More Interference

Taking a break from my daily scheduled posts, I have an observation (or two) to share…

Facebook strains my patience – it really does. I have recently watched some of the most asinine arguments unfold in a slow display of pettiness and frivolity. Vapid is an appropriate word. Professional debates… political debates… ethical debates…All of it slowly spiraling into the inevitable personal attacks because respective opinions or choice of facts disagree with the perspectives of someone else.

Even my cherished podcasts have lost their standing as “preferred things to listen to in the truck” as they have begun to follow the same pattern of gravitating towards the blame of one individual for the woes of American policy, potential, and performance. Instead, I have been revisiting music by the Stereophonics and Massive Attack – if I am going to be burdened by deep thoughts of moody paranoia and frustration, at least the beat is better with those choices.

In doing a quick search of my own posts to see if there is a trend of participating in the national pastime of President or political bashing, I was comforted to find that I have been consistently moderate in my words. Since 2009, I have not said very little, if anything, inflammatory of whomever is in office in either posts or the subsequent comments. Similarly, in the 9 years on Facebook, I have not used the word “libtard” in any post and whatever heated debate between conservatives and liberals which has occurred as the result of something I have posted has been either moderated or – that being unsuccessful – deleted as the intent of the post was far from the reality of personal attacks that invariably become part of any discussion between the two poles.

What I find fascinating is the fact that there is very little in the way of actual discussion, these days. It is almost as if no one wants to hear anything beyond the walls of the echo chambers they have built around themselves. We participate in social media, but we have become intolerant of any views other than what we expect and agree with. I could assign blame to politicians and/or the media, but as I have indicated previously, the fault lies in us.

We have failed each other… and in doing so, we are failing our own future. This is a recurring theme on this blog – I’ve talked about it here and here, as well as other points – and I apologize for revisiting the well-worn but rarely attended path. However, as the divide grows between the various rifts in our society, some lessons need to be repeated

I’ve become quite skilled in writing down thought threads in the ever-present notebook that lives in the truck while I am sitting at stop lights, and it has taken me a while to get to this particular thread of the media and guided binary perspectives.

The media gives us what we want – black and white thinking. We are presented with a select set of facts with little alternative consideration as to the motivation of the author or presenter of the information we read, listen, or hear; in a sense, we have become trained spectators or a passive audience for the daily deluge of whatever it is that will guarantee our continued and idle participation. I was pondering the litany of pro-gun and anti-gun content that seems to have proliferated like content kudzu on my Facebook feed and I kept noticing that the sources of these pieces were all similar in one aspect: they are beyond listening to another perspective. Whether it is “we’ve compromised enough” (advocates for the Second Amendment) or “compromise for the sake of the children” (advocates for more restrictive legislation for firearms), there is little hope of discussion. At the root of this problem is not an inanimate object or the evil individuals who seek to deprive life from the innocent, but the ongoing cycle of an overly-simplified argument for or against firearm ownership at the whim of a collective news media with nothing better to do that generate views, outrage, and “discussion” over a topic that is far from new and far from conclusion.

In a sense, we have empowered the tattle-tale. If you think about the basic function of the media is to inform…  “to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.” While I think that this is still the noble and commendable goal of many journalists, it seems that the commodification of information has shifted the priority from “inform” to “incense.” In the case of “empowering the tattle-tale,” we have collectively gone from being able to actively focus on one area in need of improvement to chasing down every exclamatory statement of blame or discovery, thus giving that little weasel of a brat the power to demand and eventually exhaust our attention to more important issues. I could even venture to say that much of our problems today would seem to be a complex manifestation of “compassion fatigue,” where we have been subjected to so much negativity that our capacity for caring… or being civil towards dissenters… has been compromised.

Where do we go from here? Where do I go from here?

As usual, I have no definite answers… only ideas still under construction and revision. The most I can promise the reader is that I will make every attempt to remain as moderate, critical, and understanding as possible.

I may even manage to be entertaining in the process.