How Did We Get Here?

How did we get here? 

It is the holiday season and the most popular hashtag in the world is #TrumpResign.  Don't get me wrong.  I think his best before date expired a long time ago. I still believe I am going to wake up and the Trump Presidency is just going to be a dream.  I am glad I live in Canada but this nonsense down south is affecting the whole world.  If you don't believe me, check your retirement savings and look at how poorly any investments are doing these days.  If you haven't checked in a while, make sure you are sitting down and have whatever comforts you close. 

Ten, twenty years ago at this time, the news would be about putting the Christ back into Christmas.  That is no longer an issue.  We no longer discuss religion.  Or politics.  Or anything else that we may disagree on, except sports.  We are still allowed allegiance to our favorite sports team and we are allowed to disagree on that.  Some people say we have become so "politically correct" and afraid to offend anyone, that this has led to a groundswell of repressed feelings, particularly fear and anger. 

There probably is some truth to that.  When I was young, my parents supported two different parties and we had discussions about current events at the dinner table.  But, their support had to do with philosophy, not particular candidates, and not about specific platform issues.  My father was on the right, but as he explained it, this meant that he believed in minimal government interference in our daily lives.  This would lead to few government expenditures so that taxes would be very low and people would have more resources available to make more personal choices, but with every choice, there would be a consequence.  We were taught politics in Grade 8 Social Studies.  We had a great teacher but he was unable to teach without sharing his deep bias towards socialism.  We was left of left.  He felt the government should be central to everyone's life and everyone should contribute according to their ability and then the government would ensure everyone was taken care of equally.  Both sounded really good to me.  None of the parents minded that someone with such a bias was teaching children politics, I think they were just happy that it was being discussed. 

Now, political parties are so focused on appealing to everyone that there is very little difference anymore.  It is as much about the individual candidate rather than the philosophy of ideas. 

We also expect too much of our governments and our politicians.  We expect them all to have led perfect lives forgetting that this doesn''t exist.  All human beings are deeply flawed.  We have all made mistakes.  That is how we have learned, from making mistakes and suffering consequences.  Now, we have become unforgiving and we don't allow mistakes  So, that means people don't acknowledge mistakes anymore, so we don't learn any lessons.  It is all about positive reinforcement now.  Even in the workplace, no one makes mistakes.  Everything is simply a "coaching opportunity".  By holding our politicians to an impossible scrutiny and not holding ourselves to any, we are making it less and less attractive for good candidates to enter politics.  With the global village and social media, politics is as much a business as any business and marketing becomes the biggest strategy in politics.  So, we only have very thick-skinned (read:  arrogant) and people who can raise money (read:  wealthy) enter politics.  Enter the orange maggot.  (Read:  exit stage right). 

Twenty-four news networks have also played a role.  News is now a business and sensation sells.  I consider myself a news junkie but I also now find my most reliable source of information coming from Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. 

There is so little new ideas being spread.  2018 will be going down as the year of the Reboot.  It started a few years ago with Hawaii Five O and it is now the big trend.  They are all lousy.  When Murphy Brown first came out, it was well written commentary on life, tv, and politics.  It was witty and relevant.  The reboot is pathetic.  Go to any night club and listen to the new music.  I'm sorry but this generation is void of any worthy new music. It is all remixed 80s hits.  One of the best new songs of the last decade was Blurred Lines and apparently that was ripped off from Marvin Gaye. 

It would be nice when people didn't care so much what other people thought.  Maybe if we didn't care so much, we wouldn't see the personal debt load of individuals setting a new record high every year.  When I got my first mortgage, I didn't sleep for a week.  That was the first time in my life that I wasn't in debt.  Now being debt free is an unknown concept.  Maybe what we really need a reboot of is Suze Orman and Gail Vox Oxlade.  Although, that may not be her name anymore.  Now, that she is divorced, she is now in the "kicking that man to the curb" business and not the financial responsibility business.  Suze Orman used to espouse the values of "People first, then money, then things."  I guess there is no one spouting off those values anymore because it doesn't exist.  Somewhere along the way, we all agreed it is just about money.  Actually, because we spend publicly and save privately, it is not even about money anymore.  It is just about spending because we want people to think we are rich.  We care too much about what people think. 

When my grandson is visiting, I attend a playgroup with him and other toddlers and new moms.  It is unstructured.  I end up singing songs to the group and dancing and reciting nursery rhymes to the toddlers while the rest of the moms are on their phones.  They ask me how I know so many songs for kids.  One time, I tried to think of the answer and all I could come up with was, "I had a childhood".  I really didn't mean that to be insulting.  These days, parents are so busy working and doing everything because they care what people think, they are exhausted.  The tv is the caregiver of choice, perhaps second to the computer. 

In general, we have more ways than ever before to communicate instantly with everyone that we have forgotten how to have interpersonal conversations.  We would never leave our homes without our phones because we don't want to miss talking to someone, yet, my partner and I often text each other rather than walk into another room to tell each other some thing. 

I would like to think I am in independent thinker and not afraid to share my opinions and be myself.  The truth is I care as much as anyone what people think of me.  If I know someone doesn't like me, I try to compromise my beliefs and actions to make them like me.  I know intellectually that this doesn't work, but I still try.  The consequence is that they still don't like me and I have a more distorted sense of self. 

And, that's how we got here.