of the facts presented to us play on either our desires, like marketing and advertising to get us to buy stuff, or our fears, like the news, which has learned that bad news gets more attention and therefore more eyes for advertising. If I incredulously give my attention to the news and advertising, I will become fearful, and out of fear and desire, resort to buying stuff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Factfulness Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we solely rely on the major news outlets, we will assume the world is getting worse. Fortunately, Hans Rosling provides us with helpful critical thinking tools to help us not get on the panic train, but rather recognize that the world is actually getting better. Rosling wrote, along with son and daughter-in-law Ola and Anna Rosling, wrote Factfulness: Ten Reasons We\u2019re Wrong About the World \u2013 and Why Things Are Better Than You Think<\/em>.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Rosling argues that the world is better than what we normally hear about. People are living longer, have more access to education and health care, and poverty is decreasing.[3]<\/a> This is largely due to our \u201cnegativity instinct\u201d where our assumption is that the world is getting worse. But, according to Rosling, having a fact-based worldview will help us \u201cmake better decisions, stay alert to real dangers and possibilities, and avoid being constantly stressed about the wrong things.\u201d[4]<\/a> As Christian leaders, we must, based on our confidence in the Gospel, lead with wise discernment of real dangers and a posture of \u201cnon-anxious presence.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What This Means for Christian Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Collins, the author of the renowned business leadership book Good to Great<\/em>, writes about Admiral Stockdale who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Collins asked Stockdale who out of the prisoners were the first to despair and give up. Surprisingly, Stockdale answered \u201cThe optimists.\u201d What Collins learned, which he found translated to leadership, is that great leaders need to be honest about the facts, but not lose faith that things will get better.[6]<\/a> This, in addition to Rosling\u2019s assessment that we have convincing reason that the world is in fact getting better, ought to inspire us to resist riding the stress train. Instead, we can expect bad news but know that bad news does not provide the full picture of the state of our world.<\/p>\n

From this, we, as Christian leaders, in our information-rich and opinion-confused-as-fact world must do three things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Expect bad news.[7]<\/a> There will be bad news, but this ought to not paralyze us. Rather, we are energized to do what we can to make the world better in our spheres of influence. And the world is getting better.<\/li>\n
  2. Refuse to allow the drama of panic news to cause us to resort to consumerism as a mask to deal with our negative feelings.<\/li>\n
  3. We must discern what the facts are by shifting through substance-less opinions and modified facts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The world needs Christian leaders who can skillfully sift through opinions, critically and honestly excavate and embrace the facts, and confidently move forward with hope knowing that there are better days ahead.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Inside Out – Facts and Opinions<\/em>, 2018, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sav2L2E38XA.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling R\u00f6nnlund, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We\u2019re Wrong about the World–and Why Things Are Better than You Think<\/em>, First edition (New York: Flatiron Books, 2018).<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Ibid. 13, 60-63.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Ibid. 16.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (10th Anniversary, Revised Edition)<\/em> (Church Publishing, Inc., 2017), 97.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> James C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don\u2019t<\/em>, 1st ed (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001), 65-90.<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Rosling, Rosling, and R\u00f6nnlund, Factfulness, 12<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In a comedic, yet troubling scene in Pixar\u2019s Inside Out the main character, Joy, who is named for the emotion she represents in the psyche of her human, Riley, knocks over several boxes while riding a train. Some of the boxes were labeled \u201cfacts\u201d and the others were labeled \u201copinions.\u201d After knocking over the boxes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[267,1990,2276,1849,2750],"class_list":["post-32272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collins","tag-dlgp1","tag-factfulness","tag-rosling","tag-stockdale","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32274,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272\/revisions\/32274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}