Third Time’s a Charm: Politics in the Age of Information Overload
By Phil Erwin
Every couple of years, we all get serious about voting in our favored candidates in order for them to Do Something! about making our lives better – hopefully by making our nation better.
We get serious for maybe a couple of weeks. Maybe.
After that, we mostly go back to what we were doing – Video games, or Game of Thrones; planning a wedding, or recovering from divorce. Millions of us still spend most of our time trying to find a job; or trying to find a better one; or getting loaded because we’re so discouraged from looking.
The fact that we don’t think that much, or that deeply, about politics is evinced clearly by “Man On The Street” interviews that often appear on late-night comedy/variety shows, wherein our fellow citizens wax ridiculous in response to the most basic of questions. One of the most entertaining and revealing of these “MOTS” interviews was Jay Leno’s “Jay Walking.” Hilarious. And scary. Leno’s most noteworthy current imitator is Jesse Watters, whose Watters’ World segments appear on Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor about once a week, and never fail to be both amusing and cringe-worthy. Here’s a sampling from Watters’ recent interviews:
Fox News Insider: Watters’ World
“Who was the first President of the US?”
“That is a great question. I have no idea.”
“When was George Washington president?”
“1983.”
“Who is our Vice President?”
“Gore?”
“What year was our Constitution signed?
“1976.”
“Who won the Civil War?”
“I think we did.”
“Who was President during World War II?”
“Winston Churchill? Bush! Am I close?”
“Who bombed Pearl Harbor?”
“You’re puttin’ me on the spot here! China? Korea!”
“What body of water is on the East coast of the US?
“The Red Sea. No? Lake Erie?”
“What is the name of our national anthem?
“The National Anthem. Is it a trick question?”
“Are you worried about Benghazi?
“Is he gonna be running against her [Hillary]?”
Now, I could write a scathing rebuke of our politics-challenged fellow citizens – But twenty years ago, I might have sounded as inane as the folks foolish enough to chat with Watters on camera. Because back then I was nose-down in a Silicon Valley IT career, which often meant longing for the relative ease of a sixty-hour work week. Politics? Current events? I barely had enough time to tie my shoes, let alone catch a news broadcast or skim a paper.
And that’s a big part of the problem with politics in America – Nobody’s got time for it. Four score and some years ago, people actually sat around the bar or the kitchen table and talked politics. Now that only happens in Iowa and New Hampshire.
O’Reilly laments the sorry state of the electorate’s political knowledge, and correctly points out that we kinda get what we deserve when we simply don’t know enough to choose better public servants than we do. But for those of us who don’t make our living paying close attention to the news of the day, it’s very difficult to keep up. And getting more difficult practically every day.
Why is that?
Well, one big reason is what is called “Information Overload.” The ubiquitous, instantaneous access to everything, everywhere with a click or two on a phone or tablet means we can spend every waking second browsing the Internet for… stuff. Some of it pretty good stuff. Much of it a complete waste of time, or worse, misleading. And the thing about surfing the Web is that it constantly presents us with new things that we weren’t even looking for, but just can’t help checking out.
You might say, it’s like having complete and instant availability of everything ever known, except that we have to wade through a never-ending electronic garbage dump to find anything. And somehow, the contents of that dump wind up in our homes and in our lives, just because we dared to poke around.
Sadly, the Internet is as full of mind garbage as it is of intellectual diamonds.
Bill Gates long ago predicted everyone on the planet eventually would want (need?) a computer on his desk, and another in the home. It seemed pretty far-fetched at the time; but now the notion seems almost quaint. Most everyone in the “civilized” world now carries a computer (“smartphone”) on his belt or in her purse, and those computers are enormously more powerful, capable and useful than were the desktop variety back in Gates’ heyday.
Are we better off for it? Did the extraordinary growth in capability of computer technologies make better lives for us all? Did the Computer Revolution create that Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow that Disney envisioned fifty years ago in his Carousel of Progress?
The jury’s still out on that. We can talk or text with anyone anywhere on the planet, providing both parties have “bars.” So now we can waste time “chatting” with everyone. We can look up anything and find out everything about it – but it’s a huge time drain. Another few years and our car will be our chauffeur, our refrigerator will order a sixer of Bud to replace what we drank last night, and our phone will call us, as well as 911, when there’s a break-in – and route video of the suspect to the officers responding. Pretty kool stuff.
But the downside of all that jazzy lifestyle is a Black Hole of new issues. If your car’s autopilot has a software bug, who sues whom for lost legs and lives? If Twitter says there’s an ISIS call for action at your airport, do you elect to drive across country? If your Facebook friends tell you they heard the fastest way to lose weight is a juice cleanse and daily immersion in a cyanide mud bath, should you believe ‘em and try it?
And what do you do when the power grid goes down?
Our computer-driven world is infinitely more complicated than it was fifty years ago. And the thing about total access to a never-ending universe of information is: You bear the responsibility for evaluating it. Do you trust it, or not? Will it help you, or hurt you? Is it worth your time?
Now we’re inundated with “information” about prospective candidates two years before the next election, even if we’re not asking. Sign one petition, sign up for one newsletter, donate to one candidate’s cause, and your Inbox is flooded with a never-ending stream of political polemic, complete with electronic hands groping for your donation dollars. But again: Total availability of information about candidates and issues means you have evaluate it. Should you trust what you read, and hear, or not?
If you vote for someone, will it ultimately help you or hurt you?
You better figure out how to figure that out. Because, contrary to that old adage: What you don’t know can hurt you. (Can you say Affordable Care Act?)
If you can’t figure things out on your own, you’ll believe what everyone else does. Which means those Man-On-The-Street folks will be deciding who runs the show.
Which is why Obama’s keen on making voting mandatory. He’s counting on you to not figure things out. Because making you believe that You can trust me! is the stock-in-trade of good orators and snake-oil salesmen. Both of which describe Obama perfectly. So he’s gearing up to make sure you’ll be taking him seriously, next time around. Except…
Wait… There’s not supposed to be a next time around, is there?
Well. Maybe he’s got something cooking. Like, maybe he gets that Iran nuke “deal” signed, and then says, “See? Nobody else could get that deal done! You need me for another term. Maybe you should make me Emperor!”
Don’t scoff. Sure, it would take a Constitutional Amendment. That is, unless he just decides to use his pen. Same thing with making voting mandatory – If he can sell that it’s a good idea, he’ll just sign an Executive Order, and who’s gonna stop him?
You might say, “Congress.” But when have they stopped him so far?
Yeah.
You know that other old adage: “Third term’s a charm.”
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Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He sometimes wishes he could support Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies, and is none too fond of Statistics. If his writing depresses you, he recommends you visit Chip Bok’s site for a more lighthearted perspective.
Mr Erwin’s motto: If you don’t watch FOX, you don’t know sh*t.
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