Episode 33: You Don’t Have to Correct Every Record

Subtitle: Choosing Your Battles in the Marketplace of Ideas

We live in a world where every rumor, every hot take, and every twisted narrative can feel like a personal call to arms. But do we really need to chase down everything and everyone?

Let's examine:

• Why not every rumor needs your response
• How Dag handled slander and misrepresentation during his lifetime
• Eight constructive alternatives when frustration with people or organizations flares up

If you’ve ever found yourself exhausted from trying to “set the record straight” again and again, this episode is your permission slip to step back, breathe, and focus on where your voice actually matters.

Sara's award-winning biography of Dag can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Unicorn-New-Look-Hammarskj%C3%B6ld-ebook/dp/B0DSCS5PZT

Her forthcoming project, Simply Dag, will release globally on July 29, 2026. 

#DecodingTheUnicorn #DagHammarskjöld #TruthAndRumor #ChooseYourBattles #MarketplaceOfIdeas #SpiritualLeadership #PodcastEpisode #SaraCausey #HistoricalReflection #YouDontHaveToCorrectEveryRecord 

Transcript

 Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

In Episode 33 of "Decoding the Unicorn," host Sara Causey discusses the importance of choosing battles wisely in the marketplace of ideas. She emphasizes Dag Hammarskjöld's philosophy of taking the high road and not engaging in personal battles. Sara advises channeling energy into creation, returning to one's core mission, and speaking to the right audience. She highlights the need for strategic silence, focusing on one's community, and transmuting frustration into clarity. Sara concludes by urging listeners to let their light shine and not get bogged down by every misinformation they encounter. 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Decoding the Unicorn, marketplace of ideas, choosing battles, media strategy, Dag Hammarskjöld, high road, creation over destruction, core mission, strategic silence, righteous anger, community building, frustration management, truth seeking, public reaction, personal response.

Welcome to the Decoding the Unicorn podcast. Here's your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, hello, and thanks for tuning in. Welcome to Episode 33 of decoding the unicorn the podcast. I appreciate you joining me in today's episode. I want to talk about you don't have to correct every record. I guess if this episode had a subtitle, it would be choosing your battles in the marketplace of ideas. I want to be clear about what this episode is not. It's not about saying facts don't matter, the truth doesn't matter, or that you shouldn't try to pursue the truth, or that you shouldn't try to shine a light on the truth. Rather, the point that I want to make, especially as someone who is myself, fiery, passionate and sometimes, frankly, competitive. It can be so frustrating when you see somebody else spewing gossip or lies or nonsense and you just think, Ah, I wish that there was more that I could do to combat this. At the same time, as individuals, we're only one person, and instead of going off like Don Quixote to fight the windmills, is there a better way? Stay tuned.

Political intrigue, Cold War drama, cloak and dagger maneuvers. Read 2025 most intriguing book about one of history's forgotten figures. Pick up your copy of Decoding the Unicorn: A New Look at Dag Hammarskjöld today.

One of the topics I'm exploring in my current project simply DAG, is the way that dag dealt with the media and how, unfortunately, there were times during his career at the UN when he was the subject of hit pieces. Journalists would print defamatory, rude, awful things, false things about him and DAG, in his maddeningly calm way, instead of getting down in the gutter and fighting it out, he would take the high road. And there were times when that really frustrated his friends and his colleagues, because they would say, we need to sue. We need to take these people to court over the things that they're saying. And dag would decline to do that. No, I'm not going to get into a tit for tat in the press. And if we drag them into court, if we spend a bunch of money, then it's going to amplify the story instead of the story lasting for a news cycle and then going away quietly and being buried somewhere. It'll go on and on and on. So it's better to just let it go. And he really, I think, leaned into what Jesus said about praying for people that despitefully use you instead of deciding that you're going to have a fist fight with them, which, to be honest with you, is a little bit more my instinct. I'm fiery and full of Moxie. Dax philosophy was more like I would rather pray for this person. And in fact, he would say things like that, if somebody would take the creativity that they have for making nasty tabloid stories and put it into something better, imagine how good they would be. Imagine how great the world would be. That if instead of thinking up fake smutty stories, somebody thought up something that was creative, if they were making a cool fictional story or a one act play. Think about how their mind could work doing that as opposed to making up fake smut.

