As more clues about the Secret Service, and GSA scandals dot the headlines, it raises the specter of a much greater problem we currently face as a nation. Since the explosion of social media in the past decade the flood of information we are exposed to on a daily basis has become both empowering, and overwhelming. Both information, and misinformation, is readily paraded out as fact to fill the new need produced by the often insatiable 24 hour news cycle. The result, snap judgements, political gridlock, ideological entrenchment, and more importantly, the ultimate destruction of faith in our government, and our leaders.
There is a reason Congress has an 11% approval rating. There is a reason compromise has become a dirty word in our politics. There is a reason we are suffering from an general crisis of confidence. For all its benefits, the daily flood of what passes for information these days, has exposed us to a perception that we never before knew, and the devil is in the details. We have come to realize, as a people, that knowledge is a very sobering power. The nation is speeding along an information highway that never stops, and has no exit. Today there are papers, magazines, television channels, internet sites, that cater to what we like, what we want, and what we believe. If you don't like what you see you can just listen, read, or watch any number of outlets that will have exactly what you're looking for. Now some may say this is a wonderful thing. The free exchange of ideas just waiting for your input, on an ever expanding range of social media outlets.
If you like food there's a show for that, if you like sports there's a web site for that, if you like games there's a system for that, if your conservative there's a radio program for that, a liberal, a blog site for that. We have become a country that sees what we want, hears what we want, and believes what we want, and if you don't like what you see, what you hear, or what you believe, you can just keep looking until you do. The result, the polarization of our people, our society, our leaders, and our government. Are you in the majority or the minority? The 1% or the 99%? An advocate for Wall Street or Main Street? Liberal or conservative, black, white, gay, straight, man, or woman. Whatever represents who you are, it's easy to find the right combination to fill your needs.
In the end, all this instant information has made scandal and dysfunction the norm. While it simultaneously undermines our politics, our sports, our religion, and anything else that cannot stand up to the daily rigors, and insatiable scrutiny, that drives the 24 hour news cycle. Our politicians are corrupt, our sports hero's are on drugs, are priests are pedophiles. Which brings me back to a government agency that wastes taxpayer money, and a Secret Service that sleeps with prostitutes. Like the soldier who no longer flinches at the horrors of war, we have become numb. Washington is racked by scandal, remains divided, and no longer functions. The American past time baseball, 100 years old and counting, has hall of fame records and players tainted by scandal and controversy. The Catholic church has abused generations of children, as evangelical preachers run mega churches, while doing cocaine with their gay lovers. We have become instinctively skeptical of our political leaders, our spiritual leaders, even our baseball heroes, because scandal has become the norm in every facet of our lives.
This is the world in which we find ourselves. The public trust is at an all time low, and all of our political and social institutions have fallen victim to the need for a story, real or imagined. When the events of life are consistently presented through this lens, trust cannot help but be a casualty. All we can do is try to rise above the scandal, the cynicism, and the hypocrisy, in the continued hope that good will somehow prevail in a bad situation. The first step is knowing how to rise above the daily bombardment, and filter that lens with the very thing it tries to take away, the truth as you know it in your heart. The problem is, sometimes that's not as you want to see it, but how it is.
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