Since I began my blog, eleven years and 1,184 postings ago, it has been a good release for me. The hours I spent researching issues of interest, writing my opinions/ideas, and publishing them on a blog (typically read by a dozen people or so), has helped me find a rhythm in my day and perhaps understand the world around me a little better.
That all changed about a year ago when we moved to a community offering much more in way of an active lifestyle than what I involved myself within our previous hometown. Now I find myself rolling out of bed to dress for a couple of hours of physical activity in games I had hardly heard of, or considered before the move.
On a daily basis, we have wildlife coming to our door to remind us we should be guardians of this world, and the community embraces that belief. Meanwhile, the world churns in turmoil outside the gates of this sanctuary. Perhaps it is all an illusion, a dream I will awake from, but this community offers a respite from the bitterness and hostility we see in the nightly news. The question I face is should I continue to write and share with others my opinions or abandon the idea of sharing and return to the approach I held previously of keeping my opinions to myself?
The world has changed from what I remember it to be as a child and young adult. We no longer consider political discussion as something to be done in an effort to find agreement, it has become a club wielded by those seeking power. Professional politicians and their activist supporters no longer view civility towards the opposition as a positive way to conduct themselves. For example, throwing milkshakes at people is now considered as non-violent activism by the left in England.
We, as a nation, are fracturing ourselves into tribes. For the first two hundred years of our existence, the nation struggled to unite the people. This was not always done well, or even non-violently, but the goal was clear. We attempted to grow into a united nation, evolving from “the many to become one” as we note on our coinage. Now, we are quickly destroying that idea of one people. In my opinion, this is created by small minorities seeking to dominate the debates of the nation, supported by a self-righteous social media who have chosen sides in the social issues.
Furthermore, as we abandon our beliefs in a higher power, and so many choose to place their faith in a single political party, we see the emergence of moralities that hold no tie to the long term causes and effects of an individual’s decision. The conflicts in these choices of convenience seem obvious to me, but they are easily cast aside by those who hold them. Let’s take, for example, the gun control debate. Those who want to limit the lawful ownership of guns cite the violence of mass shootings but refuse to acknowledge where gun laws are stringent they’ve done little to control illegal use of guns within the inner cities where far more victims are wounded and killed. We can’t discuss a loss of individual morality and accountability as a cause and are therefore driven to a position where the lifeless hardware is cited as the villain.
I am not sure what course I will take, but it is a problem I am glad to have for in the scale of all life’s problems this is one that is really low on the scale.
