A Short-Attention Span Nation
Do Americans lack the ability to concentrate on what they see or hear?
American society manifests a particular form of impatience: a desire for immediate gratification, a fondness for simple solutions to complex problems, and often a dismissive disregard for nuance. Americans, especially our politicians, like to talk about “common sense”; blogger Tom Lambert provides a to-the-point description of this widely-accepted belief:
Common sense, defined as "sound judgment derived from experience rather than study," is one of the most revered qualities in America. It evokes images of early and simpler times in which industrious men and women built our country into what it is today. People with common sense are seen as reasonable, down to earth, reliable, and practical… The problem with common sense is that it leads to common conclusions. In the best of times, common sense is our bullshit detector, the little spot in our brain that says "That doesn’t seem right." In the worst of times, though, it’s that little spot in the brain that says "That seems right" even when it isn’t. ..
Psychologist Jim Taylor Ph.D. put it more succinctly - “Common sense is neither common nor sense.”
Let’s face it- details are boring. Here’s a simple test you do in the privacy of your home: Watch a TV crime procedural such as Law and Order or The Lincoln Lawyer and note the depiction of criminal trials. Now find a video of a real-life trial (YouTube has channels that carry such videos) and compare it to a TV drama. What you will find is that most trials are grinding affairs, boring to the point that will make your eyes glaze over. Celebrity trials like the recent Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case that drew lots of public interest and media coverage are the exception because they are 1) titillating, and 2) because we get the make a binary choice and root for one or the other.
Simple, just as we like it.
In contrast, the initial presentation by the House Special Committee on January 6 showed a shrewd understanding of how to use multi-media to present a clear narrative of what its investigation has discovered. The committee hired a former TV news executive to oversee the video presentations. Rather than parade some of the 1000 witnesses they’d interviewed before the panel, they called only 2. They hammered away at the basic aspects of what they described as “an attempted coup”.
They told the same simple story over and over and stuck to it.
As a reminder, today is the 113th day since Russia invaded Ukraine. The war has settled into a grinding series of battles in the eastern part of that country, with the Russians resorting to heavy artillery bombardment and slowly gaining territory against determined Ukrainian resistance. Americans, as is our wont, are not following the war closely, but are more concerned with issues such as inflation here in the US, especially gas prices. People are having difficulty making the connection between the war in Ukraine and economic problems here. Perhaps because there is no simple explanation. And do not even attempt to explain the geopolitical issues at stake in the war itself, something that would open up an entirely new can of ideas.
So let’s just think a little about rising prices here in the United States and what might be the cause.
Consider these factors: An economic slowdown beginning in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic-related lockdowns led to decreased demand, in turn meaning production of all types was throttled back. As the world adjusted to covid (vaccines, improved treatments), demand increased more rapidly than supply. Supply chain issues appeared, revealing faults in the system of global trade and further unbalancing the supply and demand relationship. In this country, relief programs by both the Trump and Biden administrations pumped trillions of dollars into the demand side of the economy which resulted in too much cash chasing too few goods. Likewise, decreased demand in 2020 led oil producers to reduce activity- less drilling, less refining. As demand increased in the second half of 2021, prices rose as producers were satisfied to keep supplies low and rake in increased profits.
Here’s where the war in Ukraine factors in. Russia is the second-largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. Sanctions put in place by the US and NATO countries in order to pressure Russia into ceasing hostilities resulted in a further reduction of the supply. Petroleum trades in a global marketplace and prices are affected by events all over the world.
Then there’s the matter of food prices: Ukraine is the fourth largest exporter of grain (principally wheat) in the world. The war is preventing the Ukrainians from exporting most of their current supply, let alone continuing to grow crops. Again, reduced supply is putting upward pressure on food prices.
This is just a rough sketch to make the point that issues such as inflation are far more complex and nuanced than many people want to believe. With gasoline prices moving north of 5 dollars a gallon, many Americans blame President Biden, which is obviously nonsensical. As one Norwegian tweeted, “In Norway, gas is $10 a gallon and Biden isn’t our President”.
It’s been 33 days since 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron walked into a supermarket in a black neighborhood in Buffalo, NY, and shot and killed 10 people and wounded 3 others. That hateful event has faded into the media background and out of the public’s mind, overtaken by other events, including the horrible shooting at a school in Uvalde, TX.
There is truth in George Orwell’s statement that “the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history”. We prove it every day.
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