I’m not a big fan of fear mongering. Nor am I a fan of groupthink. When the two exist side by side it makes me want to step back and ask: “what is really going on here?”
In the chaos that has become elections I worry that there are many who out of fear choose to go with the flow rather than question the validity of the information presented to them. This makes me nervous. When we opt to ignore our own red flags (for whatever reason) and blindly trust someone whose motivation, when examined, could well harm both us and our community, we are no better than Chicken Little and her posse of blind believers. Any five year old who hears this story knows that when Chicken Little and her friends make it to the King who is wise, their foolishness (and ignorance) will be revealed. A bit humiliating, but not life threatening. But, that isn’t how the story ends, is it?
“This isn’t the way,” says Foxy Loxy. “I will show you a shortcut to the King’s palace.”
From that point on the story ends in one of three ways. The one I heard most often, as a child, was that Foxy Loxy and his family feasted on the naïve barnyard birds. No doubt a high price for blindly following a questionable vision, but the point is made. There is also the ending where Cocky Locky cries out and the rest of his feathered friends run safely back to the barnyard. (Of course Turkey Lurkey’s life is sacrificed in the process. Also not a very pleasant ending.) The third version (found in the Chicken Licken story) is that an acorn then falls on Foxy Loxy’s head. When he looks up and sees the clear sky he is baffled and he too jumps to the same conclusion as Chicken Little. “The sky is falling,” he proclaims and off he runs to who knows where. It is at this point that Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey and Turkey Lurkey turn to Chicken Little and ask if she is sure it was the sky that was falling. When she must admit that perhaps it was simply an acorn they chase her back to the barnyard.
In a time where “fake news”[1] and “misleading facts” have sadly become part of campaigning I think it is all the more important that, before we join Chicken Little and come to our collective demise, we ask ourselves “based on what I know, on what I see, and what I’ve read, is the sky falling?” Sometimes the implausible is indeed fact. Other times the implausible is simply incorrect.
It is when we feel unsure that we need to ask more questions. And ideally, after having answered these questions, based on what we’ve learned we decide what makes the most sense to us- not to Chicken Little. Of course, in the end, like most decisions, how we vote is a leap of faith. But let’s try to make it an educated leap of faith and avoid, through our own foolishness, harming our community and ourselves. Foxy Loxy exists for a reason.
Stay well, Heike
[1] Just writing that such a thing exists in our lexicon makes me cringe.
If you liked this blog look for tomorrow’s about the questions I ask myself before I vote
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