I have been overwhelmed with a sense of ennui lately. I have opinions on many subjects as you know but lately- sigh, why bother? I have read articles about the TSA and their draconian tactics and the media orgasmic response to them and shrug. I read a lengthy conversation on reddit about people having bad encounters with cops and their truly awful behavior profiling skills. I was ready to dive in with my observation that cops suspect everyone by nature of the paranoia they develop but thought meh, so what?
Maybe it's the alignment of the stars or the weather or my winter blues coming on early but it feels like there's nothing one can do about the strange, fundamental atmosphere that grips our thinking these days. Public discourse on TV amounts to contests to see who can be the most hysterical. Hyperbole is the primary journalistic tool and frankly I'm tired of it.
What ever happened to quiet insightful, productive conversation? Whatever happened to critical thinking? There's to much reflexive reaction to events rather than calm analysis.
Call me old fashioned but I can live without a 24 hour news cycle. I prefer time between events to absorb the information and draw conclusions based on complete data rather than flash judgments. What everyone needs to do is calm down.
Police need to learn how to really understand what's going on before overreacting with violence, jumping to conclusions or expecting the worst based on panic rather than intuition.
The same goes for the TSA, the mainstream media, governments and the rest of us. That goes for me as well.
Let's all just take a deep breath and lighten up.
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