"Are you OK?"
"Has anyone you know been hurt?"
"What are things like over there???"
This election has been a tough one. First, because there is a short list of pros, and a seemingly constantly growing list of cons for each candidate. Neither side had to worry about running out of ammunition. If it came close we just had to wait a couple hours and a new Hillary email would surface, or a new Trump recording would be published, and we were all back into the mudpit.
But this happens every four years right? This might make my naiveness show, but I think this election has been unique when you're looking at what was going on in society. We've always had divides in this country. We fought an entire war over it. Now that we have President-elect Trump, of course close to 50% people are going to be angry for awhile. That's just the nature of the beast. Right?
I wouldn't call myself a history buff, but I do enjoy it. Oftentimes I'll see people complaining about how horrible the world is becoming and laugh to myself because those people are forgetting what the world used to be. Even with all the conflicts in the world, the rate of violence has been falling dramatically. I am a OIF veteran. I have seen conflict and some of my friends didn't come back from there. Total deaths of US military between Iraq and Afghanistan come in right under 7,000. That is a terrible loss of life, but let us not forget that in the World Wars, there was tens of thousands of men dying in just a single battle. Even Napoleon had a famous quote "You cannot stop me. I can spend 30,000 men a month". That is terrifying.
Now if you look at our election this month with a more historical perspective, should this be an election that causes this much friction? I'm not pretending that there isn't anything going on. Trump will have to make some serious and divisive decisions while president. But we've held elections during World Wars. We held elections during The Cold War when we were all sitting on the button, waiting to see who called who's bluff first and kill us all. Those were far more important elections, and obviously before my time, but from what I see and read, it still didn't feel as personal for your average American as this election did.
Why is that? While there is a lot of stress in the world, for us Americans it's relatively calm. Economy is doing decent. The wars we are in have lost a lot of their steam. The refugee issue is more of a theoretical problem than a real issue with The US. I don't even know anyone who knows anyone that has met a Syrian refugee. Not exactly life changing. We have so little going on here we argue about Starbucks holiday cups. Or the Kardashians.
The biggest culprit is the media, and both sides are sure that the media is against them. It's the media's fault Trump ever had a chance. It's the media's fault they make Trump look bad. It's always the media's fault. They have a conspiracy one way or another, and they breed in controversy to make themselves money! Or so screams Americans.
I have worked in the military, in government jobs, and for large corporations, and something I have come to realize is there is a lot less thought and planning than everyone assumes. The military and government is almost always like a dog chasing a ball. Little thought, even less planning. Everyone is flying by the seat of their pants. Corporations aren't much different. Every big company I have worked for reminded me very much of a quote that I can't remember well enough to attribute correctly, but it's essence was "It is so disorganized if you kicked it's ass the head won't realize it for a week". Imagining these organizations having these carefully crafted, secretive plans is hilarious to me.
Here is my completely unsubstantiated idea about the media. Are they digging their claws into our lives, making public things personal and causes way more animosity than it should? I believe so. But I don't think it was done intentionally, or even willingly. I think we demanded it, and the media provided the service.
Imagine you are a media executive. You are giving important and relevant news for years, but now you have to be providing fresh material 24 hours a day. So you resort to throwing in some filler crap. Let's toss in something about the candidate's personal life that might intrigue some people, but is barely relevant to the election. But then, holy crap! The public LOVED that filler material. Your ratings jumped, which put more money in your pocket and more stability in your career. You know that the material was junk that held no relevance to important thought, but what are you going to do? Turn down extra money and acclaim?
I would love to believe that I have the constitution to do what is right in that situation, ignore the money and only display important material. But even if I did do you think those shareholders didn't notice? You think they are going to let me go with my morals, or fire me and put someone in who pulls in the ratings and the money?
What I am saying is I really doubt there is some big global conspiracy against us. It's just that we as consumers are demanding this junk news, and all the media is doing is chasing those dollars we are throwing at them to show it. Americans love to be outraged, and we will pay top dollar for it. It reminds me of the Kardashians. You can't go a day in the US without hearing people say how much they hate the Kardashians and how bad they are for America. But we keep throwing money at them don't we? The Kardashians aren't the problem, us buying what they are selling is the problem. If someone would pay me millions to act like an idiot on TV, you better get ready for the Simmons Show. I doubt you would turn down that money either.
We aren't victims people. We are consumers who are demanding this stuff and not liking what we are demanding. We've demanded the media come into our homes, sit at our dinner table, and outrage us all. We've demanded an election convert from "I think this would be the best way, and my opponent thinks this will be the best way" to "If my opponent wins the USA is doomed and if I win it'll be a angelic utopia!!!". If we want the media to change, we need to stop rewarding them for doing us wrong. All they are doing is what we are incentivising them to do, and expecting them to have better morals than we do.
The biggest culprit is the media, and both sides are sure that the media is against them. It's the media's fault Trump ever had a chance. It's the media's fault they make Trump look bad. It's always the media's fault. They have a conspiracy one way or another, and they breed in controversy to make themselves money! Or so screams Americans.
I have worked in the military, in government jobs, and for large corporations, and something I have come to realize is there is a lot less thought and planning than everyone assumes. The military and government is almost always like a dog chasing a ball. Little thought, even less planning. Everyone is flying by the seat of their pants. Corporations aren't much different. Every big company I have worked for reminded me very much of a quote that I can't remember well enough to attribute correctly, but it's essence was "It is so disorganized if you kicked it's ass the head won't realize it for a week". Imagining these organizations having these carefully crafted, secretive plans is hilarious to me.
Here is my completely unsubstantiated idea about the media. Are they digging their claws into our lives, making public things personal and causes way more animosity than it should? I believe so. But I don't think it was done intentionally, or even willingly. I think we demanded it, and the media provided the service.
Imagine you are a media executive. You are giving important and relevant news for years, but now you have to be providing fresh material 24 hours a day. So you resort to throwing in some filler crap. Let's toss in something about the candidate's personal life that might intrigue some people, but is barely relevant to the election. But then, holy crap! The public LOVED that filler material. Your ratings jumped, which put more money in your pocket and more stability in your career. You know that the material was junk that held no relevance to important thought, but what are you going to do? Turn down extra money and acclaim?
I would love to believe that I have the constitution to do what is right in that situation, ignore the money and only display important material. But even if I did do you think those shareholders didn't notice? You think they are going to let me go with my morals, or fire me and put someone in who pulls in the ratings and the money?
What I am saying is I really doubt there is some big global conspiracy against us. It's just that we as consumers are demanding this junk news, and all the media is doing is chasing those dollars we are throwing at them to show it. Americans love to be outraged, and we will pay top dollar for it. It reminds me of the Kardashians. You can't go a day in the US without hearing people say how much they hate the Kardashians and how bad they are for America. But we keep throwing money at them don't we? The Kardashians aren't the problem, us buying what they are selling is the problem. If someone would pay me millions to act like an idiot on TV, you better get ready for the Simmons Show. I doubt you would turn down that money either.
We aren't victims people. We are consumers who are demanding this stuff and not liking what we are demanding. We've demanded the media come into our homes, sit at our dinner table, and outrage us all. We've demanded an election convert from "I think this would be the best way, and my opponent thinks this will be the best way" to "If my opponent wins the USA is doomed and if I win it'll be a angelic utopia!!!". If we want the media to change, we need to stop rewarding them for doing us wrong. All they are doing is what we are incentivising them to do, and expecting them to have better morals than we do.
