While following US elections I came across this interview with Katie Hopkins. Now please excuse my ignorance but I have never heard of/or seen her before. That said I must admit I am not going to loose too much sleep on that because to me it was a lousy introduction. In simple terms it was a culmination of rudeness/arrogance/and ignorance lumped together to form a person. I could go further but I don’t think its worth for me discussing her more than this-and after all how we are raised/our experiences is a big part of who we are. What is more important in my view is what she represents in our society and how we managed to reach this level of vile attitude. Just reading the comments on YouTube or tweets bragging in very filthy terms about how people are fascinated with her comments during the interview demonstrates that there is really something very wrong here. This is no longer about politics its about loosing any sense of common decency/respect. We’re not talking “Democracy” & “Free Speech” we’re talking “Divisiveness”, “Racism” , “Dis/Misinformation” that allowed us to live in totally independent silos. In brief this is a mess that will inevitably hurt us all-no winners/losers. Liberals & Conservatives alike need to take few steps back and try to agree on standards/base lines when debating important issues. We also need an unbiased media which should revert back to reporting/coverage with the sole interest of revealing truths rather than playing politics-taking a lead from Jon Stewart when criticizing CNN’s Crossfire “Show” quite a few years back-he understands the gig very well. More importantly we need cool heads that bring back a sense of confidence/unity & community.
Finally in terms of how we got here, that’s a simple one; flawed policies, corrupt politicians supported by quite powerful lobbyists and media that enjoys playing politics and geared towards sensationalism/conflict/punch lines-no rocket science here.
So for now forget about elections/referendums (post these events obviously) and associated policies/politicians. The only solid ground that is likely to save us and our future is the sense of Civility we have towards each other. This approach in of itself has a true economic value-no amount of development is sustainable without this fundamental approach. We also need to remind our reps that their main duty is to solve our problems not for posturing or using us as pawns in a political chess game.
It’s not about Idealism but more about Self-Preservation as a society, so let’s lead our reps and not be led by them.
Just an idea.