Every morning, I download the New York Times onto my trusty iPhone - aren't I so with it? I get my coffee and my breakfast (yes, I eat it on the subway...why don't we enforce the littering laws instead of trying to outlaw having a nibble on the train), find a seat and for the next 20 minutes or so find myself wanting to comment on just about every article I read. Arab Spring. Romney. Euro bailouts. China's Market Manipulation. Santorum. LGBT Equality. Women's Rights. Chris Christie calling a concerned citizen an idiot. Climate Change. Obama. Nuclear Power. It's amazing to me how we consider ourselves such a civilized society, a civilized world, yet we can't come to a consensus on any of it. Polarization only seems to become more prevalent every day. I'm sure political scientists and psychologists have donned their lab coats and researched our brothers and sisters the world over to figure out why. Are our attentions divided too much in this era of smartphones, instantly available information (and instantly available MISinformation), iTunes (yes, I'm listening to some tunes whilst writing this), email constantly bombarding us, junk mail clogging up an increasingly useless physical mailbox (who really CARES if we cut mail service on Saturday)?
One reason I've observed on more than one occasion: the tailored nature of the information we receive. It seems as if most people only consume media that conforms to their own insular beliefs. Can you imagine if any of the great minds of the world, past or present, did that? No. (And if you answered that question with YES, then I argue that you're not considering a GREAT mind, but a narrow-minded person who can't understand the real world as experienced by 6.8 billion people and counting.) It is completely antithetical to a society that grows and learns. How do you learn if you are only told - over and over and over and over - the same things by the same people? When will we realize that today is not the absolute pinnacle of civilization and of the human species? Religious folks the world over comment on being a creation in the mold of a Creator. Wouldn't that Creator would want us to use the abilities with which we have been endowed by said Creator? Namely, the ability to think creatively and to adapt given the circumstances around us.
To me, one of the most amazing things about being alive as a human today is the ability to learn and grow, relatively unfettered. Sure, we all have certain constraints which inhibit our ability to learn in a formal way. But we can learn SOMETHING from EVERYTHING and EVERYONE around us. Humans are incredibly adaptive, but the social structures we've put in place have made meaningful change something many people fear. When we refuse change, we refuse to realize our potential.
Now, I imagine you might be thinking, "Get off your high horse and do something about it then, asshole." You are VERY right. I like to think I try to learn from just about every experience in my life, but like anyone, I sometimes fail. I like to get information from as many sources as I can find. I admit, again, that I sometimes fail and depend on The Gray Lady like the that slut from Georgetown depends on her birth control (joke...get it?). When I figure out how to act, I'm sure I will; but until then, I learn. I consider. I conclude (for now, anyway). Oh, and there's another thing...we're all going to come to a different conclusion anyway, aren't we? I'd like to think that if more people at least tried to balance their own views with those of others.... well, that things would be better.
I've always been an idealist, but realize that I have to learn to be a bit of a realist as well, or I'll be a hermit living in a seculded cabin somewhere. But Utopia doesn't exist. And isolation won't do anything to make it better for me...how would I download the Times and watch Rachel Maddow every day without cell or internet service?
