Tag: Congress

Anomie

I first heard the word anomie in a sociology lecture. Anomie means: “social instability caused by erosion of standards and values, or, alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a class as a result of a lack of standards, values, or ideals.”

We are living in a state of anomie. I don’t know about anyone else but general consensus on just about everything is in short supply and a hard commodity to come by lately. I used to know what to focus on and give attention to. And I used to know why what I did was important to me.

I have memories of periods of intense focus. Spending a whole weekend (or a few) surrounded by books and papers doing research for an essay. Playing some sport that kept me outdoors and running around for hours. Either at a beach or maybe on a mountain.

A full evening of social time with friends may have started at 8 in the evening and could go on into the wee small hours of the morning. Not a cellphone in sight or in our imaginations.

There wasn’t another single activity that was more important than doing what we were doing in that moment. I’m not naive. There was plenty of “zoning out” in those days, too, but generally.

What’s missing today, I find, is global “permission” to carve out those unfettered blocks of time without feeling some sort of guilt or FOMO – fear of missing out. We don’t even agree anymore about where and what it is important to focus on.

I am way too susceptible to distractions. And there are plenty of distractions these days. We all know what they are and I know I am not alone. I believe we are all feeling it.

I am reading more and more articles about putting a label on these crazy times and collectively pray it is only a phase. A phase that has been ongoing for a good decade or more.

The world is grotesquely out of balance and that is not sustainable. I will not watch news coverage about Gaza. I cannot handle that level of inhumanity and insanity. Yet, clearly many do.

Watch it and shudder or sigh or inhale a half a cheesecake. These are very bad times for the easily triggered.

We can’t always see ahead to when and how things might slip off the rails. In our lives, for example. There are indicators. And if we don’t see them and pay attention, there will be consequences. Ignore them at our peril.

That cavity you avoid getting filled. That bank balance consistently slipping into overdraft. The credit card statements that “somehow” keep getting bigger and bigger. You’ll experience the consequences soon enough.

Consequences today seem haphazardly dispensed. Shady politicians and career criminals carry on blithely with minimal fear of paying any price for their actions.

That George Santos was expelled from Congress was a minor miracle that occurred this week. My question has been: how did he get as far as he did in Congress in the first place? Where is our system of checks and balances?

Sadly, the answer seems to be that it has eroded dramatically.

An insane system is kept relevant by enablers who either allow or participate in letting the insanity continue. Personally, I haven’t got the stomach for it.

So I am in full retreat. I am most reluctant to put myself on the line publicly for my beliefs. It has become a more private occupation contained within a circle of people I trust and like. That is where I choose to put my focus these days.

I have been testing society’s floorboards of late and find them a little spongy. If that were to happen in a real house, I would slowly withdraw from the room and back away to prevent being hurt.

I no longer have term papers to write but there are other activities that can absorb my attention. Books are always available. As is “me-time.” In a world where the rules have gone out the window and everyone seems to be in survival mode, it seems the most reasonable option.

Turning Tides

In The Atlantic, I recently read an article with the tragic title: Why The Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, and the even sadder sub-title: It’s not just a phase,” by writer Jonathan Haidt.

I read Haidt’s article with a curious mix of horror and hope. Let me explain.

We all know – or should – that we are living in unprecedented times. I hadn’t been sure when the “tipping point” occurred but by author Haidt’s calculation, it was around 2010.

It was during and after that year that social media evolved from being benign social sharing platforms into something immensely more insidious and hateful.

Added capacities on social media platforms such as “share” buttons and “retweeting” meant that any random ideas or comments – no matter how wrong, inflammatory or hysterical – could spread like wildfire.

Viral posts could elevate someone’s profile for a short time or destroy someone in the same timeframe, depending. This capacity for viral gang banging has been deadly on our society, our mental health and our level of trust in established institutions set up to guide and oversee our collective stability and well-being.

Once upon a time, the leaden processes of discourse and change drove me nuts. To achieve or change anything, there were protocols that deemed, and often doomed, positive change, especially if a quick response was required.

As most of my early work life was in academia and government, I would shudder when an issue needed to be submitted to and resolved “by committee.” Committees met infrequently. They were often populated by self-interested windbags more interested in the sound of their own voice than in speedy and positive resolution of anything.

My mind often moved more quickly tin those days to a “logical conclusion.” I saw committees as largely self-serving, pedantic entities that doomed many great ideas to the dustbin. Death by attrition.

At this time in history, decision-making power over important issues was concentrated in the hands of the elite few. That was the case in universities, government, sometimes churches, and definitely in financial institutions.

Enter the internet and social media. Global game changers. But not in a good way as it has turned out. There is a strict separation between the left and right. There is an erosion of trust at all levels and in all institutions. The problem will not go away or get better, Haidt points out, as AI informs and adds to the mountains of disinformation so readily available and consumed.

I now find my support for the internet’s possibilities much more conservative. I was excited to my very core when the internet emerged. I lauded its democratic promise. Now, I reasoned, anyone, anywhere, with a computer and wifi had access to all of the knowledge in the world. Wow.

Its ramifications for artists and innovative thinking were limitless, I reasoned. Authors rejected by traditional publishers for their whole careers could now find a corner of the internet where their writing could be read. Their manuscript could be published. It might be dreck but it was their very own dreck.

Free speech would arise in unison from all corners and classes, I reasoned. Free speech combined with easy access to information and facts would create a more democratic and just society. How naive was I?

Jonathan Haidt writes: “The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.“

Haidt continues: “… Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community.“

It is the conclusion of Haidt’s article that heartens me. He identifies pockets of sanity and resistance that are emerging. Hallelujah. Haidt alludes to something that has been on my mind for some time. It is “We the People” who must work ourselves out of this mess.

We collectively recognize the downward and unpleasant shift in angry and violent discourse because we are living it. Here is where we must recommit ourselves – as in so many instances – to self-salvation, if there is salvation to be had from technology’s less positive influences.

“In recent years, Americans have started hundreds of groups and organizations dedicated to building trust and friendship across the political divide, including BridgeUSA, Braver Angels (on whose board I serve), and many others listed at BridgeAlliance.us. We cannot expect Congress and the tech companies to save us. We must change ourselves and our communities.“

Excuse me while I head over these websites to see how I can do my part in bringing this runaway train back into line. You may hear more about this issue from me. It feels critical to sustaining our democratic institutions and processes.

Even more important to my personal hobby horse about elevation of the health and well-being of individuals, it feels critical to recapturing our collective sanity and peace of mind.