Forum Post: Polarization and Society
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 17, 2011, 6:46 a.m. EST by randart
(498)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
What happened to people? As a society we have gotten so polarized and divided that solutions seem unattainable. Even on this forum, aside from the trolls, the list of issues grows beyond the reach of any resolution.
Society feels like it has divided into either yin or yang with no balance in between. We have the "far right" and the "far left" at each other's throats. I can't help but wonder how anything can be solved in the current atmosphere.
There are a plethora of ideas and issues that need to be addressed but as each new issue gets added the overall focus begins to dissolve. People are here with legitimate issues and passions that we all might need to consider but somehow the core of the problems keep getting skirted.
My hope is that we decide what is most important and focus on a solution to that issue first. Is it money? Is it equality? Is it greed? Is it basic human needs? Is it ethics? Just what is the core of this huge problem we face today? If we could determine that and make strides to correct it then many of the other issues would begin to resolve themselves.
We need to find the real reasons for why we are where we are and what we need to do to repair them. I hope that there are some of you out there who are recording all the good ideas and compiling them into a coherent system that society can use as a template for the future.
The biggest problem we face today, that stands in our way, is that society has been divided so far to one side or the other that we will never reach any consensus on a solution. The greatest majority of us do actually fall someplace in the middle of the extremes but we quibble over small details to the point of absurdity and never realize just how much we all are in agreement.
We need to find ways to bring the bulk of the global society into a true force and filter out those who would bring division otherwise we really don't have a chance at real social changes.
I know there will be some who will use name calling and bullying to this post but I really don't care. I find these people to be seriously lacking in the ability to think things through without letting their own biases rule their minds.
Randart,
You are right that there are those of us who are passionate about this or that. I expect you to bring to the table what you are passionate about and to inform me of why you are passionate about it.
The question is, at least on this forum, with whom are we quibbling?
It is this old phrase: All roads lead to Rome. We merely bring different components of the same issue. There will always be someone trying to divide us, be they hired trolls or the media or someone campaigning. You are right. It is division that is a problem.
Perhaps we should do what we can with what we have at the moment and keep pushing forward.
What is the core of the problem? That is the issue we need to discover. Is it that we have all been taught through subliminal suggestion to comply and buy?
There is something deeply engrained into the psyche of society that will take a couple generations to correct and just how we can do that is a huge question.
We need to focus on the paradigm this society is using to function. We need a serious paradigm shift on a massive scale to actually bring a true change. Just how this can be done is a question I can't answer but it needs to happen. I am optimistic about the attitude of some of the youth in this country on one hand and discouraged on the other hand because there are so many that are buying into this new society of digital instantaneous satisfaction. I rarely see my children anymore due to distance apart but when I do I find that they are always texting, or playing games on their computer, and actual person to person communication is fading.
Even when sitting in the same room we are still apart. I just don't know how we will break the chains we are bound to today.
I think that we have several problems. One has taken place over several generations. It is the creation of a helpless society. If you catch the News at 10 there is always some health segment that may change in a week. I think that, overtime, this has given way to this feeling within people that they are never "experts". At the very same time, there is this constant push to be independent from our family and the cultivation of a perfect scenario of how things should be and not to trust anyone outside of your front door.
Did we ever communicate at all? Probably not. Communicating for most was mostly for adults and separated from kids. Not as a child for me but for many others.
One of the things that I have done with my kid is to take him hiking or to do something that requires leaving everything else behind. Now, I'm not going to lie, my version of camping requires a motel with a shower and a small tv so that I can lay down and die when we are through.