Denton Lund giclee, Echoes of the Old Ones, now hanging in the bedroom
While I don't generally discuss politics here, the US has just been through one of the most brutal election seasons I can remember-- and that goes back a long way. For many, the attacks weren't based on issues so much as evil vs. good; Nazi vs. Communist; stupid vs. smart; and on it went. The attacks were not just against a candidate but against anyone who voted for him.
Those of us in the middle tried to keep our heads down to avoid being hit by the shrapnel as it flew from both directions...
The ads were almost all attacking, not offering positions on important issues. If I turned on TV or the radio, I could not avoid them.
Even going to Facebook was often irritating for the endless angry or scary memes. I don't mind so much when people express their own views on something, even if I disagree, so long as no insults are attached with them (calling someone a derogatory name has me stopping reading).
Political memes are out for one purpose-- to enrage or stoke fear. Most of the time, the one sharing a meme does not know the person who created it. It suits their view though and out it goes to then irk everyone who comes along and doesn't share that view. Fortunately, there is hide at FB and that provides some satisfaction.
I know it was a heated time but come on, will it really be over now that the election is in our rear view mirror? This isn't so much about who won but about us as a people. Since it became so personal, will the anger and hurt linger? As the results are rehashed endless time, it is a time for crowing or crying but can we ever get past how some (important politicians even) claimed our nation will be either evil or good depending on whether the election went the right way, which was their way, of course.
What has upset me is that I saw good people on both sides- but many did not. To them, it was their way or the highway.
When I began to vote, you had to be 21. I voted the first chance I got and have voted ever since. Sometimes it turned out the way I wanted; sometimes it did not. I've had times I feared for our democracy, but I don't remember anything, not even the Vietnam years, as being like this with the condemnation of anyone not seeing it the way they 'should.'
One of the big differences I saw, since I didn't see it as good vs. evil, was whether process mattered more or was it result. I saw this in the ads and in how people talked. So a candidate was bad because his process wasn't pretty. Never mind that his result was. Often candidates only wanted to brag about their process and not get to what the result would be.
You know this works in our personal lives too. Which matters most to you-- how something is done or how it turns out?
The other difference i saw in people was where they got their news. If it was all from one side, they were in a bubble. I had several people who I used to consider a friend who unfriended me over the fact that I didn't see the sky falling, the fact that I was a glass half full kind of gal. The last two years have some people so enraged that to not be angry all the time is to be a traitor-- and traitor was another word loosely thrown around.
Years back, I came to a belief that I couldn't take into my life everything that was out there. What I could take in had to fit one of three criteria: beauty, truth, or love. If it didn't, I didn't want it to take up my time. I won't say I always manage this as I take in a LOT of anxiety that I should not. It doesn't do my health or emotions any benefit. That goal is though what I strive for in my life and in my writing.
Is it beautiful? Is it true? Is it about love? If it's not, let it go!
7 comments:
My problem was when I brought up an issue and how I felt the Pres was totally wrong on it, I got called names, was treated as if I was calling the Pres. names and so I tend to feel that those voters of his are pretty nasty. They never argued issues, just how awful I and my friends were.
I get it from the other side as most of my friends are liberals and they see him as the dark force. We are a very divided nation right now. I don't have to like all he does anymore than I did with Obama. But to not have a tribe is to be the bad guy-- or so it appears.
My way of thinking is to look at the whole structure of communicating and governance rather than personalities. The fact that our news is delivered as entertainment and dips into speculative discourse makes critical thinking more difficult. Occasionly on FB I find good links to help people of all sides grappel with the complex truths in our current world. Unfortunately my friends often overlook the pearls and revert to regurgitating angst.
Nov. 8 on PBS News Hour segment, brief but spectatcular was Gabriel Kahane on trains and "radical empathy". He took a train trip circling the United States during which he engaged in conversations with anyone in the dining car. He vowed to not to argue. He has written songs and put out an album of his songs on fostering empathy away from FB and other media with a preference for a quieter slower pace place like on a train.
This angst/aggressive behaviour has become the norm sadly. Who spurs it on? Is it the media or is it that we now have platforms to speak on. You have only to watch Prime Minster's Question Time here in England on Wednesday to understand that aggression and hate of each other's party fuels the argument - not the issues!
The news I read is fairly socialist, Trump is lampooned at every opportunity, we cannot understand him and why he is in the White House but our politicians are also held in contempt. Perhaps this is the breakdown of 'civilised behaviour' in the Western world - the beginning of an end;)
I think he won because of who ran against him. She got more numbers, but they came from very liberal areas. Some want to take away the power of the middle of the country by making it all about numbers, not states. I doubt it could happen. Many of us who voted for her didn't like her but the alternative was worse for us.
On issues, which is how I voted, we are a very divided country with half favoring globalism and socialism with no idea how that'd work out, but it sounds good to them. The other half fear those very things and so it goes.
Even if we'd all vote on issues, we'd still be divided and that doesn't take into account how identity politics has some voting for someone based their life, ethnicity, race and without learning their stands on issues. I think it's a scary time and when we add global warming to it-- frightening. Climate change may be impacting people in so many ways.
Climate change is stressing us for sure with natural disasters raising the stress level to the brink. Before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor they experienced several years of drought at the same time Japanese who wanted to immigrate to the United States were refused. I realize this is why I believe we need to fight nationalism at the same time we cannot open our boarders to mass migration.I realize I am not enough of a scholar to search for other examples to support my conviction.
how do you fight nationalism, Diane? By letting other countries make our laws? Maybe taxes that level people like you and me until we have an income equal to Indonesia? Do you even understand the consequences of globalism where religions and cultural issues are so different. This is where I believe liberals want to take us and maybe they won't live to see the consequences in terms of taking their own money to give to someone else in another nation. Their grandkids probably will. So basically that country may have terrible policies but our country, who works harder to make businesses work, it has to give to them. I see that leveling the world all right. I think you should start by donating all the money in your bank account to somewhere else. No more fancy trips lol.
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