What part of our lives is ruled by fear? I want to piggy-back off of Michelle’s recent post about apathy and instead of asking why we’re so apathetic, ask why we are so afraid? Last night I was asked my opinion of why the recent wars in the Middle East did not have news coverage. Why we will hear more about Syria than our own conflicts. Fast forward and what you had was a discussion on the difference in journalism and spin the media does spanning from WWII-now. I still couldn’t answer the ‘why’ though. Why is it that Vietnam had nightly coverage of real footage and today despite the advances in technology we might hear about the war every so often and there’s very believability to it?
Part of the reason I think we’re hearing about Syria now is because of election season. Like clockwork during elections we will hear about some imminent threat that could undermine the very foundation of the things we hold dear. My gut tells me it has more to do with our judgment. Vietnam is marked by the public’s negative reaction to our troops upon their return. Much of that was because the American people did not want to be in that war, did not understand the reasons and saw the horrors associated with what was going on. We wouldn’t make that same mistake again. Our entry into the current wars in the Middle East were questionable. The events once the war began have been unfortunate and now as it drags on to over a decade our tolerance is gone. If we received real updates and real knowledge of what is going on, the outcry might prove difficult to ignore. So instead we hear about Honey-Boo-Boo and the Khardashians marriages and whatever else that means nothing to our lives. Those who try to tell real stories do so fairly ineffectually in presentation.
We are afraid of what the answers will be if we ask the questions. What we don’t know won’t hurt us and that holds true on an individual or macro level. Cognitive dissonance only works until awareness steps in and after that it is impossible for things to go back to the way it was. I refuse to believe that people don’t care, what I believe is that people will go a long way to protect themselves from unpleasantness.
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OK, OK, My pants were on fire…. 🙂 So I’m posting on the website.
One has to keep mind that majority of media is owned by very few companies now- and they are closely aligned with political factions. That’s why sites like Youtube and other independent sources are important- yet, they can be propaganda, too.
War in Syria is a HUGE deal– the entire ME is about to up in flames, and there are nations there already armed with nukes. If Turkey declares war, US is treaty-bound to participate as a member of NATO, too. And oil prices will spike, again hammering our economy.
And, yes, it is election time as well.
Afganistan and Iraq have kept small media footprints in large part, I suspect, because the force is all volunteer. It’s not as gripping when someone else or someone else’s child is dying– a HUGE part of Vietnam protests were driven by the selfish desire to not be drafted, nor have one’s child be drafted. Can’t blame them- but the motivation to protect self and family was huge in Vietnam– in current wars, that risk does not exist beyond the small pool of volunteers.
There is ALOT of real war footage out there- cell phones and internet have actually made it quite accessable. It’s just most folks don’t have enough “skin in the game” to care. That’s why I fully support re-instating the draft- the more of us that are forced to care, the less likely our government will pull us into needless wars.
I agree Courtney. I piggy-backed my post today off yesterday’s post on Vulnerability, the Authntic Self and Life Satisfaction. It is exactly the comfort found in cognitivie dissonance that I hoped to illuminate. I think people are fearful of caring or of appearing to care for a host of reasons, all fear-based. I also believe we can equate the dumbing down or numbing seen in popular entertainment choices to the numbing achieved from drugs, alchol, food, shopping, or any host of outlets that keep up us from delving too deep and facing the need to take actions which might potentially be painful. It is a micro, mezzo, and macro issue. Problems that are not dealt with do not cease to exist, and can (and often do) easily become compounded.
One has to keep in mind– it is not dissonance when the problem simply doesn’t affect a person. One could argue that caring about a war, or poverty, or any other related issue that doens’t diretly affect one’s life as actually the MORE dissonant behavior. People may not care because, frankly, they have no real reason to. If I worked as an IT person in Hunt Valley, a nice suburb but 10 minutes from my home in another nice suburb, I would associate with no one but other upper middle class, educated people; I would live a very insular life, and have zero connection to the poor and less educated folks of different communities, yet could still have a very full and active social and community life via shul (or church), gym, pool, PTA, and work. Many people live that way- and you can’t make them care, because the plight of the poor is truly alien to them, and does not affect their life one way or the other.
