At times, adding to the cacophony is not the most constructive endeavor.
Over the last few months I have tried to curate pieces that have no edges. Those edges that people have a penchant for getting caught up on, like partisanship, religious viewpoints, and generational indifference’s. That is an increasingly difficult task as the manner of communications, and personal experiences collide with the reality of the times. It is no easy task for someone with a penchant for writing about politics, society, people, and the condition our condition is in. The messaging is dulled with appeasements, the repetitive nature of the thoughts come out, and everything looks like the same thing in the end. We’re people, and we have to get along… Oh! That planet thing is important too.
It is part devil’s advocate, playing the similarity soundtrack over the differences video that is being continuously looped over us. It is also an attempt to drop anchor in the whirlpool of life to halt the disinformation, and distortions that others may take away from the events at a later date. At times the stances are warranted, they speak to, or ask of, the issues that surround us. At others they are a distraction… The last few months have held historic importance, a sincere statement, not simply a word choice. They have held the attention of more than a few of my fellow citizens, and contain an insight into what our future, however undertaken, is awaiting us. The need to add to the din was less than the desire to simply parrot the abundance of form letter talking points. The need to examine though, is still the persistent course.
America’s character and direction will be discussed, and debated at length in the coming year. The condensed nodules of information, ideology, and beliefs, will be challenged, changed, and interpreted. The divisions will grow wider in cases, shrink in importance in others. This is an historic time we live in, and one that has mandated it’s people to make a more careful consideration going forward. The next step we take is increasingly important, the tensions of the electorate are already plainly visible in our daily life. A step though, is constructed of a foundation, usually followed by a ninety degree angle. At the precipice of history, a step that must be made, while the substance of the next foundation still unknown. A challenge of thought, of being, and of purpose, in a tactile world ever distancing itself from these practices.
As the weeks went by, the stories that once bubbled with passion, and cultivating, went unattended. The underlying messaging came more to the forefront than the overt messaging. The headlines themselves read like bad journal entries. With the media struggling to hold onto reality itself, and the public left overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information, true, spun, and just plain ol’ made up. In that there is a theory, involving a theory, going around about much of this frustrating condition our condition is in, it’s the reactive effects of something called the Black Swan Theory. A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. Black swan events are characterized by their extreme rarity, their severe impact, and the practice of explaining widespread failure to predict them as simple folly in hindsight.
So when the widespread amount of information, and accusations, spin, and flat out lies, became a dysfunctional narrative; I looked for the underlying, and overlaying energies that went into this widespread anomaly. The first aspect of it I had to understand about this was that our narrative is being manipulated by a number of factors, and actors. The other issues to examine were the manner in which our subjective angst’s were triggered, engaged, and supported, during this last decade. If I were a better journalist, with a more scholarly approach, I would be able to provide sizable pamphlet pointing to the phenomenon in acute detail. I am though a cook, one with advanced knife skills. The edges that have cut into the unity, and cohesion we hold have been sharpened against us, using our steel to sharpen the blades to draw blood.
One of the casualties that this produces is the cancel culture. The divisions under the magnifying glass, whose angle is being constantly adjusted to burn our subjective behinds. We have almost come full circle in the dysfunction to say that nobody can be trusted. From the age old, and endless battles between the sexes, to the racial and religious differences and indifference’s. The partisanship and the class warfare has brought the disharmony to new highs, leaving us at new lows. The productive side of this dysfunction is the communications it is producing. The more negative effects though is the ever increasing parlaying, to which inequality is the one in which deserves the most attention and necessity of urgency. As a constitutional expert testified in the Judiciary committee hearings, “Even my dog seems mad.”
The instant answer, cancel culture, and the me first, you second, cultures that come from this dividing act cannot live too long as roommates. Adding to the cacophony, to the noise, and to the self-centered cultures we have cultivated, is at times an ill advised endeavor. The angry, indignant, and satiated masses, may not see the magnifying glass being moved, or the manner in which it is manipulated. But it is there magnifying our differences, while shrinking our unity. The very unity which is the way to surmount the differences to begin with. It’s a curious, and frustrating aspect about this part of our collective of humans. The enormity of our current angst, and the forms it takes in our society, is chock full of inequalities, indignation, and imaginations. It leaves the middle ground an even sharper peak than the edges that cut into us.
The examinations are still ongoing, the need to say, and write, the things that aren’t being said is still there. At times applying just the listening skills is the toughest practice to achieve. Within that practice though, an opportunity to hear the soundtrack without constant interruption of my own selfish, and self-centered intentions and idealism’s. As stated, a mandated decision of care is needed going forward. One that is inherently cooperative, and corrective in nature, as well as productive to the liberties and freedoms we hold self-evident. If we strive for a just society, then we must have the ability, and willingness, to be just in our actions and thinking. This time is historic, the decisions made now will have a lasting, and decisive effect on the very nature of our futures. With this I am reminded of a voice from science fiction that represents a reality we find ourselves firmly stranded in. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” by Mr. Spock. In a time of great noise, and division, a pause to think, in this din of inequity.