The Walk: How It’s OK to Disagree

We’re in a funny time of life. It’s an age where people are screaming for acceptance one minute whilst being completely unaccepting the next. To put it simply, it’s confusing as heck! One of the things I’ve loved about doing this adventure of a season has been seeing how our dear listeners react to our thoughts on the films. I guess the biggest surprise in this has been how despite the diverse range of listeners and their opinions, which at time differ to ours, there hasn’t really been a moment when our differences lead to hurtful remarks. It’s early days for the From First To Last Podcast so I’m not naïve in the fact that this may still occur but it’s extremely heartening that so far everyone has been so good with one another (and us).

The Walk was the first film in which Craig and I hadn’t agreed and the beauty of us not discussing films before we talk about them is that the conversations are natural, so our reactions during the episodes are genuine. Thinking back on this, it really dawned on me just how fortunate I am to have a co-host like Craig who is willing to listen to my opinion of something without being ticked off and confrontational purely because our opinions don’t align. As I mentioned before we live in an extremely odd and confusing time where a difference in opinion can be pounced upon with a scary amount of venom. Tolerance feels like it has never been more important or required and yet it feels like it’s a foreign concept to a lot of people.

When I dive deeper into this line of thought something Craig has mentioned previously in an episode stands out, that we’ve never lived in a more divisive time. Before I used this word I thought I’d check out exactly what the definition of divisive is and it’s listed as;

tending to cause disagreement or hostility between people  

This divisiveness has led to a culture that jumps on to anything that may cause offence. If this were a verbal conversation, it would be the moment someone would usually jump in and question where I’m going with this and before we receive a bunch of messages you should know that I believe we should have beliefs and values that we will take a stand for. That’s freedom and it’s beautiful but tolerance and grace when our beliefs and values don’t match up with someone else’s is love and I believe that transcends everything. To put it in a Zemeckis related context, the world needs a lot more Forrest Gump and a lot less Lt. Dan.

I’d love to see how Phillipe Petit’s antics would be received in a modern day. Would he be viewed as an amazing, death defying performer or would he be viewed as a foreign menace who could have destroyed a public monument, could have injured innocent people, wasted thousands of tax payer dollars and set a poor example to children. I fear these days there would be more people upset with his incredible act than impressed. I can imagine the Facebook thread too. Each person who said they loved it would be castigated, quite abruptly, in a public forum. From there a mini stoush would ensue where one member would general end the conversation by making an unfounded statement about the other. It’s a pretty sad state for us to be living in as human beings, but it’s the reality of the times we live in.

I won’t rant on any longer as I fear this is pretty much just something really preachy but I just felt this was a line of thought that needed sharing.

Be kind and Big Love, Yeah

Geoff