OCTOBER 25, 2019 – When it comes to impeachment, the Democrats worry me. So do the Republicans. But more precisely, “we the people” worry me. Why? Because “we the people” are no longer “we.”
One could fairly argue that we’ve never been “we.” Exhibit A: the institution of slavery, which pre-dated by over 150 years, formation of the country itself. Exhibit B: the state of race relations since the end of the Civil War. Exhibits C through ZZZ: all manners of social, economic and political strife that have stained our national fabric since the original 13 colonies were stitched into a nation.
Today, however, we face unprecedented conditions, at least in modern times, that could lead to a wholesale unraveling of our national order. The leading adverse condition is fragmentation of the “news.” This has contributed substantially to our societal disunity.
Not so long ago (in the life of a 65-year old), daily “news” was purveyed mainly via three national television networks and local city newspapers. Public TV had a limited following. Cable news did not yet exist nor, of course, did the internet. Whether this state of affairs was “good” or “bad,” it provided a common reference point for the vast majority of citizens.
During the Watergate Scandal, 71% of American adults watched televised coverage of the Senate Select Committee Hearings. Two-thirds of Americans watched trusted anchors report the highlights.
Not so today. Only around a quarter of the population “get news” from television (of any kind), while most people draw information from social media and from all corners, light and dark, of the internet. The information is splintered—what one person hears and sees of it can be quite different from what another apprehends—and much of it is misinformation and manipulated by pundits and commentators, who don’t operate as traditional journalists; or worse, misinformation is disseminated by bots controlled by a foreign, authoritarian regime intent on destabilizing our society.
In the current era, literally anything passes as “newsworthy.” Missing from so much of “news” is responsible, fact-based editing. What is responsibly edited reaches only a segment of the population—or more precisely, only a segment of the population seeks responsible journalism.
When the most damning news regarding Trump is oozing out of CNN and MSNBC studios, FoxNews shifts into high gear parroting the latest disordered version of White House/Republican counter-strategy. Even if people are not watching the propaganda arm of the White House, they’re not necessarily watching CNN or MSNBC or reading NYT or WSJ or following along at all.
All of which creates disunity, and under the shadow of impeachment . . . the potential for chaos.
We Americans are no longer in the same classroom learning the same subject from the same teacher. Class has been dismissed—without notice of when or even if it will resume. We’ve scattered to the playground without teacher supervision. It’s a free-for-all, and one by one the fences are failing
Beware the playground bullies, for they too are now on the loose.
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© 2019 Eric Nilsson
