When Did It Become All About “Me”?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Sep 2, 2012
I refused to watch the Republican National Convention last week, and I'm refusing to watch the Democratic National Convention as well. For the most part I've tried to stay away from politics, although that's not as easy to do as it sounds since I do come at things from a liberal, albeit not radical, position. I don't catch everything in the newspapers or through online news sources, but I hear things here and there.
The one thing that's been inescapable over probably the last 7 years is that our politicians have forgotten how to compromise. On both sides it's become more about "me", what I want in totality instead of each side getting a little, giving a little, and ending up with something that's not perfect, but a working document that can be worked on over time.
That's how government has almost always worked. Sure, we haven't always been happy with how things have come out. Personally I'm not happy that I lost the ability to play online poker for free and win free stuff when the internet gambling bill was included in a bill to protect the shores of this country but I took it, knowing that there would be forces working to get it overturned later on, and that's continuing.
But in general, compromise has become a forgotten word, and not just in politics. How many labor issues have their been in professional sports over the last 10 years? How many companies have had their workers go out on strike, or have decided to send workers overseas or just close the doors, take their money and go home?
How many companies keep suing each other over patent and copyright issues? How many companies are hauling regular people into court because they downloaded a song off the internet that they might not have known was an illegal act?
It's become an "all or nothing" world, which of course comes back to "me". People feel justified in wanting everything their way. Goodness, I feel that way often, although I don't expect to get my way all the time. Talk about a mental shift for an only child. lol
I have to admit that as an adult I've gotten my way often. However, it wasn't because I brow beat anyone to get it. Instead, I always opened up the lines of communication, and if no one offered anything then we did it my way. If someone offered up something that was better than my suggestion, we went that way. And if we could find a way to integrate different points of view, then we did that.
It's supposed to be about finding the best way, not just one way. It's supposed to be about everyone, not just a special few.
As we head into Labor Day tomorrow here in the United States and in Canada I hope everyone first honors the relationship between working employees and management. I also hope that everyone remembers that compromise isn't a dirty word; it's way more than 4 letters and often it's the best way to go to get things done.
Certainly, this is a global problem of politics nowadays. There is not balance, that’s why I think that the gap between poverty and prosperity is becoming too wide. Other than that, people have also turned and everybody is looking only personal interest without helping others. I am quite sure that in every country if there is a road accident, there will be at least 20 cars to pass before somebody stop and try to help.
The world has changed Carl. Not sure if they ever had this where you live but in this country there used to be a lot of people who hitchhiked places, whether to go further down the street or across country. The other day I saw my first hitchhiker in probably a decade, and no one, including me, was looking to pick him up. Those days are gone, not just because we don’t trust others but because we all have our own things to deal with. That’s just the direction we’ve all gone, and unfortunately, we have to worry about our own safety and needs first.
Yeah, I think nobody do that anymore globally. Actually, I have a friend artist that still practice hitchhiking, but he is the only one. About 8 years ago back in China, hitchhiking was quite popular, the industrial area where was my company, you could easily see 6 people on a motorbike, people were helping each other to mode from this zone to bus station or subway, I was really impressed, first time when about 5 bikes beeped at me asking me where I am going and offered me to take me free there as we are going same way.
In politics at least, you can trace the rise of “me first” to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976) It struck down limits on campaign finance and equated money donations with First Amendment rights to free speech. What this did was free up candidates from having to obey the political parties–if you can raise your own money, do your own commercials–you can be totally on your own. The Tea Party electing fringe candidates over established party veterans would have been unthinkable. Now you have a House and a Senate full of individuals–with no real organizing principle to their term other than re-election.
I would tend to believe that the principles were always there and in politics, if it hadn’t been for that rule… well, obviously we see that people are people without regulation.