For many years, I have lived beside average Americans who get out of bed every morning, go to work, and do amazing things. For these people, success comes down to human beings connecting in ways that make life better for their families and communities. Sometimes technology makes that easier, but increasingly, the tools that make businesses more efficient are getting in the way of the real-world relationships we all need.
In a world where everyone has been reduced to ones and zeros — where everything from our doorbells to our mobile phones defines us in the marketplace — a simple handshake and an inquisitive conversation with a customer or friend may be the underlying element that transforms small businesses and turns acquaintances into lifelong friends. Many small-town business owners have known this for decades. They’ve succeeded by building friendships and relationships instead of databases and customer profiles. They practice business in a human and personal way.
Technology that reduces customers to algorithms is harmful to a broader society. Yes, our phones make life more convenient. But as millions of Americans try to break free from the digital world, we may have reached an inflection point where scaling quality of life now means escaping the constant presence of a phone or screen and reconnecting with the physical world. These are the goals of American Averagists.
But what exactly is an averagist? To be perfectly honest, the definition is somewhat fluid. On the one hand, I consider an averagist to be a professional analyst or researcher — someone who finds new value in considering average things. An averagist looks at everyday occurrences in the same way that a radiologist examines x-rays, an economist studies production and consumption, or a biologist studies organic life. Averagists seek out, observe, consider, and write about all things average and normal. By writing this article, for example, I am behaving like an averagist.
I also think averagist could describe a mindset. When I was looking for a term that accurately describes people I met over the last twenty-five years, I wanted to focus on Middle Americans who think and act like most people in their community — people who are demographically, economically, and culturally like most of their neighbors. The only difference is that averagists see opportunities where others don’t. They’re innovators who rely on common sense and real-world experience to turn disadvantages into advantages. They are exceptional without assuming they’re smarter or somehow superior to their neighbors. They’re individuals who most people want to call friends. In other words, they’re normal Americans living normal lives in positive ways.
Now, I fully recognize that in today’s world, labeling any person “normal” instantly raises the hackles of some who believe that even suggesting such a person or group exists is setting the stage for bias and discrimination. When everyone wants to be considered exceptional, unique, and accommodated, calling someone normal makes abnormal people feel bad. I call bullshit on that line of thinking.
The greatest disservice of our current cultural climate is the assumption that every community in America must eventually adopt the same values and priorities. Under this view, someone living in a small town in Montana should think, behave, and assign importance to the same things as someone in New York — and if they don’t, they’re considered backwards or worse.
This perspective overlooks a quiet but significant advantage many Middle Americans possess: they have often lived in two very different worlds. That dual experience gives them a perspective their critics frequently lack. Let me explain what I mean through my own story.
Compared with the most talked-about demographic groups, I’m a nobody. I am a Gen X, fifty-six-year-old white man with a wife and three kids. We live in the suburbs and go to church on Sundays. We are educated, work white-collar jobs, and always seem to feel the sting of economic downturns worse than most. Many years ago, I worked as a publisher and consultant in Washington but lived in Hurricane, West Virginia. As the editor of a small defense journal, I was afforded the opportunity to interview service secretaries, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, congressmen, senators, governors, defense industry executives, hundreds of soldiers, Marines, airmen, and even a presidential candidate or two. It was an interesting life. On some days, I’d be doing a one-on-one interview with a national political figure on Capitol Hill, and seven hours later I was scooping the cat pan and taking out the trash at my home in the heart of Appalachia.
I have traveled to forty-six of the fifty states. I have witnessed the poverty of Central America and the depravity of man in Bosnia. I have dined at fine restaurants and met with business associates in almost every major metropolitan area of the country. I have also baled hay. I have camped in remote wilderness. I am a veteran. I mow my own grass, fix my own cars, and clean my own house. I have mended barbed wire fences, worked manual labor, and slept outdoors in every imaginable environment — from snowy mountaintops to bug-infested swamps. I’ve hung out with bikers, farmers, construction workers, lawyers, soldiers, entrepreneurs, coal miners, billionaires, and doctors, and I call many of them my friends. I own a gun and know how to use it effectively, and there have been times in my life when I had to make hard decisions based on who or for what I was willing to die.
I’m not alone in my experiences by any stretch of the imagination. Millions of people like me have lived life on both sides of the chasm that divides Middle America from urban America. There is a sense here, however, that many who cast aspersions on us have never experienced the things we have — and likely never will. The idea of an urbanite millionaire working on a farm, in a coal mine, or roughing it in the woods is a recurring plot in dozens of Hollywood comedies (think Ben Stiller in Zoolander, for example).
But we have lived, worked, and traveled throughout both worlds. We have seen and experienced more than most of the people who talk down to us from their urban enclaves. We’ve seen the normalcy of America, and it has nothing to do with race, gender, age, politics, or any of the other things critics use to divide us. We choose to live where things move slower, crime rates are lower, houses are more affordable, and people tend to get along.
American Averagist Magazine is for the thoughtful, capable, family-oriented men and women of Middle America. Confident, worldly in a grounded way, quietly capable, family-oriented, values-driven (with a Christian/family ethos), and aspirational without being flashy or elitist. It has high-level sophistication and storytelling, but applied to the guy who mows his own lawn, knows how to fix things, shows up for his family and community, and has lived a real life.
As I move forward with my search, no matter where we are, finding a normal person by that community’s standards won’t be too difficult. Talking with these people, identifying their independent spirit, and learning how they use their humanity to create better lives and communities on Main Street U.S.A. is quintessential averagist behavior. It’s simply discovering someone who gets out of bed, gets dressed, and steps out into the world to make it a better place — no matter where or how they find their normalcy.
