Screaming at the Deaf
64Screaming at the Deaf
Explanation
I call this column "Screaming at the Deaf" because nobody in charge ever listens. The closest thing I ever get when I make a positive suggestion is, "Yes, that makes perfect sense, but it's not how we do things around here." The only way that we are going to learn, evolve, and create a paradise on Earth is if people start thinking, talking, and be willing to change. Until then, anyone with a solution is just screaming at the deaf.
The Loony Left and the Rabid Right
With a 24-hour news cycle, it's surprising that the only people who seem to receive much coverage at all are the people at the very extremes of the perspectives of their groups--that's why when a comics convention happens, you see all the people who have bought into character-identities and dress up like Jedi or superheroes. Of course, it's less funny when it has to do with our political system.
On the Looney Left, we have Occupy Wall Street. It's a good thought--when there's a problem, you go and find the money to fix it. Their basic message is, "Brokers and Banks, you got sixteen trillion dollars from us between announced and covert bailouts (this according to the GAO), and you're misusing it. We want it back." The saner members of the crowd more want them to see that money spent on jobs and other things that are necessary to keep the cash flowing (which would, of course, stimulate the economy more than any government project), but it's not the sane ones that get on camera. It's the loudest ones.
On the Rabid Right, you have the Tea Party, whose basic message is, "All right, Government, you gave sixteen trillion dollars of our money to bail out companies that don't give a crap about us. We want you to stop taking our money!" The saner members of the crowd admit that they'd be happy if we just showed some responsibility with how things are being spent, let failing companies fail, and so forth, but again, it's not the sane ones that get the camera-time.
The sad thing is that it seems as if our political leaders only listen to the loudest voices. Take a look at the Republicans running against Obama this year. It has other conservative commentators saying, "Yikes!" when they look at this bunch. If any of these people get into office and attempt to represent what they think is "us," we're headed for even worse crisis. Even their hero, Ronald Reagan, by their own standards, comes off as a liberal by comparison. Extremism in the name of politics is vice.
The only apparent solution seems to be something I can only call the Manic Moderate. He's a guy who manages to be extremely outspoken in a rational way, yet manages to sound as crazy and off his head as the rest of them. He has to say things that upset both sides, like, "The only way we can follow in Jesus' righteous path of healing the sick and feeding the poor is by nationalizing the banks and giving you your money back! Then we will be able to afford to cut your taxes and force people to pay for their own abortions! YEEEEHAHHH!"
You have no idea how much that scares me.
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"Yes, that makes perfect sense, but it's not how we do things around here."
Well, the obvious follow-up question is this:
"Why on Earth not?"
I've asked that question and got stared at like a dog that's just been shown a card trick. "Because... that's not the way we do things around here." At best, they've told me to ask someone higher up in the pack, only to be punished when I've talked to someone who might be able to answer my question. Basically, the conclusion I've come to is that humanity is run like a pack of dogs. The ones below the leader think just enough to maintain their position in the pack, cutting down those who try to improve themselves.
I remember a show once on NPR, where a dog enthusiast was writing about the habits of his dogs. It seems that some thirty years ago, for a few years, the man had a neighbor who used to walk his dogs at around 3:30pm every day. His own dogs (eight of them, if I recall correctly), would smell the man coming, and the dogs would charge at their gate, barking at the man and his dogs as they passed. From that point on, even after the neighbor had moved on, the author's dogs would charge the gate at around 3:30pm every day and bark at the now-missing neighbor. The clincher is that those dogs eventually had puppies, who in turn were socialized to charge the gate at 3:30pm and bark, and in turn, they taught this to their own litter. By the time the original generation of dogs died off, they left behind progeny who continued this idiotic behavior, barking at NOBODY, for what had NO DISCERNIBLE PURPOSE to any of them (let alone their neighbors).
"That's just the way they do things around here."
Reminds me of the gorillas and bananas story.
Gorillas and bananas?
You nail it my friend. And both the left and right extremists utilize media to promote their agenda making the "divide and conquer" fit the 2% of the globes wealthy... leaving them even more in control... LOL
"Basically, the conclusion I've come to is that humanity is run like a pack of dogs. The ones below the leader think just enough to maintain their position in the pack, cutting down those who try to improve themselves."
We see it the same way Michael Marcus.
I think the concept of your hub is pretty darn good.....it is a time of extremism, that is for sure.
Though I think it may come to some extremism to fix this mess.......this nation is so divided....
I got to chew on this one...
btw, welcome to hubpages.
CMerritt: That's the thing, though--one of the basic concepts behind building is that the higher you build a structure, whether it's a building or a government, the more unstable it becomes before it collapses under its own weight. Our founding father built an amazingly stable base, and for all the craziness that also happened over the years since, politicians have done a surprisingly good job of adding infrastructure support and reinforcement to the structure of our government to make it support a population this large. That's nothing short of amazing.
Extremism, though, frequently acts as a unidirectional force, threatening to topple the system. We can't afford that as a people because whatever replaces this will likely not have the same support of our personal freedoms. Please consider this fact as you make your personal decisions.
Thanks for the welcome, though. I'm thinking very hard about what I put here.
feenix Level 7 Commenter 7 months ago
Hello, IdeaMan1,
This a well-written, thought-provoking post. And in my opinion, you did a very good job of telling it like it is.