Watch: Enter Shikari's Rou Reynolds sets out his vision for a kinder society
Rou shares his ever-eloquent thoughts with Kerrang! Radio
Coinciding with World Mental Health Day earlier this month, Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has spoken to Kerrang! Radio about what kindness means to him and how generosity, empathy and understanding can change society for the better.
From divisive politics to polarising opinions on the coronavirus pandemic to online trolls, it’s pretty fair to say that we live in pretty acrimonious times right now. Yet for all the negativity out there, kindness is a potent force that we all need to embrace.
In the build-up to World Mental Health Day last Saturday (10th October), Benji from Skindred, Eric and Brett from Shinedown, and Frank Turner all recorded video messages for Kerrang! Radio on the subject of kindness.
Arguably one of the most socially aware figures on the rock scene right now, Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has now shared his eloquent thoughts on kindness and his vision for a better and less hostile world.
For Rou, if we all do some small random acts of kindness - no matter how big or small – this can be contagious, and it has the power to counteract these divisive times.
Watch Rou Reynolds discuss the importance of kindness:
Here are Rou Reynolds’ thoughts in full:
“What does kindness mean to me? I think it's like this energising life force, it’s this gift that is beneficial not just to the receiver of kindness, but also to the giver of kindness. And I think, kindness, there's two things that it means to me that specifically that don't get addressed enough or don't get spoken about enough. I think one is the kindness is courage. It's not niceness, so niceness doesn't really take any moral courage and it's not always right to be nice. So, for instance, you could refrain from telling somebody something that they don't want to hear just to be nice. But that's that doesn't have that person's necessarily their best interests at heart or their long-term interests. Niceness can sometimes be about placating someone's short term interests.
“So, kindness is always about thinking of what's best for that person. And in that way, it's rarely wrong. And for me the other important type of kindness that isn't spoken about enough is kindness of interpretation. So how we interpret other people's behaviour - what they do and what they say. We almost never interpret their behaviour with generosity, with charity. We always assume the worst intent, so someone expresses an opinion we don't like. And we immediately jump to the worst possible interpretation of what they said. So, someone makes a mistake, and we immediately assume complete incompetence on their part. Someone shows some form of weakness, and we immediately think of them as a loser. Now this happens on a personal level and, of course, it happens on the political level.
“I think kindness of interpretation is showing generosity and patience and empathy towards people. It’s listening to people with curiosity, not with animosity. The French philosopher, Alain said, Never say that people are evil, you just need to look for the pin. So, it's about looking for that trigger. It's about understanding the true causes of pick for people's nasty behaviour. So the insulting Twitter troll. Probably grew up unloved and is lashing out insulting you trying to get you to feel the pain that they have so often felt. Your friend who ignores you may be suffering from low self-esteem and therefore doesn't feel worthy of your company, your partner who's being difficult and short with you may be suffering from stress from work and not sleeping well etc etc. Kindness of interpretation is recognising that human complexity, if we can do that and withhold from just reacting in retaliation in anger at everything then we are being more courageous, we're being more empathetic, and we're being more kind. Too often we set off for the worst possible interpretation, we catastrophize we assume that well this person must hate us, and therefore, we're going to hate them back. In our divided and hostile, and in civil world kindness of interpretation is a force of de-escalation. And I think that's why is one of the most important types of kindness that we need to utilise at the moment.
“I think truthfully, the most impactful moments and kindness to me have been really small, you know, little things that people most people would think are just insignificant but they've happened at a time where I was most vulnerable, where I was at my lowest so, you know, I'm talking about everything from a smile, a small compliment showing kindness or patience, you know in some way online or offline. It's friends who've taken me out for a drink in a chat when I've been at my lowest, it's all these little, little drops you know that just fill up the ocean and just make someone's life more worth living. So, I think that's the thing we, we never know what someone else is going through. They could be the worst possible point in their life. So, I think just showing even just small amounts of kindness that you may think are insignificant can sometimes be hugely helpful.
“It's so important to be kind, because it's healthy. It's life affirming life giving life support and it's beneficial not just for the recipient of kindness, but for the giver of kindness. So, for example, there was, there was one American scientific study that took a group of people with high blood pressure, and gave them $40 a week to spend, either on themselves, or on others. And guess what?! Those that spent the money on others found that their blood pressure lowered. And that's because there's neuro chemicals in the brain like oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins, that all either lower your blood pressure your stress levels your anxiety or depression, they boost self-esteem feelings of happiness feelings of self-worth and these are all triggered when we do kind acts.
“That's the thing with kindness as well, it takes some of the stress, some of the pressure out of life. If we're remembering that we've been a loser, we've been wrong, we've made mistakes, we've been nasty. If we’re remembering that we're human, we're going to be more patient and empathetic and generous with other people. And then we can all just relax and go ‘okay I may make mistakes but we're going to be kind with each other.’ How much of a better world would that create?! So kindness is understanding that other people are human, they’re complex human beings like you, and they deserve, empathy, like you do.
“We rarely get angry babies, or young children when they misbehave. We interpret their behaviour kindly; we assume that they must be in some sort of pain when they're being difficult or misbehaving or they're tired or they're hungry or they need some form of affection. We need to extend that kindness, that rationality really to our adult life as well. So, if we can start being Kinder with each other, we'll start to create a kinder society, and kindness will be normalised. It will reinforce itself that's the thing as well as a lot of science that shows that random acts of kindness are contagious. So, it starts becoming this sort of self-reinforcing force, and it will create a much, much more pleasurable, safe, and beautiful society for us all.”
Enter Shikari released their sixth studio album 'Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible' in April through SO Recordings and it stormed to number two on the UK album chart. They tour the UK in May and June 2021.