If we want people to speak honestly we must be willing to listen honestly
As an American society we are talking over each other. There are media outlets and individuals who are literally getting rich riling us up day after day. The result is that it sometimes feels as though we are feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys or a married couple on the verge of divorce. There is so much noise in the atmosphere that we don’t even seem to hear each other and we often misunderstand the reasons why each of us believes certain things.
I often think of cat fights among immature young girls. They usually start over some small difference but grow as people take sides and whisper in the ears of the main participants only to throw fire on the already incendiary situation. The world has been filled with trouble makers for all times but it feels as though the efforts to tear us apart are far more numerous and invasive than ever. We talk over each other and make assumptions that may not be entirely true about how we each live and what we believe. We get angry and resort to fights defending politicians who generally have little or no real concern for us other than hoping to keep our votes. We each believe that we are on the right side of goodness and decency while being goaded by people who seem to enjoy getting us into tizzies.
We all should know by now that the media outlets are set up to make money, so whenever they sniff out a sensational story they run with it and go out of their way to keep up our interest with interviews and news stories that are often over the top and filled with inaccuracies. The more divisiveness they can create the more interested we become and the more viewers they get, the more income they earn. Many people have become extremely wealthy and powerful by keeping us snapping at each other.
I am still grieving over an incident of a few years ago in which a long time friend took a comment of mine as an insult and has not spoken to me since then. I truly regret that I did not measure my words before uttering them. If I had known how she would react it never would have happened, but I also sense that she was already growing weary of our political differences and finally decided that she and I were too different to make our continued friendship worthwhile. I would do anything to have a quiet moment with her in the hopes of explaining how dear she has been and always will be to me but the environment in our nation right now is so strained that I doubt that we will ever be able to really hear each other again.
When I voice my political views they are not aimed at anyone that I know. They are simply an expression of concerns that I have about our nation in general. I sense that this strained atmosphere must be how it might have felt during our nation’s civil war and maybe during our revolution when many people were not totally sure that they wanted to separate themselves from England. Even those who created a new form of government had frequent and heated discussions about what form the laws of our new nation should become. We’ve been arguing ever since but the present moment seems especially heated.
I tend to blame the swirling and constant propaganda that is creating fears on both sides of the political spectrum. Most of it is designed to generate support for a particular set of beliefs rather than encouraging compromise and understanding. I sense people’s fears no matter how they feel. I know that there are conservatives who want to protect their thinking and those of their loved ones but the same is true of the liberals. We have somehow forgotten that there is always a spectrum of thinking, a normal curve if you wish. Nothing is all good or all bad and no-one is all brilliant or all ignorant. We each have something to offer and how our government operates should not depend on who happens to be the winners of elections. Ours is supposed to be a far more stable democracy with strong checks and balances to keep the general intent of the founders intact while also evolving in a way that reflects the progress we have made in accepting and supporting citizens of many different stripes and schools of thought.
To maintain our democracy we have to be willing to communicate with each other without coming unglued or attempting to dominate the discussions that will ensue. When all we can seem to do is quibble and accuse each other of foul intentions we are at a constant impasse and bad things tend to happen in such instances.
We can do better and we might start by removing our attention from any source of information that constantly rants in favor of only one way of thinking. We should beware of individuals who immediately jump to conclusions before hearing all of the facts. it is important not to force every single person to share the same views and certainly we should be wary of anyone who seems intent on doing so.
We are in a terrible place as a nation right now and it is going to take a great deal of change to set us back on track to a way of working and trusting each other. We would do well to take a breath and remember that we are not members of warring tribes. We no doubt have more in common than we may think. We need to begin conversing without preconceptions and with a willingness to hear the concerns of everyone, especially the youngest voters among us. it will only be through civil discourse with leaders willing to work together that we are going to set things right again. It’s time we turn off the noise.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 