Soundbite Society
I’ve been tossing back and forth for a while now, what and how I want to write my first Opinion post. The problem, as I see it is this — in todays “Soundbite Society”, most people are making their decisions based on 30 second or 1 minute TV News Broadcast stories, which mostly take on the editorial slant of the network broadcasting. The same can be said for newsprint articles, but to a greater degree; in my area, we have two major newspapers, the Edmonton Journal, and the Edmonton Sun. The Edmonton Journal, especially this decade, has more of a socially liberal slant, putting “stories” on the front page that are written by opinion Columnists (frankly, I wouldn’t have a problem with this, if these Columnists were presenting fact instead of their personal opinion), presenting it as “News”. The Edmonton Sun, to a lesser extent, but still far “beyond the red line” of truly objective journalism, slants more socially conservative. The same is obviously the case for such publications as Greenpeace’s newsletter and magazine, The Alberta Report (is that even still around?), Guns ‘N Ammo, PETA, the CBC, CTV, CNN, and other “news” networks, and so on…the only difference is the degree of slant each puts on their stories, and the “direction” the slant lays. Online, it’s a nightmare, you need to consider several sources, and their own individual slants — Wikipedia, for instance, where political or human society issues come up, many of the articles are rewritten to fit whatever slant the “majority” of participants for any particular article decide it should be.
When it comes to a complex issue such as if or when we as a society and nation, should get involved in a military conflict, abortion, safe injection sites (all of which I hope to write separate posts on), and the like, however, is 30 seconds really enough? Can anyone who’s given more than 2 seconds thought to this say “Yes”?
It’s been my observation (and I’m sure somewhere philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists have written reams on the subject as well) that it’s human nature to “warm up” to or to positively identify with people who agree with us. If they think the same way, they must be OK, right? It’s a compliment to us as individuals, and our individual intellect, that someone else believes the same way we do. In today’s age of “Instant Information” and 30 second sound bites, this becomes amplified, as we trust that the people who are presenting the news to us are being as objective as possible, and as complete as possible. Many of us believe that we can make mature, informed, and effective choices, based on these assumptions.
However, it doesn’t stop there — the habit we’ve been forming of making decisions on inaccurate, subjective, and woefully incomplete reporting in just a minute, extends outwards, to the people we associate with in work or social settings. This habit also amplifies the inclination we have to pick out “pearls of wisdom” in conversations with other people — we make an instant decision based on a few phrases or a sentence someone says that is either in alignment with our beliefs, or against them. How we then interact with those people - if at all after we decide that the other party’s opinion is that of an “unwashed heathen” - is comprised of our relationship with that person to that point. If we have a lot of respect for them, and they agree with us, we have an increased respect and attachment (in whatever relationship it may be - work, friendship, lovers, enemies, neighbours, whatever); however, if we have a lot of respect for a person or source, and they disagree with us, then we may find ourselves examining our own opinions more closely. In the case of a “first impression”, a disagreement will turn us away from that person, and an agreement more towards the person.
In any case, we take away an impression of the people we interact with, especially on highly emotionally charged issues, and bits and pieces of the conversation. We then act according to this “impression”, and adjust the relationship accordingly. Again, this is amplified by our “Soundbite Society” to extremes — we don’t hear (or even listen at all!) what people with different opinions have to say. We do focus in on key ideas and phrases that align with our own opinions, or those against, and treat these people accordingly.
Here’s a relatively distant example — when Susan, the kids, and I returned from living in Costa Rica for almost 3 years in 2003, we were invited to go out for drinks with some old friends, at a downtown bar over what used to be a theatre (I can’t quite recall it’s name). These are people I’ve known since I was 16 in most cases, 13 in one. At this time, the United States invasion of Iraq had just begun, and virtually everyone threre was either planning to attend a “Peace Rally”, or supported those who did. In the course of the evening, this topic wound up dominating the evening. Two items in particular caused Susan and I some discomfort during the evening - one, I stated that while I didn’t agree with what Bush had done, “at least Hussein’s sons wouldn’t be dragging 13 and 14 year old girls off the street to torture and rape, and if they were lucky, released alive”. Guess which phrase was focused on for the remainder of the evening, with the folks we were conversing with? You bet — not the “I don’t support Bush” the “at least…” statement. This was greeted with some pretty open sneers, derision, and frankly, disrespect that wouldn’t be tolerated if it were displayed towards wild animals.
