15 August, 2008

Have you noticed? 

Ex-senator Phil Gramm commented that all we do is whine and was fired from the Republican presidential campaign for so doing.  Political correctness in action.  Shhhhhhhhhhh; don't tell people the truth, they can't handle it, and besides they won't vote for us if we tell them.

But have you noticed?   It's everywhere; we whine about everything, with media urging of course, but it's taken hold such that it can't be blamed soley on the media.  Self-absorption, entitlement - and just plain being spoiled.  The interesting thing is how many different slants one can find on the whines, including whining about people whining.

Part of it, I contend, is that people hear more and understand less about more issues - mostly from TV.  Part of it is that we have been conditioned to worry: the sky is falling, the sky is falling.  A large majority apparently feel the country is moving in the wrong direction; another majority feel their own lives are progressing successfully.  How can things be so bad across the board, yet good individually?  Because the media tells us so.  But again, that's not all of it, because we whine about almost everything.  High prices are common at the moment, particularly gasoline, taking over from Iraq.  What do we do about it?  Not much, outside of whining; well, maybe complaining; that's a little stronger than whining.  We definately cannot abide anything that rocks our boats.

And that's bad?  I would argue it is when we have no understanding of the facts, about which we make little attempt to learn, yet whine anyway about the unfairness - to us, each individually.  My greatest concern is the direction the whining is taking: the government needs to do something about it, whatever it is.  The government should do something about it!  Oh me, oh my; the government should do something about it.  Talk about a prescription for chaos.  Not that the government doesn't have a function in dealing with real problems that affect our country and its population, but the whining is so insistent, and so inconsistent - coming, as it does, from all directions - that what they end up "doing about it" is way more likely to screw it up than it is to find a solution.  Besides, often by they time they draft a solution it's no longer a problem and we are off on another one, pushed of course by media.  But we pay nonetheless; oh, do we pay.

But hey, welcome to democracy.  Only, if we intend to keep it around we really do need to be careful, and maybe, just maybe, try a little harder to understand the facts behind what we are whining about; that, and the unintended circumstances that so often result from "doing something about it."