what is past is prologue

I like history. I read historical books just for pleasure but I won’t say I am a historian or have any advanced knowledge beyond anyone else who has taken a history class or two. However, from my personal knowledge of history, I have been wondering if we are on the verge of a watershed moment. A critical turning point.  A moment in time where everything changes.

In watching the politic discourse saturated with divisiveness and what appears to me to be a exponential widening of philosophical differences, I find myself sad and worried. Listening to NPR the other day I heard an author speak to the insane growth in extremest groups just since Obama was elected. I am also saddened knowing that as humans we have to seek the so called unalienable right to marry from an apathetic electorate. Why people care about someone else’s marriage confounds me daily. And, I am watching with disgust as a battle is played out in political arenas over the rights I have over my own body.

So here we are again and again and again. There is a focus by the legislative branches on extreme social policy underpinned by an true economic crisis. Ring any bells? Hello Mr. Lincoln.

What is past is prologue.

While I don’t really believe we are in for a civil war fought on the soil, we are in a real civil war of social policy that is having a dire affect on political and economic policy. I don’t think there will ever really be wars fought in such narrow bounds ever again. We are now in a constant state of war. There are no real defined enemies, no winners or losers. We are being fed a cacophony of boogie men. A distraction. Here at home in the good old USA the electorate is being pitted against one another over topics that should be nothing more than a individual’s rights and protections in a free society. Instead, we are being introduced to a host of foreign sources to blame for our woes. We are being controlled by fear, hate and divisiveness.

As we edge closer to another election, I do think we are at another important moment in time after the voting lever falls. No mater what you believe or how you vote, after the election, there are going to be huge consequences we all will have to face. There will be no winners.

That being said, I am still optimistic that it is just one of those moments and it will pass. What has me hopeful is my belief that there are other tipping points coming very soon. We are just one “generation” from when my generation, Gen X comes into real positions of power. We are a small generation so it will be only a short time after that when Gen Y and the Millennials will begin having real influence over social, political and economic policy. There will always be “haters” but their ranks are shrinking and the smaller a group gets the louder they shout and the more extreme they become in the spirit of protectionism. Shrinking because, the younger generation has come of age in a very different time. Information flows freely for them and their perspective is broader than any that have come before.

I hope I am right. A the very least, I am looking forward to the pendulum swinging back the other way awhile.