Catharine So I’ve been trying to decide what the purpose of this blog even is. I started it as a “bridge” in the Trump era- I though I’d try to speak to conservatives and liberals; try to somehow bring people together.
Then I thought I’d talk about hot topics- that I’d talk about racism, Black Lives Matter, etc. I might still do that. I got spooked, because I’m white, middle class, and not the sufferer of racism in the US. Can I speak to something I don’t know? Am I supposed to lift up others’ voices? I’ve seen a lot of that, and it seems like a good thing to do. I feel a little bit like I’m walking on egg-shells.
I could just write about what I know about, and what I’ve personally experienced. Maybe that would be a good starting place.
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So the last few months have been… terrible. I was about to say “interesting,” but no, there is nothing “interesting” about people falling to their deaths from a US evacuation plane leaving Afghanistan. There’s nothing “interesting” about the fact that half our country is declining a life-saving vaccine, while people in many other countries are waiting in line for days at the chance to perhaps get one. There’s nothing “interesting” about sending our kids back to school, and into harms’ way, at a time when they cannot get vaccinated against covid.
I hoped that when Biden got elected, the culture wars would be over. 😀 My, wasn’t that a nice fantasy?
I thought that facts would…. matter… again! I thought that well-vetted news would be…trusted.. again. I thought that the polarized corners of the internet people had retreated into would evaporate as we all came towards a shared understanding of the world again.
It is a fantasy to remember the “good old days.” This phrase means different things to different people. Until recently, my “good old days” were the days before social media. But that’s truly been a mixed product- not all bad, and certainly the source of a lot of good.
Right now, to me, the “good old days” are the days when people had the same perception of reality. People had difference in perspectives, opinions, and could debate things… but conspiracy theories were reserved for sketchy-looking webpages, anonymous internet forums where you’d be likely to find ads for penis implants, and radio stations that specialized in alien landings.
I miss the time when conversations, and debates, could be held based on commonly held views of facts- facts like, this thing happened on this day.
The problem with technology and the internet is that increasingly, it’s our only source of news, and is now the source of many social interactions. You can write anything using a computer. It’s fully manipulatable. So those fringe, “crazy” ideas have gained traction and are now becoming more main-stream.
So those are the “good old days” I dream about. I hope that eventually, people will have a shared sense of reality again. However I fear that the only way to do that is through increasing the presence and filtering of digital gatekeepers, which will have a truly scary amount of power to regulate the reality others’ experience.
Anyway, hello again. I hope you are hanging in there.
