I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for this election to be over. Seriously!
I began intently paying attention to American politics in the lead up to the war in Iraq. In the 5+ years since I’ve increasingly become, if not exponentially, a neurotic mess. Many of you I suspect are in the same boat. My anxiety and cynicism levels are through the roof; and I’ve been hyper-obsessed with the media coverage even to the determent of other activities and responsibilities.
The approach to this year’s election (all 2 years of it) has only exacerbated the matter, especially the last 4-5 months. I honestly think that this neurosis could possibly be a disorder worthy of DSM-IV recognition.
The root cause of this disorder is the extreme-partisanship propagated by politicians and the media. All of us have fallen prey to this to some degree. It’s Us vs. Them, Red vs. Blue, or Republicans vs. Democrats; as if everything in this world was just black or white. These labels mean nothing and their sole purpose is to divide us. Can anyone define what these terms stand for? I personally don’t think that any of us can be put into any one category.
The unfortunate result of this is that we’re beginning to propagate the partisanship ourselves, independent of the politicians and the media. Similarly we engage in…
- Relative Justification: Minimizing or defending the wrong doings perpetrated by one individual by contrasting them to the wrong doings of another.
- Contextual Deception: Intentionally and falsely represent another’s views/statements without providing original/appropriate context.
- Indifferent Deception: Standing by idle knowingly allowing lies to be disseminated as truths.
- Omission: Conveniently failing to acknowledge entire news stories or pertinent details as to minimize the impact and/or significance of a story.
- Blind Defenders/Cheerleaders: Individuals whose stubbornness and/or party loyalty surpasses their interests in improving their town/city/state/country.
Anyway I guess the point that I’m getting at is that we’ve got to stop this. We’re bitter and exhausted; if we keep this up we’re going to drive ourselves completely mad. I don’t think we have another election like this one in us; at least I know I don’t.
I know there are issues we disagree on but there has to be a more civil approach. When everyone is angry, yelling, and pointing fingers; nothing is being discussed. Maybe we should agree to discuss the issues. Can we agree to do that? Can we agree that each politician needs to be held accountable for his/her own words and actions; regardless of party affiliation? Can we agree to uproot lies, end the deception, and perpetuate whole truths? Can we agree to take off the red and blue jerseys and stop all the cheerleading? I’ll agree to that. Will you? I sure hope so!
Happy Vote Day!
Diligent.me