But you know, as I said, sometimes it's just maddening, because he could be so calm and he could overlook certain things that might really ruffle another person's feathers, like mine, for example, or I'm like, oh, we need to go and fight this. I'm ready to brandish my sword like Don Quixote fighting the windmills. And DAG is like, No, not really, not really. Maybe the storm passes without you having to be the one to go fight the battle. So I wanted to record this quick episode today for other people like me, where the temptation is, but I want to bear my claws. I want to bear my fangs. I want to go after this person or this media outlet or this whatever that's saying things that they shouldn't be, that's making junk up. I want to combat that, because DAX philosophy is very much challenge them in the marketplace of ideas. Don't go after somebody and try to make it a personal battle. Have that battle, but do it in the marketplace of ideas. Don't make it ad hominem, even if they. Made it ad hominem, against you or against somebody that you love. You don't have to sink to that level. You can take the high road. And I sort of cross my arms and grumble and say, Alright, okay, dag. I mean, if you say so. But I wanted to give us all because I'm speaking to myself as much as I'm speaking to anybody else in the audience today. Here are some things that we can do instead of going off to fight the windmills, instead of getting in the gutter with somebody. What can we do instead? Because as I said at the beginning of this, it's not about ignoring facts. It's not about refusing to shine a light on the truth. It's about doing those things without getting down to somebody else's level. Number one on my list is channeling your energy into creation instead of destruction. Creation. Can you channel your efforts into writing, art, a podcast, research, whatever your arena is, can you answer through work and research, as opposed to mudslinging two, return to your core mission, you can always take a breath, and I would really recommend doing this after you've blown off some steam, because when we first learn about something or we hear something defamatory, and our it feels like our head is a fireball. That's not the time for it. Blow off some steam, go to the gym and punch a punching bag, scream into a pillow, do whatever it is that you do to get that tension out and then take a breath and ask yourself, Is this rumor or this person actually relevant to my purpose? I think also sometimes we have the tendency to overestimate somebody else's reach, especially if that person or that group, that whatever organization, has good social media skills, or they have a good publicist, they can make someone who's basically a whisper a nothing seem like a shout, and it's not even true. It's just nonsense. So is this person or this rumor or this organization actually relevant, and if not, you can drop the sword, refocus, recalibrate, and think about what truly matters. And also keep in mind that fakery is the name of the game in today's world. Somebody might seem to have a large audience, they might seem to have prestige, and then you find out actually they don't. Number three, speak to the right audience, not every audience. Some audiences are not reachable, and some people are not interested in the truth. They're just not if given the opportunity to hear truth versus lies, they will pick lies if given the opportunity to engage with something educational or uplifting. Versus smut. They'll go for the smut. They'll go for tawdry celebrity gossip. Or here's who's getting divorced, and can you believe that he did that and she cheated on him, and it's almost like High School for Adults, you're not going to reach those people, and you probably wouldn't want them in your tribe, even if you did so, direct your message to the people who are listening. They're learning, and they're ready to receive what you have to offer four pause, take a breath. Take a beat before you react, and this is what I mentioned a few seconds ago. Don't let that initial flare of anger or indignation cause you to do something that you will later regret. You want to be able to act from clarity, not adrenaline. I know, believe me, that's easier said than done, but it's worth it to take that extra time to say, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Maybe I don't need to launch into an angry tweet. Maybe I don't need to say something especially publicly that I might regret. It might be better for me to just button my lip for a little while and process this five you can't control every narrative. You can control your response, and you can control what you put out into the world, but you can't control everything else, kind of like the expression haters going to hate. Yeah, absolutely, and there's nothing you can do about that. Gossip. Folks will gossip. Truth seekers will seek out the truth. It's not your job to try to police every corner of the internet, all social media outlets, every speaking engagement, whatever. It's much more helpful for you and for everybody else to keep your light steady. I remember at least one time when I was doing speech, debate and drama in high school, and I got stuck being the spotlight operator, and I didn't know what I was doing. To be honest with you, there was another kid who had given me, like, the most Crash Course lesson in how to operate the spotlight. It was almost like, Well, hey, I'm going to spend all of two minutes explaining it to you, good luck, because the curtains going up in a couple of minutes, and I'm like, Oh no, this may not be the best spotlight operation in the history of theater, but I'm going to try my best. That's it. What a great metaphor. You can only do what you can do to keep your own spotlight steady, to be your own beacon, you can't police what everybody else is doing, and even if you would like to, you can't six practice strategic silence. This is a big one that dag understood and and I'm trying to understand it, some of it has sunk in. Silence is not weakness, it's often strength. Choosing when to respond and choosing when not to respond are equally powerful. Sometimes knowing when to just back off and let a situation breathe is huge. There are some situations that solve themselves. And dag said that very prominently in one of his speeches that there are some political problems, some knots that are not independently untangled, per se. They're just outgrown by time and tide, a change in politics, a change in the mindset of the nation, and then things move on. Not every battle is yours to charge into the arena and fight, and you don't always have to yell and scream. In fact, it can be much more impactful if you don't kick and yell and scream and act like a toddler seven. Build Your Own chorus, right, instead of fixating on one or two antagonists who grind your gears or feel like fingernails going down a chalkboard, invest in nurturing your community, whatever that looks like for you, your patrons, your customers, your readers, your listeners, your allies, home in On the people who do care. Let your work speak for itself and let others amplify it. Quit worrying about the haters. Quit worrying so much about, oh, this person is out here saying this and this and that, and I'm so mad you're overlooking the people who are actually truly in your corner. And last but not least, can you transmute your frustration into clarity? Not all anger is bad, anger and righteous anger can absolutely be galvanized to change the world, to give people the right to vote, to enfranchise them, to get rid of slavery to purge out injustice in the world, there's most certainly a place for righteous anger. Sometimes we let our anger over petty things, however, tell us, Oh, well, I'm justified here. It's okay for me to be really super mad.

Is it, though? I mean, are you fighting for social justice about something, or are you just mad because Sally Sue said something on social media that you didn't like there is a difference. Sometimes anger points you to where your boundaries are, what focus you need to recalibrate to. And you can always ask yourself the question, what is the situation showing me about me? What is it showing me about my priorities? Is it giving me good information about something that I can do next, or am I just really hurting my own feelings by fixating on something silly? The truth is that you don't have to chase every shadow. You don't you don't have to fight every battle, and you don't have to get angry over everything that you see online. I've talked before about how we live in an age of rage bait, and it can be so easy to take that bait, but we have to be careful and let our better angels prepare prevail wherever possible, so that we're not stuck in the mud, we can elevate it's better to let your light shine than it is to worry about extinguishing everybody else. Take good care of yourself, and I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast and share it with others. We'll see you next time.