Politics and what CoVid is teaching us
I don’t know about the rest of you, but we are filled with deeply competing emotions about what has happened in 2020. It’s tragic but could it be the wake-up call that the world needed?
As we quickly approach the general election, we are holding our breath and praying that our country will elect Joe Biden. Yep, we said it. No equivocation over here, Tom and I are staunch supporters of anyone who can unseat Donald Trump. To be clear, Trump is only one part of a much larger and systemic problem with our culture these days, but as they say, “it starts at the top,” and we believe that a fundamental shift is imperative and replacing Trump with a less toxic leader is an opportunity that we can not overlook.
The Trump era has degraded decency in a way that our country has never seen before. He has “normalized” divisive ways of ‘being’ that leave Tom and I regularly dismayed and despondent. What is happening? What about our kids? Where are they getting information? What are they absorbing from the internet and social media? What kind of planet, country, and future are they inheriting?
Our kids, like many of yours, are addicted to their electronics (and so are we). Social media has made us simultaneously more connected and divided and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight to the impact that technology is having on our lives.
There is no objective agreement about truth. It seems we can’t even agree on a simple set of facts before we begin arguing. Opinion has supplanted actual knowledge as an equivalent basis for political and cultural understanding. At moments it does feel like we are living on the brink of something irreversible and devastating. CoVid has been the icing on the “shit cake” that has been baking for years. We just can’t enjoy ignoring it anymore. We’ve been forced to face reality.
We watched the movie “The Social Dilemma” with our 19, 15, and 11-year-old last night. After the movie we talked about our concerns about the world they receive as “normal,” and how they need to think critically about what they see and hear on social media. They listened and agreed that they need to be more aware of their phone and computer usage, as well as the content they are absorbing, but especially the impact it may be having on them. As they filed out of the room after the movie, we looked at each other and agreed that talking to them about it might be the most that we can do. Like every other parenting challenge, “letting go” and trusting them is the most uncomfortable, but the best, and maybe the only, option.
So as I re-read the title of this blog, I am trying to come up with a succinct way to wrap up “what CoVid has taught us.” Honestly… I think it’s still evolving. But what I do think is true is that there is a political choice before us in a month that can change the course that the world is on. We can “right” the sails on this ship. It won’t be a miraculous and swift transformation. There is A LOT of work to do, but getting the toxic energy, ie: Donald Trump, at the top of the problem pile… off the pile… makes restoration possible with greater speed. Time is critical. Please vote.