Our Blog
Ok, I’m back. Sorry for the extended absence, but I’ve been busy! 🙂
I usually use this space to wax prolific about marketing communications, often as they relate to the mortgage and title industry. But today, I’m going to focus on communications in general. Today, I’d like to add my voice to the clamor that passes for public discussion at the moment. I have something profound to say. Ready? Here it is…
Shut up. All of you. Now.
Really.
The absolute bile and rancor that has permeated the so-called health care reform debate is appalling to me. This is neither discussion, nor debate. Rarely have any intellectual points been scored by either “side.” I’m not sure we’ve even scratched the surface on the real issues, the ones that don’t conveniently fit into sound bites or call outs. By the way, we often romanticize politics from the 18th and 19th century, but they weren’t always as neat and tidy as some would like to think. However, this is NOT how Lincoln and Douglas debated. In a proper debate, there is discussion. Opposing points of view are aired and heard, if not always agreed with. The winner persuades his or her audience with compelling logic. Both parties are actually allowed to speak.
But it would seem that, in 2010, what passes for “debate” is some twisted hybrid of pseudo-intellectual demolition derby and reality TV. Viewpoint A makes a black-and-white, one-size-fits-all assertion as though it were a universal principle, straight from the stone tablet. Viewpoint B immediately notes that the proclaimer of Viewpoint A has an ulterior motive (either world domination through socialism or world domination through fascism), and counters with his or her own black and white, one-size-fits-all assertion. All the while, the proverbial (and actual) tone rises in intensity. Within seconds, a shrill insult-fest is underway, with both “debaters” slinging personal insults and blanket assertions.
I’d like to remind folks that our Constitution is built, amongst other things, upon the NECESSITY of debate. Our law-making process is slow and cumbersome because it is intended to be. The Founding Fathers didn’t want to see quick rule-making. They wanted us to slow down and think things through. A necessary component of this would, theoretically, be debate and discussion.
We seem to have lost the ability to hold civil and reasoned discourse in this country, which is truly a shame. We’re so busy vilifying the opposing view point that we’re not even taking the time to consider that there may be many ways to skin a cat, if you will. We’re so busy shouting that our ears have become useless. And we’re so busy dumbing-down the world (is that for our listeners, or for us?) or simplifying things to the point of absurdity that we appear incapable of comprehending that there may possibly be multiple solutions to a single problem. Instead, we seem resigned or committed to shouting out the one solution, the one perceived truth, and then turning to personal attacks when that universal “truth” is assailed.
That’s not communications. That’s not debate. That’s just noise. Count me out.