US AGAINST THEM

When did we get to where we can’t talk anymore, or have reasonable discussions about anything? The only time people will converse anymore is when they agree in every detail with the person they’re having a conversation with, and anyone who doesn’t agree has horns and a forked tail. Everybody has OPINIONS and their OPINION is the only one that’s valid. If you don’t agree, or maybe have a different opinion, then you’re slimy scum and don’t deserve to be treated with respect or decency.  Do we not have time anymore to be polite? Is it just too much trouble to be kind, to temper your words or comments? Has our society become so self-centered that we don’t care when we hurt someone’s feelings? And if that’s so, how will we ever be able to come together in peace and with love again? Am I the only one who finds this distressing? Does anybody have a solution? Does a solution even exist?

It’s kind of like trying to keep a marriage together when only one person is making all the effort. Society is just too big and unruly, and we have gone wrong somewhere along the line. Please don’t say the answer is religion, because I know people who quote scripture and appear in church every week, who are just as snarky, just as mean-spirited, and just as judgmental as anybody else. In fact, it sometimes seems that the church-people have a superior attitude about things simply because they DO attend church and believe they have all the answers.

One of the problems is that we are so blasted with opinion from the talking heads on television, or anyway, it seems to have started with that, the 24-hour cable news channel. There just isn’t enough news to warrant 24-hours of it so they fill the time with pundits, panel discussions, and over-coverage of events that should only take a few minutes. The 24-hour cable news channels in essence TELL us what to care about by the way they cover events and incidents, and chose what news we get to see and what gets ignored. People who watch these endless news channels end up angry and in-your-face on every issue.

The other problem is social media, where snarky one-liners rule the day. Everybody is trying to one-up the other guy, be just a little more clever with their turn of phrase than the last person who posted. Wittiness devolves into meanness and insult, and on and on until you shut down your computer with your blood boiling hot. 

The Golden Rule doesn't seem to exist anymore. But I cannot believe--I will not believe--that there is anybody out there who actually enjoys being insulted and bitch-slapped with words every time they try to have a meaningful discussion about anything important. So why don't we try to be nicer to each other? Why don't we try to find out why the other person feels the way they do about a thing, instead of just throwing out insults? Or why don't we try to have a thoughtful discussion without it turning into a hollering match? I find myself silenced most of the time by dread of confrontation. And the end result of that is either disengagement or meaningless small talk. 

People have become so tribal and all those tribes have declared all-out war on each other: the tribe of freethinkers, the tribe of religion, the pro-choice tribe, the pro-life tribe, the gay-rights tribe, the Christian-rights tribe, the gun-rights tribe, the gun-control tribe, and on and on, until it's just heartbreaking. The feeling is the only tribe that has a right to exist is the one you belong to. It makes for an uneasy, us-against-them, world. 

Maybe the only solution is to tune out the noise. To get quiet with yourself. To go fishing. I don't know. I just wish people could be a little kinder to each other and treat each other with a little more respect. 

Onward….