The Detached Modern Jackass

While watching Wife Swap & the Real House Wives of (insert city here) with coworkers during lunch, I tried to inject some meaningful banter while noting that Obama had just caved to the GOP by extending tax-breaks to the top 2% & lowering estate taxes for >$5m (which affect 99.8% of Americans. You can probably guess which ones.).

Instead a coworker impatiently snarked, “...so what does this mean for me?” (translation: this is long & boring. Get to the punch line already!)

This was the perfect response to represent our country's current attitude. We have stopped acting like citizens & instead behave as selfish animals. This detached attitude is allowing Earth's destruction to continue, health care inequities to persist, and the largest wealth gap in history to widen without any personal culpability. Where is the anger besides Tea Partiers who flaunt this narcissism?

I'm as guilty as any. We no longer like to read the news, but would rather skim headlines & have extremists like Rush & Olbermann confirm our views. Smartphones & Twitter have sapped our patience for finishing & reflecting on entire articles (has anyone made is this far?). We're creating an army of the "Modern Jackass": one that talks expertly about something he/she knows nothing about.

Politics has become so polarized that I think we have simply withdrawn from these difficult topics. Wife Swap & the Real House Wives doesn't hurt our conscience.