For many years, I have lived beside average Americans who get out of bed every morning, go to work, and do amazing things. For these people, success comes down to human beings connecting in ways that make life better for their families and communities. Sometimes technology makes that easier, but increasingly, the tools that make businesses more efficient are getting in the way of the real-world relationships we all need.
In a world where everyone has been reduced to ones and zeros — where everything from our doorbells to our mobile phones defines us in the marketplace — a simple handshake and an inquisitive conversation with a customer or friend may be the underlying element that transforms small businesses and turns acquaintances into lifelong friends. Many small-town business owners have known this for decades. They’ve succeeded by building friendships and relationships instead of databases and customer profiles. They practice business in a human and personal way.
Technology that reduces customers to algorithms is harmful to a broader society. Yes, our phones make life more convenient. But as millions of Americans try to break free from the digital world, we may have reached an inflection point where scaling quality of life now means escaping the constant presence of a phone or screen and reconnecting with the physical world. These are the goals of American Averagists.
But what exactly is an averagist? To be perfectly honest, the definition is somewhat fluid. On the one hand, I consider an averagist to be a professional analyst or researcher — someone who finds new value in considering average things. An averagist looks at everyday occurrences in the same way that a radiologist examines x-rays, an economist studies production and consumption, or a biologist studies organic life. Averagists seek out, observe, consider, and write about all things average and normal. By writing this article, for example, I am behaving like an averagist.
I also think averagist could describe a mindset. When I was looking for a term that accurately describes people I met over the last twenty-five years, I wanted to focus on Middle Americans who think and act like most people in their community — people who are demographically, economically, and culturally like most of their neighbors. The only difference is that averagists see opportunities where others don’t. They’re innovators who rely on common sense and real-world experience to turn disadvantages into advantages. They are exceptional without assuming they’re smarter or somehow superior to their neighbors. They’re individuals who most people want to call friends. In other words, they’re normal Americans living normal lives in positive ways.
Now, I fully recognize that in today’s world, labeling any person “normal” instantly raises the hackles of some who believe that even suggesting such a person or group exists is setting the stage for bias and discrimination. When everyone wants to be considered exceptional, unique, and accommodated, calling someone normal makes abnormal people feel bad. I call bullshit on that line of thinking.
The greatest disservice of our current cultural climate is the assumption that every community in America must eventually adopt the same values and priorities. Under this view, someone living in a small town in Montana should think, behave, and assign importance to the same things as someone in New York — and if they don’t, they’re considered backwards or worse.
This perspective overlooks a quiet but significant advantage many Middle Americans possess: they have often lived in two very different worlds. That dual experience gives them a perspective their critics frequently lack. Let me explain what I mean through my own story.
Compared with the most talked-about demographic groups, I’m a nobody. I am a Gen X, fifty-six-year-old white man with a wife and three kids. We live in the suburbs and go to church on Sundays. We are educated, work white-collar jobs, and always seem to feel the sting of economic downturns worse than most. Many years ago, I worked as a publisher and consultant in Washington but lived in Hurricane, West Virginia. As the editor of a small defense journal, I was afforded the opportunity to interview service secretaries, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, congressmen, senators, governors, defense industry executives, hundreds of soldiers, Marines, airmen, and even a presidential candidate or two. It was an interesting life. On some days, I’d be doing a one-on-one interview with a national political figure on Capitol Hill, and seven hours later I was scooping the cat pan and taking out the trash at my home in the heart of Appalachia.
I have traveled to forty-six of the fifty states. I have witnessed the poverty of Central America and the depravity of man in Bosnia. I have dined at fine restaurants and met with business associates in almost every major metropolitan area of the country. I have also baled hay. I have camped in remote wilderness. I am a veteran. I mow my own grass, fix my own cars, and clean my own house. I have mended barbed wire fences, worked manual labor, and slept outdoors in every imaginable environment — from snowy mountaintops to bug-infested swamps. I’ve hung out with bikers, farmers, construction workers, lawyers, soldiers, entrepreneurs, coal miners, billionaires, and doctors, and I call many of them my friends. I own a gun and know how to use it effectively, and there have been times in my life when I had to make hard decisions based on who or for what I was willing to die.
I’m not alone in my experiences by any stretch of the imagination. Millions of people like me have lived life on both sides of the chasm that divides Middle America from urban America. There is a sense here, however, that many who cast aspersions on us have never experienced the things we have — and likely never will. The idea of an urbanite millionaire working on a farm, in a coal mine, or roughing it in the woods is a recurring plot in dozens of Hollywood comedies (think Ben Stiller in Zoolander, for example).
But we have lived, worked, and traveled throughout both worlds. We have seen and experienced more than most of the people who talk down to us from their urban enclaves. We’ve seen the normalcy of America, and it has nothing to do with race, gender, age, politics, or any of the other things critics use to divide us. We choose to live where things move slower, crime rates are lower, houses are more affordable, and people tend to get along.
American Averagist Magazine is for the thoughtful, capable, family-oriented men and women of Middle America. Confident, worldly in a grounded way, quietly capable, family-oriented, values-driven (with a Christian/family ethos), and aspirational without being flashy or elitist. It has high-level sophistication and storytelling, but applied to the guy who mows his own lawn, knows how to fix things, shows up for his family and community, and has lived a real life.
As I move forward with my search, no matter where we are, finding a normal person by that community’s standards won’t be too difficult. Talking with these people, identifying their independent spirit, and learning how they use their humanity to create better lives and communities on Main Street U.S.A. is quintessential averagist behavior. It’s simply discovering someone who gets out of bed, gets dressed, and steps out into the world to make it a better place — no matter where or how they find their normalcy.