Just Thinkin'

"Whatcha doin'?" "Nothin'. Just thinkin'."

I was thinking the other day. No, don't notify the press; they wouldn't believe you anyway. We pretty much understand that the news media, whether it's the mainstream media or social media or the like, is pretty negative these days. They don't offer us much in the way of inspiration. It looks a lot more like terrorism to me. We need to be afraid to let our kids play in the park, to walk around without a mask, to be optimistic that there is hope on the horizon. We need to know that the best candidates we have for office are horrible. If the media is to be believed, our president is horrible and our legislative branch is horrible and our judicial branch is horrible and the states aren't much better. Always messing up somehow. As I read from some author whose name or book I can't recall, "There is a worm in everything." Now, mind you, I'm not suggesting that it isn't so. Beyond that, I'm not suggesting that it's worse now than before. But that's because I'm one of those few who think that people are not basically good.

So what am I thinking about? I remember earlier days. Much of it was even before my time. In those days the media was largely print or radio or the early days of television. Some of it was those newsreels in theaters. Some was posters. There was, in those days, a different feel to media. They were trying to help us through hard times. I've read some of the newspaper stories from World War II. They printed glowing reports of successes at war and, when they weren't successes, they included hope that things would turn around. They urged all Americans to work together, that things were going well, that we'll make it through. Largely positive stuff.

That's no longer the case. Studies indicate that the media has changed from news to opinion, from objective to subjective. All outlets have been biased, but something has changed. Outlets that were once conservative have shifted to progressive and biases have become more strident. "Truth decay," they call it.

Now, I can see it, but I can't explain it. What is it that has caused this decay in truth, this devolution of civil discourse, this alienation of a nation? My go-to answer is sin, of course, but what kind of sin? What is it that is pushing us away from hope and toward terror? Why this national shift from civility to unrest? I'm just thinking about it. That's all.