Culture

Violence, Cynicism, and False Maturity

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Several times in my life I’ve encountered people who seemed honestly stunned or dismissive of the idea of avoiding violent confrontation in political, military, and even personal spheres.  There seemed to be something that didn’t register to them that the best solution was not always the one with the highest body count, the most blood, and the greatest number of smoking craters.  The idea that a less or no-violent solution may produce better results seemed alien to them, weak, or even laughable.

Of course most of the people I knew like this grew up.  When I look at our “3Ps” (politicians, preachers, and pundists) that are most popular, I’m seeing a lot of people who didn’t grow up.  Oddly, they posture themselves as the mature ones.

Similarly, in politics, in media, in punditry, it seems that nothing is too cynical, too dark, too nihilistic not to propose.  The more cynical the view the better, is the rule it seems, and thus we have people who denounce many if not a majority of their own countrypeople as evil, or contemptable.   We see it in media that vies to be the bloodiest, darkest view of people imaginable because it’s “true” – in short, it’s what we want to think.  Cynicism is seen as maturity.

Violence and cynicism (often mixed with sarcasm, which drags down sarcasm’s good name) are postulated as being mature.

Stepping back for a moment, these are two traits that very much are not mature.  To engage in violence for no good reason is a mark of pathology.  To be in a race to hate the most things is insanity.  Yet, it is considered mature.

It is considered, in short, realistic.  Upon reflection it’s certainly not realistic since it’s basically having highly predetermined and unchangable worldviews.  But it’s pitched as “realism.”

Realism is about cause and effect, true maturity and understanding, goals and achieving them, people and working with them.  We’ve traded real maturity for a kind of regressed adolescence of violent fantasies (of course those having the fantasies assume they’ll be untouched) and dark speculations (which of course justify the dark fantasies).

Next time you look at Congress, or our media, ask yourself how much is maturity and how much is faux maturity.

Then at that point, you may need to drink.  But do so in a mature manner.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

The Question Of Authority

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When I look at American politics, of the many crises we face, I think one of the major ones is the crisis of authority.  Namely – who should be listened to?  Who has the authority.

Despite the political dynasties we do have in our country (which doesn’t please me frankly), family lines are not well-established, authoritative ways to find leaders.  We fall back on that all too often, of course, but as royalty has taught us you don’t want to invest in genetics.

“Making Money” seems to be a popular measure of leadership, or at least “having money.”  There is at least the assumption of business sense if one has/made money.    Then again making money doesn’t mean you can actually do any other jobs, and you may just be a greedy person.

There’s the “anointed by God” idea, but we don’t seem to buy that despite the fact it gets dragged into politics.  Also since everyone is claiming God, it has a kind of dilution effect.  Also down deep, I think most people know they’re BSing about this.

“Expertise” in something should be a recognized reason for leadership, but that’s often a problem as well.  I could probably go into excessive details on that, but roughly I chalk it up to anti-intellectualism and the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Of course, we could actually look to leaders that make things work and measure it.

“When the aged wear silk and eat meat and the masses are neither cold nor hungry, it is impossible for their prince not to be a true King.” – Mencius, Confucian Philosopher

That was 2300 years ago.  Might be something to consider.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Freedom of the Press When We’re All Press

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Freedom of the press is important to any democracy and indeed functional society.  We take it for granted in America, only discussing it in between our complaints about how awful news has gotten.

But as newspapers fade, as news changes (and merges with entertainment), as blogging alters what journalism is, then what is the press?  Certainly by broad definition there’s a lot more of it, and we often see laws disrespecting traditional press.

As “press” evolves, and has it’s conflict (which often seem to be someone-versus-bloggers), as entertainment and ratings keeps driving news (often to insanity), the question of what is the press and what freedom means will keep coming up.  Sadly, I expect them to come up after horrible occurrences and bad laws, but come up they will.

Of course it all comes down to freedom period.  But that’s a subject that is thornier than many realize, and too often people are a bit narrow on that whole freedom thing beyond their own concerns.

Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.