Is Anybody Out There?

Let’s get this out right now, I’m a fairly conservative fellow – just so you know.

In a couple more months I’ll be 64 years old, so I guess that makes me both old and conservative. I can tell you that I have never been more discouraged by the public dialog than I am now. Oh sure there has been frustration from time to time: the “Nixon lied” years, out of control interest rates with Jimmy Carter, Monica Lewinski, and “W”, but never has there been such an outright disintegration of dialog as we are now experiencing. The sad part is very few folks, at least the ones who have anything to say about it, are saying anything about “IT”.

Why the disintegration? Is it because of social media and the explosion of virtual relationships where there really isn’t much invested with the delivery of a disparaging remark by the touch of a “send” button as opposed to a face to face delivery where the possibility of rebuttal exists, or is it the 24 hour news cycle and the continual bombardment by what often turns out to be opinion disguised as “news”, or maybe it’s the fact, yes fact, that now only about one in three folks say they have any religious affiliation demonstrating the subsequent loss of value placed on what was once held dear? What is it?

I submit to you it has something to do with our culture, a culture that’s evolved as a result of our affluence. Affluence that has enabled folks at all levels to exchange someone else’s resources, either parents, family, neighbors, or society in general, for the time to be drawn into second tier causes, causes that fall under the category of respectable but not essential.

I can already hear the outrage at describing someone else’s cause as “second tier”. Allow me to clarify, if I might. Think of the sinking Titanic. An essential cause that night was getting folks safely off the sinking craft and into a life boat, a respectable cause was trying to make sure no one used the “F” word in all the chaos. It’s about priorities and getting folks to agree on what the focus should be without keeping score.

The problem begins when, for what ever reason (I think it’s affluence), eyeballs have been taken off the ball and instead they are focused on the interesting noise in the stands. When this happens the next thing the batter hears is the ball smacking the catchers mitt and “strike three, you’re out of here”.

Come on people, lets get our heads back in the game. We can figure out what the interesting noise in the stands is after our turn at bat!