There’s been no shortage of incendiary news headlines for months.
Indictments and gag orders, air strikes and tunnels, civil war and government upheaval. And that’s the hardly scratching the surface.
What’s been so striking to me is how much control we’ve allotted to media, propaganda and news. We are inundated with updates on war, humanitarian crises and government reform. Since Vietnam we’ve been bringing coverage of calamity into our homes and minds at all hours, all days of the week. Now more than ever we have endless access to information, a cacophony of voices shouting at no one and everyone all at once.
As humans we’re not meant to absorb this level of tragedy, especially on such a magnificent scale as we do today.
I’m a big believer in the power of words, and I have many thoughts on how statements and phrases are being yielded like weapons of mass destruction.
At the same time, I feel as though voices are being hurled into a black hole. Optimism and pessimism absorbed by the unadulterated lack of light.
We are screaming at each other until our lungs give out, trading insults and admonishments. Begging for humanity to be recognized and fairness to be doled out in heaps.
The irony falls heavily upon me. Everyone is begging for respect and reverence for human life, but so few seem willing to admit that human life exists within the opposition. And those that dare cradle the complexity of conflict are shouted down by others who insist that they have been enlightened and are on the right side of history.
There will be no resolution that is acceptable to all. Compromise rarely leaves all parties completely satiated. There will be disappointment and disbelief, distaste and disdain. The end will be an ellipsis, hardly a period and never an exclamation.
