On Hostility

(Photo: thebriolife.com)

       
        On blogs all over the world, and of late, the US blogs as well, people are complaining that others have "gone crazy". Some have noticed that some people making physicians appointments are rude and demanding.  They have noticed that people in shops have been not only hostile to shopowners, but also to others who are also shopping in the same store. What I notice most of all, since I live so far from civilization, is that drivers are not only discourteous, but show a wanton disregard for their own safety, and for mine as well.  This is always doubly amazing to me when I see children in their car !  I report my share of dangerous drivers to law enforcement, and they catch a few, but most seem to get away.  One of my sons was recently hit in his car by a woman he says must have hit him deliberately.  She made eye contact and then still continued forward and hit his car. (She has since paid dearly when her insurance company couldn't get her to communicate with them afterward, and so they paid for my son's repairs and dropped her insurance afterward.)
              Although I do carry a weapon, this doesn't mean that it's okay to allow situations with rude people to accelerate into shouting matches or hostility.  Whenever we can, we should let hostile or disturbed people go ahead and get out of our way. We don't need to win all our arguments, and we don't even need to launch them with people we will likely never see again, and don't really care about anyway.
               I don't pretend to have answers as to why "the world has gone mad".  I think some of my friends would equate this with End Times Prophecy, but I don't know.  Seems to me that the "End Times" related to us from a heavenly perspective could last quite a long time from our own. Perhaps it that people are more pressured by having "nowhere to hide". Wherever we are, cellphones, landlines, televisions, and news bludgeons us with their sensationalized versions of the days news and sometimes we have had enough.  The ever shrinking world economy and predictions for the same don't help. I actually live very simply and so I feel a measure of protection from some of this. However, even I have grave concerns as to how my children will do in a world in which there are very few jobs that would support a family.
               Sadly, the president touted as the person who would repair the last remaining racial disagreements in the United States has proven to be a divisive figure himself.  I don't care at all about his ethnicity, but I think he is incompetent and inexperienced. This draws me fire in some circles where they think any criticism of "their savior" is tantamount to racism.   Some groups think Obama's presidency means they will get everything they wish. Others believe that it could spell the death knell for our nation and its Constitution as we know it.  Al Jazeera News yesterday had a very interesting discussion on the Obama administrations monitoring and potential imprisoning of American citizens for an indefinite period without trial. Apparently, this has been possible for the last year, yet conventional US news outlets have failed to mention it.
              The electronic and information age has created a lot of hullabaloo and discomfort for a lot of people. It has also taken people from reading newspapers and really understanding some of the issues in our world, to being a sound byte generation.  Many people know very, very little of the workings of their nation, or the truth of any political or national issue.  I think the same is coming soon to other nations, also slaves to the electronic age.
             All over the world, there is open hostility for those who practice another faith.  In the words of someone whose family used to own the land I am sitting on,

" But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

            So long as extremist Muslims don't plan to behead me, why would I care that they worship a God they call by a different name than I call mine ?

               I think all we can do, is keep reading.  Try to balance a certain amount of reading from a variety of sources.  I will keep listening to the admittedly biased Russia Today and BBC. I will listen to the Israeli News when I can get them, NHK News, and Al Jazeera, which has become quite good.   I will listen to less and less of the biased and inaccurate Good Morning America, and other newslets designed for the terminally ADHD adult.  Take care of yourselves out there.