America is dealing with a lot of important decisions right now. If we had a national Facebook page, it’s relationship status would be set to “It’s Complicated”. Few people have a clear grasp of any issue and our focus on hyperbole instead of fact and reason.
It seems from the informal debates that I’ve taken part in, most people are getting their “facts” from the 24 hour news cycle, a blend of opinion, partisanship, and conspiracy, neatly packaged and then served up in a 15 minute block on the evening news.
In a recent discussion with some family, the major complaint that they had about the healthcare bill was that it was too complicated to follow. Indeed, the Republicans in Washington have often complained at the size of the healthcare bill, saying that it wasn’t possible to read and comprehend the bill due it’s size.
Opponents of the healthcare bill complained so loudly about the size of the bill that President Obama’s staff eventually capitulated to political pressure and created an 11 page version of the bill that summarized it’s goals in a concise manner.
When I saw this, I started to ask myself why the American public feels the need to have policy limited to a 15 minute read. If an issue is complex, and the legislation involved is broad, wouldn’t you expect the documentation to reflect that fact? Do we now expect our legislation to be served up like a fast food meal, hot, quick, and complete in 5 minutes? Why do we have this expectation?
I found another example of this attitude when I was having lunch with friends. Different political / social topics came up and the general consensus of opinion that they had was that they didn’t have the time to stay up on what was going on. However, if you were to push on an issue that had a partisan slant, just about everyone at the table had an instant opinion.
Reality Check
The issues that face America right now are extremely complex, and the average person is neither equipped or interested in doing the work required to fully understand them.
The financial meltdown that happened in 2009 was one of the biggest “oh shit” moments of our life-time. It put millions out of work and spread a fear throughout our entire country that everyone felt. I watched CNBC for six months straight, trying to get a good understanding of “what went wrong” and the only thing I know for a fact right now, after all that, is that I simply will not fully understand the issue.
When it comes to the healthcare bill, I also acknowledge that the issue is complex enough to confound my most of the time. I’ve actually read much of the bill and at times, I would get completely lost. However, I believe that this is due to the complexity of the subject matter, not because of the page count.
What’s the Answer?
Truth is, I don’t know for sure. However I do know that the answer will not be attained by simply demanding that the subject matter be simplified.
You cannot just take a complex topic and condense it into a easy-to-digest morsel that people can comprehend via Twitter. If this were possible, rocket science and heart surgery would not be limited to a small group of individuals.
I do know that the first step towards turning these debates on important issues into meaningful, useful progress is for people to start taking it seriously. Stop watching your favorite opinion news cast, and regurgitating their slant as fact, be a responsible adult, read the bills, research the issues, and exercise your right to vote!
It will take hard work to get through the hurdles that face America and we can’t simply choose the path of ignorance, simply because it offers temporary bliss.
Interesting post Sam, and very observant. I definitely think people get their news with a slant, and regurgitate information rather than form their own opinions. You’ve definitely given me something to think about…thanks!
I don’t know that I personally support this healthcare bill. I support the effort, I support the general idea, I just don’t know for myself whether this is the right thing.
However, I’ve actually read the damn bill, I’ve done my own fact checking, and my opinion is my own, and not just some regurgitated Tard Party talking point from FAUX News, or MSNBC.
Being able to hit the talking points doesn’t make you intelligent, or patriotic. It makes you a damn sheep.
I like this post. I also like the videos you posted.
I tend to have these sort of debates a lot with family members so I’ll be forwarding this along.
“the average person is neither equipped or interested in doing the work required to fully understand them”
Absolutely right, and I fall in that group of people. I don’t feel like I understand the proposed HCR well enough to be able to take a side. So when my main source of information on the reform comes from biased opinions and news channels, it gets pretty hard to weed through the crap without having to do my own in depth research.
I think we would have better leaders, and a better society, if everyone did their homework instead of regurgitating whatever they heard last from the media. Unfortunately we wind up with 20-30% of the population winning an election because 30-40% of them can’t be bothered to vote. And a vast majority of the of the people who do vote, use skewed or completely irrelivent information to form their political opinions. I don’t know the full effect of the health care plan yet, but I hope it does not turn into a financial disaster.
Thanks Kevin! I couldn’t agree more. So many people don’t exercize basic common sense or discipline when it comes to “politics” let alone voting.
@Seb – You’re in the exact same position to me. I think that it is foolish to have the attitude that you “know” something as complex as this. It’s a huge problem and it’s going to require quite a bit of debate.
On those videos I posted. I purposefully posted them because they were good examples of exactly what my post was talking about. On one, you get to see the average protestors understanding of the topic. Notice that 90% of what they talked about was re-hashed, hyperbolic talking points that add no truth to the core of the issue. On the other hand, you get to see someone who opposes the healthcare bill and who is able to -in detail- explain his reasoning and present a very clear case without resorting to vitriolic diatribes.
Since posting this, I’ve gotten 2 emails from #TCOT members and about 40 new followers on Twitter. Over half of the inbound DMs and BOTH emails accused me of being a socialist, and that basically hate America. All this they got from my post where I argue that common sense and hard work are required in order to understand the issue. …And I don’t even know if I do truly support the healthcare bill.
Should have scheduled this blog post for a time when I wasn’t so busy.
Oh, also, I’ve had some great feedback on my spelling and sentence structure. I try to fix them as I have time, however they simply don’t detract from the validity of my points.
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