Dodging Bullets
Most of you know me, so you know, I am an eternal optimist . that being said, I feel more and more, everyday, we are dodging bullets!
It seems to me that in this present time, through social media , polarized politics, and post pandemic, we as a society have become meaner and less empathetic. There is an “us vs them” mentality and a ME FIRST over community. I see the impact day to day and person to person. People are more depressed, anxious, sad, hopeless, and pessimistic about their future.
How can we fend this off? Why are so many of our interactions, institutions and day to day business and personal tasks an assault or barage? Do things really need to be this hard? There is so much apathy and incompetence on behalf of the workers we interact with, so many hoops we must jump through to engage in simple tasks, it seems like things are made more complicated and laborious to beat down our very souls.
Technology promised to ease things, and speed up everyday tasks. Instead we can’t get a human being on a phone without innumerable prompts and even then we still may be unsuccessful. We are at the mercy of inefficient and sometimes incorrect automation and algorithms that are not designed to help, but to steal identity, data and agency. Many large corporations we deal with in the U.S. outsource customer service to other countries that don’t speak our language or understand our customs simply to offer the corporation the opportunity to pay less for ;I will venture to say; the most important experience of their brand. Yet, they care even less about their consumer as more and more industries become monopolies we are “forced” to use rather than choose to.
On the personal front, people have become a petulant child, a critic with a short fuse and less and less tolerance as their lifes become more and more frustrated. People feel powerless and invisible adding fuel to the negative fire of daily life. We don’t socialize like we used to, we isolate in bubbles and online so it becomes easier and easier to vilify the “others” and politicians use these easier tactics of divide and lie because it’s easier than coming up with solutions to the mounting and devastating problems of the environment and climate change, scarcity, inequality, AI and technology, energy, poverty, health care, housing, mental illness, homelessness, crime, stability, freedom. There are more mass shootings and more killings, more violence and war, more conflicts and chaos both nationally and internationally. Where does it end? Are we really going to wait until we escalate things into WWIII?
Yes these are daunting times with huge problems that seem to get kicked down the road and instead we are pandered to, separated, alienated, isolated, and divided because it’s easier.
Well, I feel like sticking my head out of the window and yelling “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” Because as bad as things seem to be? They are not as bad as things have been. We are not in a great depression or World War (yet) We are not as segregated as we were or intolerant as we were. More people have been lifted out of poverty, more diseases erradicated or brought under control through medicine. However, i feel our sense of hopelessness and dispair is at a higher point.now That is on us. Yes, as you know, not only am I a hopeless optimist, I also believe in agency, responsibility and accountability. I do not believe in being a “victim” and so we must confront these ills. We must dodge the bullets ( and there are plenty flying) and go forward and reclaim the world we want. We need empathy, understanding, tolerance, and respect. We need to look beyond ourselves and walk in our neighbors shoes for a mile or two. We need understanding to see the other side of issues and come to compromise, not all or nothing. We need to be a voice, to stand up, to insist the agencies, institutions, politicians, businesses and industries that work FOR us , do so! We are not powerless, as some believe, the people always have the power. It is exactly why we are targeted for division .. “divide and conquer”. I submit, it is time now to unite. To set our differences aside and work together for change. to challenge the forces, people and businesses that fail us and demand through boycott, protest, voting, community, and our words to reverse these negatives. Our problems though real and significant are not insurmountable. First and foremost, We need to take a stand.
I believe the first thing we need to do is come together and begin spreading the word exactly as those who have failed us have, through social media, legacy media, community outreach. Let’s agree to stop getting shot and dodge the bullets as our first step.