Let’s begin with the 40,000 mile view . . .
And then segue to the (seemingly) most pressing matter:
Yet . . .
BTW: Two evenings ago, I almost got into a heated, fruitless argument with a couple whom I rarely see. They started it, dissing Putin in the most vociferous way possible, how horrible he is, how he’s destroying Ukraine, his nuclear threats, etc. Half-heartedly, knowing it would be for naught, I spoke up, re: the threat to Putin’s border security, given NATO and U.S. promises “to not move one inch east” that are never kept. Of course, they started to come back at me. Time slowed down. I could feel the emotional heat building . . . when I suddenly interrupted them, saying, in a firm, but hopefully soothing manner, “Let’s just not talk about this subject, since obviously, we disagree.” They readily backed down, grateful. None of us wanted to contribute to the dangerous volatility coursing through the collective.
This happens more and more with me. I quietly interrupt the ignition of any discussion that threatens to seriously polarize. Given that each of us occupies our own solipsistic silo, composed of the types of “news” from beyond our own personal experience that we seek to buttress what we already think we know; and since that “news” can be, literally, anything! . . . then when enough news in our favored agenda coheres into our viewpoint, our unique point from which we view the world, expanded into our “world view,” well, that’s when we might as well seek to go beneath our disparate points of view, our apparently incompatible world views, leave our more or less cemented in beLIEfs behind . . . to gratefully appreciate each other on a different level altogether.
Meanwhile, the memes I choose obviously speak to those whose “conspiratorial,” (dot connecting, pattern-seeking) tendencies lead us to create similar silos, which we, however, myopically tend to see as blanketing the entire world . . .
And since, in the political realm, with what’s being called the most consequential election in American history only 15 days away, there’s plenty to (nervously) laugh at . . .
. . . sometimes it’s best to just stay with a wry look at the simple and/or complex traditions our society institutes in ultimately failed attempts to make sense of the Greater Mystery.
