That's How Cohesion Crumbles

It’s a funny thing our personal interactions today. We seem to have mysteriously lost the ability to truly communicate with each other. Picture it in your mind. Sit and think of your total number of interactions last week as compared to the number of people you casually passed here or there, the time spent with family and friends, and your time at work. If you really stop and think about it, it’s a rather abysmal commentary on where we are as a society these days.

First, we have the wonderful miracle of multi-culturalism. We don’t have to be a melting pot, or blend in, because we have the right to make our adopted homeland just like the hole we escaped from to get there. It’s only fair. So, this leads to division, enclavism and general unrest laid upon racial and cultural lines. White folk won’t talk to Black Folks, who won’t talk to Hispanic/Chicano (See, multi-culturalism again) folks, who won’t talk to Asian folks, who won’t talk to Slavic folks, etc. We see someone who is different and barriers go up. Distrust is built-in and is fomented by groups that want to divide everything, base everything, and blame everything on race. And no one takes more blame than White men, but that’s another essay on Racism actually being color-blind. Let us try to stay on point.

Next we get division based on fear. There is a world of violence out there and the “Criminal Justice” system isn’t really stemming the tide. Felons get off on technicalities and the police are more handcuffed than those they are supposed to keep us safe from. So, we’ve been taught by a society that refuses to see the victim and give them rights, to not make eye contact. Don’t say hi by any means, you’ll just provoke the madman giggling in the head of the next person in line at the supermarket. If you get attacked, hey, we told you to keep everything to yourself. So we don’t really smile at each other, say hi, be friendly or even act like we actually live in a society together.

Finally we come to the fear of the other side of the coin, the lawsuit. We don’t care to part with our hard earned cash because someone got offended at something we’ve said. It’s funny that we have this Bill of Rights thing that specifically states that the freedom of speech shall not be infringed upon. I’ve read it, and I find it funny when compared to today’s laws. It’s funny because you can actually become a criminal just for making a comment to someone that they, in turn, took the wrong way. Boy was I surprised when I found out Sexual Harassment was three words. Apparently the Judicial System picks and chooses the Amendments it’s got a hard-on for that day and ignores the rest. So we don’t talk to folks, don’t communicate, because we are afraid that the process server will come and deliver us a nice lawsuit, and possible criminal charges.

The amazing thing about all these barriers, all these roadblocks to communication, is that we have no idea they are there. We, most of the time, don’t make the conscious decision to be closed off. The high idea of a Utopia for all has drained us of our social capital. We have nothing to trade on to keep us interacting. By wanting to exclude no group, we’ve managed to alienate each one. A society is defined by Webster’s as, “An enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another.” We have lost our relationships and our interactions. The patterns have been shattered and we’ve lost the knowledge to put them back together.

Unless we learn how to communicate again, we’ll have no society left at all.

-Jesse W.