It should go without saying that the readers of MHProNews span the political, economic, religious, gender, ethnic, and other spectrums.

That means there are some that will love a statement they read on X (fill in the blank on what X is), while others oppose that same statement on X. Still others with a furrowed brow might wonder why X matters at all.

Let’s plug in a few examples of X

• MHARR or MHI.
• Any of the people we quote on MHProNews or MHLivingNews.
• Any of the political or economic sources we quote on MHProNews or MHLivingNews.

What does that X mean to you or me?

What does X mean for:

• the mom and pop operation?
• the corporate professional?
• the investor,
• the public official, researcher, advocacy group, or media,
• the MH Industry association member, or
• the professional who swore he/she would never go to another association meeting again?

Tales, Faces and Facts

Fact 1:
The facts are that in this raging affordable housing crisis, manufactured homes are an obvious solution. Yes, MODs, hybrids, prefabs, and stick building all have their respective roles in this world of Off or On site Construction.

Fact 2:

There are:

• economic,
• social,
• political,
• moral,
• technological,
• and even
• geopolitical/trade issues

that – knowingly or not – all impact factory home builders, professionals, and the home buying public.

“The X Factor” – Manufactured Housing’s Surprising Solution$ The Truth Well Told, What is the X Factor. Manufactured Housing, Dick Ernst, MHI, MHARR, MHProNews, MHLivingNews,

Among the points George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984 was trying to make was this.

You can control people to a significant degree by controlling the information that flows to them.

Propaganda is used by many because it works.

How did we get from a Leave it to Beaver society to a rainbow society protesting almost everything in just 55 years?

One answer is media.  The other is educational.  Some of it is face-to-face, or person-to-person, manipulation.

Rules, Labels, and Rulemakers

Label someone a conservative, moderate, or a liberal, and how people respond to that person changes.

Paint someone as a troublemaker or an outsider, and again, how people react changes.

All of these and more ought to be troubling to those who seek the truth about a person, or a subject.

That thousands today can emerge from a college or a university, look you in the eye and say, “What truth? There is only my truth,” or “You can’t legislate morality” – and similarly dubious  X statements, these are causes for concern.

Every piece of legislation or rule making is a value judgment. It is based upon a perception of truth. On a moral judgement.

If forces can control how other people react to:

• manufactured homes,
• skin tone,
• accent,
• religious affiliation (or a lack thereof),
• political or
• any other belief, then no wonder there is so much upheaval in America and around the world.

I’m only One Person

The fact that you or I are only one person is no excuse to do nothing.

We do what we can that is right and good, regardless of how others may or may not understand at that moment in time.

What Dick Ernst and others like him have said are quite right. We take on controversial issues or positions, not for the sake of stirring the pot. Rather, its because – as Ernst said, Tony believes that much in this industry.

Stirring the pot of its own sake would get old quickly.  We’re the same pro-industry people we’ve been from day one that we began MHProNews, and later MHLivingNews, now 9 years ago.

So, we take on an X issue precisely because we think it is relevant to the

• Industry, or
• the nation our industry is a part of,
• or because in some way, a real problem offers an opportunity in disguise.

Divide and Rule

When an MHI board member shares their woes and frustrations this week with MHProNews;

Or

a longtime reader thinks I’m picking on MHI;

Or

Another reader thinks I can make up with MHI;

each of those are revealing insights.  But the fact that someone believes X doesn’t make it correct.

All of those are but examples of the X factor.  Someone is filling in a blank based upon, what?  There are other examples.

This industry ought to be easy! We sell affordable housing, and the nation needs it!

Why isn’t manufactured housing embraced?

Why are even some other factory builders for or against HUD Code manufactured housing?

Ignorance

We are all ignorant on many things. It is arrogant or delusional to think otherwise.

We need others in our lives.  You know things I don’t, and the reverse is true too.  That’s one of many reasons why we ask others for input on a regular basis.

If you believe in God, and chances are around 90 percent that you do, then it’s obvious that the Creator felt you and we were both necessary!

You think you’re right on X.

The person down the hall, sees X differently.

Who is right?

There are absolute truths.

We should be people who seek the truth of an issue, any issue.

People open to the truth see or can learn the value of manufactured homes.

Investors and advocates can discover the value.

Lenders can learn about MH what most Americans did in the wake of the civil rights movement.

But if we watch as a growing part of our fellow citizens embrace

• a lie like socialism,
• and we ignore the threat that modern day Brownshirts or propagandists pose,
• whatever wealth you have can vanish in the night.
• Wealth can disappear because you are murdered, or the power structure shifts, and the insiders are now on the outside.

 

There should be an unquenchable thirst to know and live the truth.

Because by definition, everything that is not the truth is a kind of delusion.

The nature of a human is that we learn in stages.  So we can’t know the full truth about anything all at once.  We learn that truth in stages, be it the ABCs, or the 123s, manufactured housing, or whatever the subject happens to be.

So, we do need patience for each other, and that sincere desire to know the truth.

The necessary truths about our industry was buried in stages.

Now, like gold, the truths about manufactured housing will have to be uncovered and refined in stages.

Different people will learn that truth at different paces.

But as enough professionals – if even one committed professional at a time – in a given market, is willing to take the long view, do what’s right by every customer, and share that truth routinely, given good health, etc. there will be tremendous success over time for that professional.

The reverse is also true, and the industry has been paying the price for short term thinking and behavior for decades.  Don’t believe it?  Check out last week’s fact-based post.

The Truth Well Told.  The Truth told routinely.  Behavior that aligns with that truth as perfectly as possible.

These are the ways our industry advances.  That truth is told, and best practices must occur at the local market level.

And for any of those who settle for less than the truth?  Sad. ## (Overview, analysis, commentary.)

(Image credits are as shown above, and when provided by third parties, are shared under fair use guidelines.)

By L. A. “Tony” Kovach,
Industry consultant, service provider, and managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC – the parent company to the industry’s top trade media MHProNews.com and MHLivingNews.com