Various Thoughts on the Current State of Our Society

This is going to be weird post. I was initially thinking that it was just going to be kind of hodge podge of thoughts, but then realized that, with us coming off this most recent election cycle and certain entities being bound and determined to be sure we don't get a break before starting the next, most of them seemed to come back to some sort of political thought. So here are some thoughts. They may be political or they may not. Those that are, I'll try to un-politicize a little bit. Agree or disagree; take them or leave them. I don't care.

• It seems my generation of folks worked really hard to quit labeling things. Truth is, to some degree, I still don't like being put into your box. If you try to put me in one, there's a pretty high chance that I'll do something to show you that box doesn't work from me and your label isn't worth the paper you used to print it. The younger generations seem be trying to bring labels back in a big way. My generation said to just be you. The new generations say to just be you, but be sure to call yourself a dog lover or a cat lover so they understand you.
• By trying to label everything and everyone, I think we do a disservice to a lot of people. People these days want to label you so they can put you into their box, and then they define you by the extremes that are in that box. Tell the wrong person that you're a dog person, and they immediately accuse you of wanting to kill all cats. Tell someone that you like lemon pie better than apple pie, and they immediately spread the word that you're un-American and hate baseball.
• We've allowed the media and politicians to turn us into an us vs them society. And, yes, I primarily blame those two groups for doing it. Remember the old story about how the Civil War turned us into a country that no longer said "the United States are" but rather "the United States is"? It's a simple, but profound, difference. We're now beginning to make another shift. This one for the worse. We seem to be turning from "the United States" into "the loose collective of people that live within a particular geographic boundary." Because we all hate each other.
  Now days it's very much that you're either with us or against us. We draw the line in the sand and expect that everyone step over to our side. Now, rather than appreciating the diversity that different views bring and working toward compromise on those things we can, we demand that everyone agree with our ideologies. No compromise. No middle ground. If you didn't step over that line I drew a couple of sentences ago, then I can no longer be associated with you because only evil stays on that side of the line.
• Those labels that tend to be the most extreme version of what's in the box have become a litmus test for those that we associate with, do business with, vote for, work with, etc. And, if that litmus paper turns out pink and not blue, then there's no way you're going to be my friend. 
  We use those labels to gatekeep to some disagree. You call yourself a dog person but don't want a chihuahua? Then you're not really a dog person at all, and your golden retriever should be taken away from you and given to another family. You said you don't want that chihuahua, so you're obviously anti-dog. But you called yourself a dog person, so that means you're also anti-cat. You don't actually like cats or dogs. You probably even abuse the dog that you have. I can't be friends with you anymore because you obviously hate animals. 
  And to think that we went from "I don't want a chihuahua" to "you hate animals" because no one ever stopped to talk to anyone else and assumptions were made and quickly compounded. In reality, the golden retriever family just has small kids so a small, fragile dog like a chihuahua might not be a good fit. If somebody had just had an open minded discussion at any point during that decline, think of all the problems that would've been avoided.
• Everybody has a cause, and too many demand that everyone see eye to eye with them that their cause is the most important. You're not really a cat person, but you volunteer at a local dog rescue. Well the cat people think you should be doing your volunteer work at the cat rescue. You should be advocating for cats, not dogs, because that's what I do. You tell me that you like cats, but you volunteer at the local people food bank, so you're actually anti-cat, and, if you're anti-cat, then that makes you a bad, no, an evil person. Oh wait, you do volunteer at a local cat rescue? Well it's for tabbies and calicos, so you're still a bad person. The only way for me to no longer consider you bad is to start volunteering at the same cat rescue that I do.
• I'm not sure how we get past this. Actually, I have some ideas, but I have no idea how to get people to work on them. After all, people gonna people, and people are generally stupid. And, yes, I include myself in that because I'm a people too. 
  
  • We need to talk more. Get out of your insular bubble called social media. Get your news from more than one source, and be sure that one of the sources is from the other side. Talk to your coworkers. Talk to your neighbors. And make sure that every chat doesn't revolve around politics or your pet cause. Just chat. Then maybe we'll begin to realize that, just because I drive a Ford and you drive a Chevy you're not really a bad person. It just means that you like your radio to automatically turn down when you slow down and I like to turn the knob to turn it down. And you'll see that your neighbor on the other side isn't all bad because they have a blue Ford and yours is red. They just like another color.
    
  • Quit with the us vs them mentalities. Just stop it. Everybody isn't against you. Also, everybody isn't for you. Also, also, there are plenty of people that just don't care. Between those that are actually for you and the don't-cares, the ratio of those not against you is probably heavily stacked in your favor.
    
  • Quit being the person that jumps to conclusions about others and shoving them into the worst part of your boxes. In fact, stop making snap judgements about others, and just get rid of your boxes. 
    
  • Quit using those ideologies and -isms as a litmus test for who is worthy to  associate with you. Remember that when you're judging someone on their worthiness, someone else is judging you on yours. And that whole worthiness thing... That implies that you're superior to those you're judging. You're not. And they're not better than you. 
    
  • Realize that the world isn't as black and white as we like make it out to be.  In my younger days, I was very black and white. In a lot of ways, I still am. But the older I get the more I realize that there's also a LOT of grey in the world. Grey isn't black. Neither is it white. Quit trying to put everything that's not white into the black box and everything that's not black into the white box. Black is black, white is white, and grey isn't either one.
  • Remember that whole line about "do unto others"? Yes, it comes from the Bible, and you can take offense to it for that reason if you so desire, but there's a lot of wisdom in it. Treat others like you want them to treat you. If we would all start doing that, so many of our problems would go away.