Seth's Blog : Avoiding the purity loop

Avoiding the purity loop

Some vegans don’t eat avocados.

They’re concerned that the bees that are trucked in to pollinate the trees are mistreated, and so they choose to not support this practice.

But we live in community, and someone running a vegan restaurant or serving a meal to vegan friends, concerned that they might offend, doesn’t serve avocado. A few strong opinions change the culture.

And so the cycle continues.

Humans care about status and affiliation, and both are at play in a purity loop.

One can earn more status by caring more about the issue that others are adjacent to. And so the loop gains momentum.

Once a few people make it clear that they’re more orthodox or progressive or concerned or strict or unhypocritical or obedient, others seek to claim the same status. And that becomes a point of affiliation.

Just about every tribe goes through these loops.

Four hundred years ago, neck ruffs became popular among the aristrocracy in Europe. The neck ruff began as a modest collar but evolved into enormous pleated confections that could span two feet across. At their peak, ruffs became so large that special eating utensils with extended handles were invented to allow wearers to get food to their mouths. Some ruffs were so tall and stiff that wearers couldn’t turn their heads and needed help eating.

The instinctual response is to criticize the newest form of purity as absurd. But of course, the absurdity is part of the status on display.

Perhaps it makes more sense to see the loop at work and get back to the work at hand.

“Shut up and drive” is the answer to an argument about what song is playing on the radio. We can tune the radio as we go, but we’re here to drive this thing to where we’re headed.

Enrollment is at the core of the mission. Where are we going and why? If it’s not helping with that, let’s drive and work on it as we go.

Everyone is entitled to their own take. But when we focus on purity and status at the expense of the journey, the distraction costs all of us.

We’re going. Come if you’d like.