Nothing quite so succinctly captures the cultural spectacle and general media Zeitgeist of jousting ideological anachronisms than does the symbolic Greco-Roman wrestling match of a contemporary Presidential political debate. Quite agnostic of personal political and/or philosophical systems of belief, I am worried by the vacuum of integrity and character on display.
Having an opinion has become more important than the substance or validity and ethical consequence of that position. That’s our Zeitgeist and we should be worried. Should the fate of democracy, if indeed this is what is at stake, be grounded in the scattered ideological confetti and lowest common denominator of digital bread and circuses?
Yes, this is not good but to be quite honest, when has humanity ever really known how to negotiate the intractable enigma that it serially represents to itself? The moment at which intelligence and insight cease to find a valid place in leadership debates asks more significant questions of us than which political team or ideological tribe we might reflexively and emotionally identify with.
Food for thought: the stakes are high but the arguments are simplistic, repetitive and shallow. The medium to long-term future of human civilisation, such as it is, is not and should never be a remedial popularity contest.
Daedelus Kite 