(( As a sort of aside — frankly, the situation was probably aggravated by a couple of other facts with a few people in particular — one, I had not seen them since the funeral of a friend I loved like a brother, 5 years previous; that’s my own fault, I’ll admit, I have not dealt well with his death, even to this day. I will have to make a separate post on this someday, just to work it out for myself, maybe. Two, in our “misspent youth”, I was definitely and completely anti-drug, and didn’t want to be around it at all. Since then, as far as marijuana goes, I’ve learned that I fell for a ton of propaganda, and as a result of having it recommended in Costa Rica by a doctor for pain control of my Ankylosing Spondylitis — it took both Susan and the doc 3 months to convince me to give it a try — and when the Hydromorph Contin (8x stronger than morphine, 5x stronger than heroin, and at 48mg/day I still feel pain on good days, bad pain on bad days…have been off of it twice to gauge the pain response, and put right back on by the docs) and the other methods we put into place don’t work, even today I visit the compassion society and get a supply to get through the particular rough spots…to be completely honest about it, since November I’ve been on it quite regularly…again, that’s a whole other topic. Before we went to the bar, I had asked if anyone could help hook me up here, as the compassion society had not been formed yet…one gentleman in particular displayed some pretty open hostility right at the begining of the evening, while putting a joint into my shirt pocket. Also, it’s important to mention that between the 8 to 10 or so other people attending, there were 1 or 2 that weren’t hostile or disrespectful. ))
The other, as Susan and I do try to understand differing opinions, or even degrees on similar opinions, was that one of the folks planning to attend the Peace Rallys was asked “Do you really think you’ll have any effect?” — to which, the answer was “No, but it makes me feel better to do SOMETHING about it”. I can understand that, but since we had dared to ask that question as well, the disrespect, sneers, and derision, increased.
On the other hand, I have had the exact same conversations with two other people that I’ve known for about the same length of time. During the conversations, I made the same statements, and we exchanged opinions, and the reasons behind them. We’re still very close today, and we have a mutual respect for each others opinions, but I should point out that even then, the inclination to pick out “Sound Bites” was headed in the same direction. I had to point out several times that “at least Hussein’s sons…” and “I don’t support what Bush is doing” are not, in fact, opposing statements, just the simple inclination to try and find positive in a very negative situation; like a lot of people, I have a soft spot for atrocities visited on minors. Because we keep a mutual respect even when disagreeing (in one case, having argued Quebec separatism with her when we were much much younger, as her family had moved to Alberta from Quebec, we had developed a further respect for each others opinions anyway; having differing opinions does not necessarily preclude having a friendship with someone).
Although I am not a baptized or practicing Catholic, I attended Catholic Junior High, and Senior High School. In Grade 11, I was fortunate enough to take a Sociology class with Father Wirtz. He would often make statements like “As a Sociologist, I would say….but as a Priest, I would say…”. During the course of the half-year with him, I learned what I feel is probably the most important lesson of my life — how to think for myself, inform myself on social issues, empathize with various viewpoints, and form my own conclusions, but being open to new information and viewpoints, which has resulted in a certain amount of flexibility in changing my own opinions based on these foundations. If I had to pick one lesson only to give my children before they go out into the world, this would be it.
Instead of accepting individual statements or news reports (print, web, or video) at face value and forming my opinions on such limited and subjective information, I try to:
- Keep flexibility in my viewpoints, allowing for new information, viewpoints, and anecdotes from people directly involved, where possible.
- Keep an open mind, with an awareness that no matter the source, there is an objective slant to information I receive.
- Where an issue is important, do research to achieve the above.
- Ensure that a basic level of human respect is maintained in my dealings with anyone, no matter the situation.
