The Idiot, the Maniac, and Me

George Carlin had this line:

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”

Well, I have been the maniac flying down the highway. I've also been the idiot taking my time while somebody behind me is probably cursing, Why is this idiot going so slow?

And somehow, whatever speed I happen to be going usually feels about right.

I came across something called naive realism, which also referenced the Carlin line, and it made total sense to me.

It is basically our tendency to believe that we are seeing things pretty much as they are. Our view makes sense to us. Then somebody sees the same thing completely differently, and we start wondering what the hell is wrong with them.

Politics is probably one of the easiest places to see this.

I see it with my dad.

My dad is a Boomer, and there are political conversations where I listen to him and think, How the hell are you getting there?

I'm sure he has thought the same thing about me.

And that is the part I keep coming back to.

It would be easy for me to say that I am more open minded, that I can see different perspectives, and that my dad is simply stuck in his ways.

But then I would be doing the same thing.

I would be back on Carlin's highway, convinced that I am the one driving at the right speed.

What I have been trying to do instead is move around a little.

Listen to the right.

Listen to the left.

Listen to my dad.

Listen to someone who sees the world completely differently from me.

Sometimes I understand their perspective and still disagree with it. Sometimes it makes me question my own. Sometimes I still think they are full of shit.

But at least I looked.

For me, that is the value in all of this.

I don't have to give up what I believe. I just want enough room inside myself to ask:

What am I seeing from my lane, and what might I be missing from theirs?

My dad may never see certain things the way I do.

That's okay.

I can understand him without needing to change him.

And I can keep reminding myself that somewhere out there, somebody probably thinks I'm the idiot or the maniac too.