As Independence Day for the United States approaches, I can’t help but reflect on the last 15 or so years of what life was like in a socio-political sense.
We were subjected to some of the most intense and visceral images and videos of what daily life was like in other parts of the country, not just our own towns and cities. We saw that the human dynamics of helpfulness and destructiveness were far closer to our own lives than we thought. And throughout our time observing both sides of the spectrum, we were inundated with messages from the large scale media about what was supposed to be good and what was supposed to be evil.
The last 10-15 years have largely taught me that there is a fundamental disconnect between the messages we are getting and the observable reality. To what quantitative degree this fundamental disconnect is contextual as different socio-economic levels of people are affected in different ways. But there is a fundamental disconnect and these years have produced a low dissonant noise. Low enough to not be heard during the day when we go about our business, but loud enough to be felt when we try to sleep at night – at least, for me.
Because I don’t want to type too much, I want to simply say that I hope what the United States, and the West in general, is going through isn’t an indication of some type of slide into societal oblivion.
Rather, as we prepare to celebrate America’s 250th year of formal establishment, I want to hope that what we are going through is a recalibration; a questioning of the larger metropolitan paradigm’s most cherished and sacred beliefs.
I hope that what we are experiencing is the noise of honest conversations being had between citizens, between parents and their children, about what it takes for a society to function.
Honest conversations about gender roles, about race, about class-distinction, etc.
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