- Realize that we live in an imperfect universe, where things are mostly out of our individual control, but that with some thought, those things we can affect are done in a responsible, effective, and humanly respectful way, and that acting on my beliefs within that imperfect universe will not always garner the results I am looking for, and that a reevaluation and perhaps compromise, may be required.
I believe that if I follow these basic points, I will make better decisions in my life and in my own opinions, values, and everyday life; especially as life itself is in constant flux, let alone the changes in society virtually from day to day, that a flexibility is required to my mindset if I want to be able to be the best I can be, do the best I can do for my immediate and extended family as well as friends, and the best citizen I can be.
Socially, I’m liberal, economically, I’m conservative; (for example: Funding of the Arts: I do not believe that we should be supporting art through taxation, but rather encourage individuals and corporations to make contributions to privately run Arts councils…my reasons, once again, are too numerous to go into here; one alternative I’m in favor of, is a line on my income tax return allowing me to donate a portion of my refund (or increase my payment) to a truly independent and objective Arts council, similar to the Media Surtax we pay now on blank media) a post on politics would just take this already long article, and double it, so I’ll get into that another time. Because of the political situation this decade, this has given me many, many headaches when voting time comes around. When it comes to that time, however, I’m usually fairly sure I’ve educated myself (read the candidates’ party platforms, party constitutions, and refreshed my memory of history of the parties during the last 5 or so years), and am making the best decision I can. As a result of carrying this over to other opinions and values of my life, I’m also fairly confident that at any point in time, I’m making the best decision possible. I hope more people start recognizing the issues around forming your opinion on a limited set of information (ie: TV, print, etc - the “Sound Bites”), and start thinking issues through…if we had more respect and free flow of ideas, resulting in more understanding of each other, I believe that the world would be a much better place.
Once I’ve arrived at an opinion or value, I will act appropriately. For example, I’m a believer in Fair Trade, that work or products that are the same no matter the geographical location, should result in a fair and equitable wage for the workers, even to the point of paying a reasonable amount more for a product that is “Fair Trade”. Case in point: Despite the aggravation caused to and by our neighbors, Susan and I paid our housekeeper more in line with North American wages, as well as let her have a 5-day week, without requiring her to “live-in”. Same with the Costa Rican employees, and where an inequity was discovered between male and female counterparts (both Ticos — Costa Ricans call themselves that — and Canadians), corrected when I was placed into the executive management and could affect such change. I’ve definately learned since that such is rarely appreciated by the recipients of the same (I have not heard from anyone in Costa Rica since I left the company and returned, and I have definately been let down by some Canadians I that were beneficiarys that I thought I could trust that were there, but now back here as well)…but I am satisfied knowing that I did the right thing, regardless, and don’t lose any sleep over these things. Having lived in a “devleloping nation” for almost 3 years, and seeing the benefits to that nation when Free Trade is enacted fairly and in good faith (NAFTA is not one of these, but that’s another post that will take a lot of time to write!) between nations, and the further steps to Fair Trade…I believe that this is the future of Humanity. Right now, money makes the world go ’round, but if we’re going to survive and evolve as a species, I believe that we must eradicate hunger, poverty, illiteracy, racism, sexism, human rights violations and so on…as long as we live in a monetary system where 80% of the resources are controlled by 20% of the population, I don’t believe we’ll move on to the more important issues. However, I also recognize that I live in “the real world”, and this will probably not come to pass in my lifetime.
Note: The reason I started this blog is to be able to think and write out various ideas or issues in a place that is my own. I will always maintain a basic level of human respect, no matter the disagreement in opinions; past that point, the respect I have for someone’s opinions will largely depend on how they have arrived at such a conclusion. Feel free to contact me if you disagree with me, but do so with the same respect you’d show a co-worker or neighbour, please. I am always open to considering different opinions, provided they are thoughtful, respectful, and formed more responsibly than “Sound Bites” from the news.
Kevin Shubert is married with 2 children, enjoyed an IT Management Career spanning over 3 decades, lived in Costa Rica for almost 3 years, and is an Ankylosing Spondylitis "Survivor". For more about Kevin, his family, and his philosophy, visit the About This Site section.