But it does have an impact whether we want to acknowledge it or not, and we all have a reason to care whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. My nice life, in my middle class community is effected 100 ways by poverty and inequality and wars and economies, and policies I have no real knowledge of or interest in, but I am still directly impacted non-the-less. This goes back to is apathy easier. All of our lives are complicated, and busy, and our own issues and desires and goals are paramount, but we are all interconnected, probably more so in these times than in previous eras. That full and active and protected insular social life is contingent on a world economy and world politics. We are a global society and there isn’t really any way around it. Ignorance may be bliss, but just because we refuse to look at a thing doesn’t mean the thing does not exist and have an impact.
How is your life directly affected by poverty? How are you directly affected by policies towards the poor? What are the 100 things that affect you directly?
Aside from my tax bill, if I choose to work in a different field, like banking, and stayed within my own community, as many people do, the plight of the poor would not impact me in any way.
This is the real dirty secret- those that live in safe, suburban communities with good incomes, good schools, and jobs that don’t require contact with the poor are NOT impacted in their daily lives. The most contact many people have with the poor is to say “Good night” to the cleaning lady on their way out the door to go home.
That’s not to say people should not be concerned about others- and, yes, it is apathy towards the plight of the those that have less. But apathy is hard to break out of when the reality is– there is no reason for them to care if they choose not to go out of their way.
I’m not saying this is right- but is fundamental to grasping why social workers truly serve the underprivileged when we deal with the poor. Those that are better off and live in our stratified communties are not directly affected by the poor- they don’t even interact with them unless they choose to.
We are all connected isn’t really true. It’s a great goal- but folks are great at seperating themselves from others. The sad truth is that someone starving in the inner City doesn’t affect the flavor of my steak one bit. Unless I choose to think about it– and why would any rational person choose to do that? And it makes it even harder to get folks to care when poverty is often self-inflicted by poor choices.
For one thing, the amount of funding and man hours devoted to legislation required to maintain prisons because some of the causes we need so many prisons are not addressed…..
Even if you choose to life your entire life in the confines of your community, as an American citizen, you are impacted by the larger world around you. No man is an island unto himself. The amount of regulations touching each or our lives on a daily basis is completely mind-boggling. We can ignore, but it still exists.
Yes, regulations do need to be lessened. But regulations are different than the poor. People are dealing drugs, getting shot, and kids are going hungry but 20 minutes from my home in the City. I work with them, so I am affected directly. But my neighbors…well, heck no. And if I worked IT in Hunt Valley, wouldn’t affect me, either. I’d still have had a nice dinner – roasted haddock, greens from my garden, roasted potatoes tossed in a fresh-pressed Greek olive oil I picked up at a festival last week, with a nice wine…If I worked in Hunt Valley, I wouldn’t even know those other people really existed. They’d be another figment of TV or the news, that my and my neighbors may mention passingly at the swim club or gym.
Buy anything from Target, Wal-Mart, or a supermarket and you are coming into contact with the poor who serve you, and the poor who helped produce the goods in other countries.
Poor as servants are poor in their place. Yes, I know that’s terrible- but that’s how it’s viewed by most, and there is truth to it- we need people to clerk and clean and work in gas station booths and all. But is my life really affected by their poverty? Well, because my goods are cheaper, yes. But that’s not inspiration for compassion- it’s inspiration for further exploitation. That’s why the poor are low on priority list for most. It’s apathy – but apathy for a reason.
This post was more about apathy stemming from fear or leaned helplessness or an inability to fathom solutions to expansive problems more than pure nihilism. That is a distinct conversation.
And those kids that are dealing drugs 20 minutes from your home are dealing those drugs to kids in your neighborhood, so your nice neighbors working in banking and IT are no more removed than you are. These are society problems. Yes, a poor working class exists and many want to keep it that way, but does it have to?
