I spent some time this morning drinking my first cup of coffee outside in our backyard, which is slowly becoming my version of an English garden. The air smelled fresh and clean, with a little chill to it. There was a slight mist in the air. The sky was softly overcast.
I spent some time this morning drinking my first cup of coffee outside in our backyard, which is slowly becoming my version of an English garden. The air smelled fresh and clean, with a little chill to it. There was a slight mist in the air. The sky was softly overcast.
I studied our fenced-in garden and hoped that this would be the year that I could actually harvest some vegetables from it. I wondered if there would be an excess of cherries falling from the wild cherry trees that bordered the edge of our garden once the weather turned cold this fall.
I heard the low rumbling of a freight train passing by some distance away. It was a quiet and peaceful way to spend the early morning.
And then, having finished my coffee, I went inside and turned on the news, because I like to stay involved and informed on the issues of the day.
There was so much self-righteous and excitedly hysterical talking about so many things that it was next to impossible to focus on what was most important. These days, it seems like a huge cacophony of noise is what passes for news, intelligent people spewing their opinions on every issue as if the most important thing in their lives is to convince the rest of us as to the brilliance of their curated point of view. So much clever posturing and political correctness, so little helpful perspective and common sense.
If there was ever going to be a time when moderate voices were desperately needed, that time is now. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a forum for such boring and reasonable thought. My sense is that most people are quite comfortable with moderation, but are being forced to side with one extreme or the other because moderation is not an option.
The wokeness of the left demands de facto open borders, proactive support of trans people, profound distrust of the police, acceptance of institutional racism and white guilt, sympathy for criminals at the expense of victims, etc. Hardly anyone that I know of supports these woke beliefs.
The righteousness of the right demands the elimination of abortion and birth control, the freedom for anyone to own and carry a gun anywhere at any time, reductions in social programs that protect our most vulnerable citizens, a return to so-called Christian values, etc. Hardly anyone that I know of supports these righteous beliefs.
In point of fact, most Americans are uncomfortable with or outright reject all of these woke and righteous beliefs. This is what opinion polls repeatedly tell us and common sense confirms. Living at the extremes is not for most of us.
The observation has been made by many, many people for many, many years that our government acts in ways that are directly contrary to the will and interests of its citizens, and we are seeing this play out in our lives every day. We are being forced to accept one extreme or the other, often based solely upon what state we happen to live in.
As a moderate person, I am disgusted by the self-serving and shallow nature of our Democratic and Republican parties and by FOX, CNN, MSNBC, NEWSMAX, et al. I find their attempts to manipulate what I think and what I feel to be reprehensible.
I am certain that there are senators and representatives of both parties who are moderates and are very much aware of how our current system is failing the people. Why is it so hard for them to speak up and speak out?
Is it the power of dark money and the promises and threats that it represents? Is it a belief that fighting the wokeness and the righteousness would be a pointless and exhausting Don Quixote effort? Is it a cynical lack of commitment to the American people in exchange for a sense of self-importance?
Or is it that moderation is not sexy, provocative, emotion-laden, and worthy of prime-time?
Have focus groups shown politicians and the media alike that moderation is a hard sell because it brings no drama with it and instead requires the type of active listening and critical thinking that seems to be out of fashion?
Have we all been conditioned to respond only to extremes and to welcome the reassuring noise of instant analysis instead of having our own quiet moments and listening to our own thoughts?
Perhaps, the idea of free will is just an illusion, experienced only by those of us who rage against the system with violence and manifestos and other expressions of anti-social behavior while the rest of us remain numb and accept being controlled.
I say listen to the crazy people if you want to know what is really going on.