Mike's Musings: LISTEN!

There are a lot of controversies flaring up in today's world.  Abortion, gay rights, global warming, animal testing, hunting, the economy, education, and so on.  Tempers are flaring on both sides and partisanship has never been greater.  If you think about it, it's getting quite scary.

I'm watching a movie called "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" (I haven't finished it yet, but I felt like I had to write this Mike's Musings before I lost my train of thought and so I could concentrate on the movie).  The film made the reason for all the tempers flaring and fiery insult lobbing immediately clear: a lack of diplomacy.  When was the last time that the leaders of both sides of any controversial issue sat down and talked?

It's the essence of democracy, but instead of facilitating discussion, we're declaring war on each other.  Not always violent actions (although in the case of the ELF, they are), but everyone is trying to destroy their opponent.  Anti-abortionists are attempting to pass more and more radical legislation to prevent abortion, while the ELF is destroying millions of dollars worth of property to prevent forest destruction.  Those two issues are generally unrelated, but you see my point.

There are a few reasons why this is occurring.  In the days of social media, we're wanting our information faster and faster.  We no longer have the time or desire to read lengthy news articles from different sources to get a fully-formed opinion about each event in front of us.  We want our information in quick bites, but unfortunately this means that we lose a lot of the complexities that may give us a more balanced opinion.  News programs, from MSNBC to Hannity & Colmes are using this knowledge to their advantage.  Neither one of them is truly unbiased, and they're presenting half-truths as "shocking" news to keep their audiences tuning in.  Politicians do the same thing; they know that their constituents are getting fired up by the news, and are in turn firing up their rhetoric to attract votes.  But flaming passions like this is not going to help matters in the long run.  In fact, it's making them worse.

The figureheads of camp are just that: figureheads.  We hear such rhetoric and see such action that we personify the people who we disagree with as the "enemy."  Look at the preacher who said that gays and lesbians should be put in a fenced-in area until they die off.  I'm sure that in private he's a perfectly reasonable guy, but with an audience and an agenda, he says some truly shocking stuff.  Do you think he knows any gays or lesbians?  If he did, would he be able to go on that rant if they were in the audience?

Seeing someone who disagrees with you eye to eye personalizes them.  You see them as another human being, rather than an "it."  It's hard to rant, rave, insult and want to hurt the person who's sitting right across from you.

This is what's going on, at least as far as I am in the film, with the ELF versus the logging companies.  The ELF sees the huge carvings of cut down trees on beautiful landscapes and is horrified.  Steve Swanson, the head of Superior Lumber, one of the companies whose offices they firebombed is not the "evil fat cat businessman" the film, up until that point, had us believe.  I'm an environmentalist, he says.  I plant trees where I cut them down.  It's the law, and I follow it.

What occurs here is a lack of communication.  The ELF is not getting what's really going on, and the actions taken by the government are not making anything easier.  Peaceful protests were violently struck down by overzealous police officers and they were double-crossed by the city.  No wonder they're pissed off.

This is one of the reasons why I'm a liberal.  At least in today's world, the Republican party tends to be radical and stubborn.  The world is not black and white, much as we'd like it to be.  We live in a complex world, and decisions must be made carefully.  That's the main reason why I feared Rick Santorum getting the Republican vote, or worse, winning the presidency.  He struck me as stubborn and impulsive.  Not good things that one wants in a President.  On that note, I recognized that he dropped out of the race to be with his ill daughter, and I wish them all the best.

I think a lot of our countries problems would be solved, or at least lessened if the two parties exchanged open dialogue rather than slinging insults at each other via the internet and the TV.