A Matter of [Poor] Priorities

This morning a friend called and without so much as a how-d'ya-do, said, "Did you see that?"

"See what?" I asked. My mind, trained as it has been by the media we all watch, shifted into catastrophic-gear.

"Obama sends 30,000 men and women into Afghanistan…" he paused. I wondered whether that alone had upset him. He wasn't particularly left or right wing, so I wasn't sure where it was going. He continued after a moment.

"And within 24 hours all those young people and maybe the fate of the entire world takes a backseat to Tiger Woods' sex life. That's **** crazy! How the hell can Americans do that?"

Being a computer whiz, he decided to check whether the shift in attention was corporate driven or organic. And what he found was disturbing.

Indeed, it was organic. People were simply googling, yahooing, clicking, and searching on anything that had anything to do with Mr. Woods' intimate relations. They were salivating for salacious details on him, his female friends, his wife's mortification and shame, the ripples it would cause in his finances.

We went from worrying about an escalating military situation in a part of the world where nuclear weapons are considered sacraments to the gods to fixating on Mr. Woods' wood.

Pathological Priorities

How could this happen, he wanted to know. He was infuriated. I was disturbed and dismayed, but not surprised.

This is the psychopathology of addiction, the sequelae to 50 years of viral fear in the media, and the natural result of a decayed spiritual state.

As a culture, we have spent most of our time, energy and money in the search for comfort, convenience and entertainment. We don't want to be bothered by protests, letter-writing campaigns, and political involvement. We have remotes and channel-surfers for that.

It's a derivative of a mental state I call "Flushing's Syndrome." If we don't see it, it doesn't exist. If we flush it, toss it, or dump it down a river, it's gone. So we don't have to worry about it anymore.

Whether we lean left or right, whether we think it's necessary to act aggressively in Afghanistan or not, is not the issue at all here. I believe both sides of the political fence are culpable here. It's emotionally much easier to think about Tiger Woods and his narcissistic shenanigans than it is to contemplate the consequences of a military build-up and a nuclear fallout.

It's much "nicer" to have happy thoughts about what we're going to get, buy, or eat this Christmas than it is to think about those who get, buy and eat almost nothing.

This is a country of incalculable contradictions. We are courageous and cowardly. We are more heroic and helpful as a nation than anyone, anywhere else, but we are simultaneously more entitled and slothful. We are more "religious" but decidedly less spiritual in the way we behave than we should be.

So, I told him it was simple to understand. We're addicted to feeling good, getting what we want when we want it, and avoiding consequences.

"Junkies," he said.

Yup.