Rich kids deal to other rich kids. Drug dealing is very class conscious. Street drugs are strictly for the poor, or those that are desperate. Wealthier areas are mainly about pills, alcohol, and weed, and dealers operate from their homes or deliver. Drug culture varies with wealth, just as everything else does. Drug use cuts across all economic lines. Poor are just more likely to get arrested for it, and shot and killed over it.
But poor drug dealers have no direct impact on better off drug users- they have a seperate market.
I worked Corrections, and partied a whole lot when younger- it’s quite an elaborate system, and the two do not mix.
And, yes, a poor working class must exist. Or replaced with cheaper automation, already a cause of unemployment. If you pay a MickeyD’s worker 20 bucks an hour, a cheeseburger would cost 50 bucks. Labor is worth what it is worth- markets always adjust. Set a minumum wage, you attract millions of illegals willing to work for less under the table. One should not accept injustice, but one also needs to be real careful what is truly injustice, and what is simply a result of human nature and differing abilites.
Drug dealing is only class conscious and separate on a perceived, immediate level. The supply chain always leads up the economic ladder eventually, and those that profit the most do not live where the largest suppliers are concentrated. Rich kids do deal to other rich kids, but where are they getting their supply from? And yes, the poor are more likely to get arrested for it, but street drugs are not strictly for the poor. Heroin is readily available in every community, and its widespread use is still rising.
You speak of the need for a poor working class, yet tie that discussion in with human nature and differing abilities. Is it really the abilities that differ or the opportunity afforded certain segments of society? And is it human nature, or how we have evolved and continue to socialize our systems? Minimum wage exists for a reason, same as child labor laws do. In a civil society we make laws, supposedly, for the greater good and to protect the rights of all citizens, at least ideally. In practice our laws are structured to support the continued reign of those with the most authority, and those with the most authority come from a certain gender and certain race and are at the top of the economic ladder. Perhaps those with the power want to hold on to it and perform in society in ways that ensure such a continuation of privileged positions, and perhaps, from a strict anthropological stance, that is nature, but we are thinking animals. Should we blindly accept such an uneven power structure?
Drug use is universal. How drugs are dealt and used are different based on class and status. Hence “crack” laws vs. cocaine laws. Yep- those at the top are wealthy. Yet drug use by rich remains seperate from drug use by poor in style, substance, and how obtained. Which is why poor drug dealers don’t affect middle class and upper class use.
As to where one ends up in the hierarchy- it’s a mix. Natural ability plays a large role. So does how you were raised, as well as the environment- ethnic as well as economic- into which you are born. That’s why it is an extremely complicated issue, very difficult to address via law and program. Not everyone is equal in ability, no matter what program or training or education they may receive. And society needs people at low rank to function.
There will always be those in control vs. those that lack power; even the so–called “Worker’s Paradises” succumbed to that. The best we can do is to ensure public educations is effective and accesssable to all that wish to pursue it, and provide a minimal safety net for those experiencing pesonal emergecnies. Min wage laws and safety regs also need to be carefully scrutinized- while they may seem to be nothing but good, they also drive up wages and costs, and reduce employment. Or inspire work-arounds, as seen by the large influx of illegal immigrants. I always find it ironic that Democrats show so much support to illegals, yet their very presence undermines the effectivness of wage and safety laws Democrats support.
Should we accept power structures? Yes– they will always exist. Can we challenge them if we perceive an injustice? Yes, we should- that is the greatest strength in America that we can do so and not get shot or gulaged.
But we should also be careful in our challenges that we do not simply attempt to sub one group of power for another, and do not be surprised that those that enjoy the priveleges will not support the challenge, and or will actively resist. We also need to be sure we’re really addressing a systematic imbalance, and not excusing individual behaviors that result in poverty.
Middle East-where to begin. To me it is not just the Middle East, but what is happening in Europe today as well-a resurgence of anti-hate for specific cultural and religious groups (think Hungry and Roma gypsies) and anti-semitism. As one who is Jewish I can say this!
I would have hoped and sometimes I naively believe the world has changed since WWII, but it has not. With todays technology it is much harder to hide what goes on due to social media, the internet, smart phones and the like, but for some reason people are apathetic until it gets personal.