There is a case, I suppose, for forgiveness and love in your heart for all mankind. In the case of the President-Elect Donald Trump, I would say the time for action is now. Dr King told us: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." I believe that the time to be vigilant has come. Not simply for people in the faith community, but for Progressives who are concerned about war, parents worried about their children's future both as a military concern and a moral one, and the parents of young children who don't know how to explain this man who is a habitual liar and has molested women and is now rewarded with the highest office in the land.
We don't know the reason as to why Trump was elevated to the office of President or the Grand Scheme of things. But there must be some reason that we are being tested by this dark time in the history of the United States. I believe we could be stronger together, and find out that Love Trumps Hate if we do continue to believe that our best days are not behind us and we can organize and be uplifted by faith in each other. I know that some faith leaders, Sister Simone and Pope Francis, Reverend Barber and other faith leaders have spoken out against the divisive hate and ugly rhetoric spewed by this man.
But the point is this. No one can stay silent. The role of faith in our religion teaches us that we must put our words into deeds. And that means mobilizing if necessary, and marching and protesting against racism, sexism, hate speech and against war. There is a time for prayer and silent contemplation, but in this Brave New World, the time for action is now. Dr. King also said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
In continuing my quest to Understand Media, I've again returned to the ultimate source, Marshall McLuhan's book written over sixty years ago. After reading McLuhan, here's my personal take on how he predicted our dilemma in the 21st Century work force:
We started with the Typewriter and ended up with the computer keyboard. These two instruments have altered the mental habits of writers and artists. Many times I've heard writers, especially older ones, talk of the need to simply write things down in a notebook or journal, unfettered by the addition of the computer and all its subsequent baggage. In writing on the keyboard, the typing creates a performance for the composer. The meaning is simply typing. Capote had it right. It's not writing, it's typing. Hence the slogan: the medium is the message. We can understand this clearly when we see the emphasis placed on Project Management and Team Leaders. The work is divided into segments, fragmented and doled out in short bursts that create more work and the illusion of productivity.
The next translation of the transformation of the work place comes when we see energy transformed into a new form. One example was turning trees into lumber, or clay into bricks. Now, in the office, the number of office workers goes up as the actual production goes down. One startling conclusion from McLuhan was that the internal relations, those in offices who gather just SELECT information has become the principal source of wealth in this Information Age. From about 1960 through 1992, this has slowly emerged and is now the norm. So in today's world, if you do know how to market information, or to fix broken computer connections, or to program and create software, or graphics and can manipulate data, you are desirable. These select tasks all lead to the Information Age jobs in the world we live in today. All predicted by McLuhan many years ago.
In the Mechanical Age of the Industrial Revolution, work meant processing materials on the assembly line. The work was fragmented by parts and design, and it was given to those managers to delegate authority within the hierarchy at the plant or factory where you worked. In this new Computer Age, programming means the effect of information plus knowledge. It basically cuts out the middle man. Many jobs are delegated to online graphic designers and marketing firms. The website is built by someone who may live in another country. Or, in other terms, the composer, or business person, may compose the compartmentalized piece that is given directly to the individual to play (or to work). Where does that leave us?
The fragmented age means an individual could achieve success with just the illusion of imparting valuable information. For example, there is the book that was a best-seller: "The Art of the Deal". The historian Boorstin was scandalized by the fact that celebrity in the Information Age meant fame could be achieved not by a person's actual achievements. They could become celebrities and do nothing but simply become known for being well known!
This is where we find ourselves in today's world. Celebrity has actually flooded into the worlds of entertainment and television plus politics and foreign policy. The two worlds have converged and given us Donald J Trump. That is one explanation of why we are now dealing with the after-effects and fallout of our fragmented societies that have been cobbled together in the Information Age through internet connections and television celebrity.
Where do we go from here? That is the $64,000.00 question!
