Reality Check

What’s Going On?

A hit recording by Marvin Gaye in 1971 posed the question, “What’s Going On?” As a college student in Ohio when this song came on the scene, I spent hours with friends discussing world affairs, politics, the war in Vietnam, the evils of the ruling class. Convinced that our generation would set the world on course and bring about the utopia envisioned in the song’s passionate appeal to mothers, brothers and fathers: “We’ve got to find a way to bring some lovin’ here today!”

Fifty-four years later another generation rises to echo these same words. Struggling to make sense of what’s going on, we all press to develop strategies aimed at bringing the positive energy of love into a chaotic political, social and economic world and implement solutions that work for our families. Marvin Gaye led us in wringing our hands and pointing accusing fingers at the problems. But I’d like to engage us in pooling our brain power and crafting plans for moving us forward collectively.

A book by Martin Gurri’s entitled, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, has helped me gain insight and clarity to begin understanding what’s going on. It led me into what I call a reality check. Published in 2014 and updated in 2018, his writing prophetically illuminates events of the 2024 election and outlines certain factors which are transforming the political and economic landscape. Best of all he points to the emergence of new tools which will empower ordinary citizens to govern our own lives.

I want to set the stage, introduce the players, discuss motivations and goals and suggest workable strategies. This will lay a solid foundation upon which positive solutions will be built. While fully developing all of this will likely require more than one short article, we can get a running start now and stir up excitement for things to come.

Setting the stage.

We live in what many are calling a post-industrial social, political and economic era, driven by explosive technological development. This change is happening at a speed that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Navigating the maze of change and information is like flying a fighter jet pulling G’s at warp speed! In the year 2001, the volume of available information doubled that of all previous years of human history. In 2002, that volume doubled again. Necessary decisions are made in an environment where options are infinite, supporting data doubles overnight and much of what was known to be true in the past has, today, been scientifically proven to be inadequate or flawed. That’s the scene.

Introducing the players.

The players (from the beginning of written history until the industrial age era and beyond) are the elites (or authority) class and the public (all of the rest of us!) From earliest times, humans as hunter/gathers had little need for social structures, hierarchy, authority, or economic systems. Similarly, farmer families living on the land found little need for a formal, social structure. But when bands of marauders began disrupting peaceful activities, productive citizens were forced to band together for protection. They formed cities, with various levels of structure, politics, customs, standards and rules. Institutions, businesses and monetary currencies were established to facilitate life in a communal environment. Elite, authority personalities emerged as the populace sought out those among its ranks who were strong, capable and honest to provide leadership and direction.

Technology

For most of history, the authorities governed by controlling vital resources – the most important being information. Elites were the educated and the wealthy. They talked and the people (illiterate and poor) listened. Enter technology. Reaching back to the very beginning of information we find the invention of written language expressed first on tablets of stone and then clay. Later came papyrus, parchment and vellum, formatted in first scrolls and then books. With the invention of the printing press, it was—GAME OVER! The elite establishment of that time – the kings and the church – lost control of the populace and would never again have a complete monopoly on information.

Control

Censorship enforced by strict penalties became the method for controlling the distribution of information and keeping all the cards in the hands of the privileged class. This tool continued to be effective throughout the industrial age and was only somewhat weakened during the computer/internet era. But it has been totally dismantled in the digital age.

Today about 8.5 billion people on planet earth possess an estimated 6 billion cell phones. Even the most repressive governments struggle to maintain control of information. There was a time when broadcast journalist, Walter Conkrite, claimed to report all the news worth reporting, punctuated by his famous tagline, “And that’s the way it is!” An entire generation swallowed his reports like baby birds, having no recourse to any other information. But in today’s digital world, a 15-year-old with insomnia can dredge up factual information to refute a news report, post it on social media in the wee hours of the night, and receive credible, published validation from thousands by the next morning. The digital media has snatched the power of information from the grasp of the privileged few and placed this resource in the hands of the people.

So now what?

The script has been flipped. In theory, “we the people” have been gifted, by technology, all the power we need to establish fairness and equality to the social, political and economic systems that govern our lives. The question becomes, “Will we do it?’ We are disorganized, untrained, unskilled, passengers on an aircraft in flight, out-of-control with no competent pilot. How can we mobilize ourselves to correct the course and steer the aircraft in a positive direction? Answer: the same technology that gave us the controls will also deliver the strategies.

Stay tuned as future discussions unveil the motivations, goals and workable strategies that will, in the words of Marvin Gay, “bring some lovin’ here today!”

Connect with Gail on her website or read more from her on Plaid.