How the world has changed.

There were some very insightful comments made on one of the 9/11 shows I heard today.  One person remarked that half of the commentators claim that religion has become more radicalized (all religions, not just Islam) and the other half of the commentators claim that the religious have become more liberal and accepting.  How can both be true?  Just like in our politics and economics, we are losing the middle.  No more political moderates - we have progressives and Tea Partiers.  No income equality, we have the rich and the stagnant (which is erasing the middle class).  And also with religion.  People  are either fundamentalist or have given up religion altogether.  We are losing the people who are religious, have faith, but are also accepting and tolerant of others.  We need to find people who say “You know what?  You believe in G-d in one way, I believe in G-d in another way, but we both want to fight poverty, or help the environment, so let’s put our differences aside and work together on these problems.”

The other insight I thought as very relevant was talking about politics and the media. A century ago, the politicians told us what to think because the masses weren’t educated enough to really understand policy decisions.  The media told us who to believe. 

Now, we have politicians using political consultants to create emotional appeals that circumvent rationality and the media is half made up of commentators who do more of the same.  Blather blather.  There are so few sources we can go to now that give us the costs and benefits of each opinion and encourage us to make up our own mind. Fair and Balanced may be a good slogan, but it doesn't exist in the mainstream media any more.