Sound and Fury

                You might be surprised by the amount of research that forms the basis of an opinion for these articles. We try to be aware of the often elusive difference between fact and interpretation. We all experience reality through the filters of our own experiences and prejudices - and in the age of information every prejudice imaginable is available to anyone with access to the web. The technology that brings us unprecedented access to information is often less a means of discovering truth and more a tool for reinforcing belief.  Whatever it is that you want to believe (or are afraid not to) you can find support for it on the Internet or in the electronic media.

                A downside to using the Internet and corporate media for research is the “other ingredients” which accompany the medicine. Scholarly studies are certainly available. You can read scientific journals and research papers to your heart’s content, but when there is a need to follow current events you must plunge into a bubbling vat of information reminiscent of the popular energy drinks with names like, “Full Throttle,” “Zipfizz,” “Monster,” and “Red Bull,” (though “bull” comes in all colors in the media.) Soap selling media gives us information that is imminent and dangerous: “North Georgia today experienced the hottest temperatures IN 48 HOURS!!” Soap selling media selects information designed to capture that part of our attention that slows down to rubberneck at the scene of an accident:  Live reports with police tape in the background have become a nightly indigestive aid for many.

                With a constant background noise of daily disaster, we reach a crescendo of negativity and misinformation in an election year. Truth has become the first casualty of the political campaign. The Obama and the Romney campaigns are BOTH lying, though the candidates themselves can sit at a comfortable distance from the fray and disavow any responsibility for their respective political action committees. The remarkable thing is that the campaigns are lying with impunity. Fact check organizations are abundant and the debunked claims of both campaigns are many – but where is the outrage, or even the interest on the part of the voting public?

                Perhaps campaign managers have realized a sad truth of the human condition, which is that we are more comfortable with belief than with truth. The search for truth requires personal responsibility. Truth takes work. With belief, someone else has done the work for us. In religion we are often more comfortable with someone else’s interpretation of reality. In politics, we are more comfortable with the candidate that presents an image more in tune with our own beliefs and prejudices. In America we have been conditioned to believe that politics and religion are inseparable and in both, we accept the facts which support our preconceived notions and reject the facts that don’t.

                The two  (or two and a half) party system is failing us, and while we angrily defend party lines and parrot talking points, dividing into camps guarded by passions often reserved for sporting events, our pockets continue to be picked by a bloated system that exists primarily to perpetuate itself. If I lament the coercive powers of government I am labeled a tea partier. If I express a belief that what people do with their personal lives in the privacy of their own homes is no government’s business, I am called a Libertarian. If I think that society should secure the health and the dignity of the aged, the weak and the infirm, then I must be a Liberal. If I express a belief that capitalism (without the cronies) is vital to the economy then I am pegged as a conservative. If I believe all of these things I will not find a home in any political party.

                I have never seen the country so polarized by phantom beliefs, by the loosely fitting labels of conservative, liberal, democrat or republican. I have seen friendships end this year because one person liked the pepsi candidate and the other preferred coke.  Shakespeare wrote that life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But our lives are not insignificant. Our families and friendships, our dreams and our hopes, our faith and our love – are not insignificant – and yet we allow our tale to be told by idiots;  parasites who will say anything to sell soap, tell any lie to get elected and spin any tale to keep us content.

                Recently I was asked by a friend familiar with my disaffection for the election process whether I planned to vote this year. Absolutely and emphatically, yes. I would encourage everyone to vote, but to do so without the emotional baggage. It matters very much that we continue to vote. It matters less who we vote for – until our society is able to produce better choices. More on that next week.