Sowing the seeds of a socio-economic and/or political crisis in America

Part one of a series: The closer they are to home the more we pay attention to issues

In a three-part series of posts I will explain why I am seriously concerned about current, unchecked behavioral trends at the national level--especially at the top--sowing the seeds of a major socio-economic and/or political crisis in America. No one seems to be in a position of power sufficient to slow or stop the continued advance of these trends, not to mention reversing them. Examples of these dangerous trends include the spread of incivility in public discourse, disrespect for authority/truth/the rule of law, and abuses of social media, to name just a few.

Part one of the series talks about why, despite their potential for great harm to society, these behavior patterns receive far less attention than they deserve. Part two asks why we keep heading in the wrong direction when we know it is wrong? I will  draw parallels with the housing and mortgage market crises of 10 to 12 years ago to explain how today’s behavioral trends may have devastating effects on society if left unchecked. Part three offers thoughts on groupings of America leaders—political, religious, business leaders—who might have the capacity to slow and possibly stop the spread of these behaviors. 

To begin, no matter which hat we are wearing—adult, voter, citizen, doctor, lawyer—the more distance we perceive between ourselves and the actions or behaviors of others, the less we pay attention or express concern about them. There is a continuum from local to regional to national and finally to a global stage where these behavior patterns and actions play out.  With few exceptions, in part due to the pressures of time on our daily activities, our awareness and interest in and the amount of attention we pay to those subjects ranges from strong interest and direct involvement at the local level to casual awareness but virtually no concern or involvement with respect to issues at the national level.

The local level is a world within which we can exercise at least a degree of control and improve our coping skills by learning from direct observation and personal experience. Time pressures increase as we add years and responsibilities, however, thereby forcing us to choose that to which we should pay attention and that which we can ignore.  Our children’s elementary school is a good example of something to which we pay attention at the local level. Boorish behavior in Washington, D.C. is not.

At the same time there is a larger, regional world out there—think school district versus your children’s school, or state government and income taxes versus city/county governments and property taxes. Most of us will seldom focus on regional or state issues, in part because they are beyond our control and we seldom have personal experience with anything at the state level.

At the far extreme, the biggest picture of all would be the global stage, where things like the global balance of military power has the possibility of nuclear annihilation if managed poorly.  We generally read about global events and hear about them on television, but they are so far beyond our ken as to be of sporadic and casual interest and little concern for most adults. Rather than the global stage, I want to focus on the national stage, where important decisions are made and, for better or worse, Government leaders continually pass legislation affecting our daily lives but over which we have virtually zero control or even influence.  Likewise, America’s largest corporations, spread across the nation and across the globe, may take actions of significant importance to the American economy and yet these actions are of little if any concern to the vast majority of Americans. 

Only when a crisis occurs do average citizens refocus their attention and concern to the larger stage(s) where the crisis occurred.  Examples of such crises include war, financial market collapses and massive cybercrimes. Anyone seriously studying the antecedents to such crises often can find leading indicators hinting that problems were developing. Thankfully, it’s also true that for the types of crises I cited, there are public and private companies and agencies dedicated to preventing those crises and/or resolving them once they’ve occurred.

The same cannot be said for the dangerous behavior patterns we are seeing at the national level today: incivility in public discourse, disrespect for authority/truth/the rule of law, and abuses of social media, to name just a few.  In the next post I’ll identify more of the most egregious behaviors.  What’s causing my greatest concerns are that virtually every behavior pattern I’d consider “bad” has no constraints on its proliferation. No one individual or group* has as a mission the reversal of these bad behavioral trends. Most seem more intense and more deep-seated than they were a few years ago.  Many personal behavior patterns, like being rude or uncivil to one another, are not violations of law but show a complete lack of respect for others and greatly inhibit honest communication.  If you project the expansion of these bad behavior patterns as being unfettered by any rules, regulations or laws, where does their expansion end?  In chaos? All of this is going on at the national level, especially in Washington, D.C., far beyond the ability of ordinary citizens to influence, much less control such behavior.  Hence, they find it interesting at most, frustrating at worst, and powerless themselves to change the likely outcome.

*The Special Prosecutor is charged with examining whether or not laws have been broken, which is not the same thing as identifying and stopping or reversing bad behavior.