Hooked on the Coliseum

There are few subtleties in America these days. We've lost our ability for nuanced logical reasoning.

Dominating our media, reality TV reduces complex human emotions and actions into the most basic caricatures. News is meant to titillate and stimulate. Entertainment is created to trigger adrenaline induced reptilian addiction. There is no time for "boring" reflection and contemplation. In politics, this same game translates into "shock and awe" and simple, easy to digest pronouncements.

As the media competes for our attention, only the most hysterical drama and outrageous events can cut through the chatter. Shouting and violence are used to pierce the mundane: tigers eating people, I Love New York, CSI and news pundits battling over meaningless rhetoric.

People are instantly categorized for easy, quick labeling since we don't have the time or desire to understand each other. You are either a Democrat or Republican. From a "red" state or "blue" state. Religious or atheist. Gay or straight. Black or white. The labels become a dangerous short hand for extrapolation.

This goes beyond the gladiator days of Rome where the Coliseum was used to pacify the population with popular entertainment. The Coliseum has become the core of our culture and infiltrates everything -- from politics to personal relationships.

This dehumanizing apathy and numbness sets the stage for a president to destroy the country without opposition or impeachment; allowing an immoral war to continue and a community to turn a blind eye to the growing unequal distribution of wealth. Spectacle immobilizes us so that real change and evolution becomes rigor-mortis.

As long as sociopathic corporations rule our politics, media and culture, we will never be free of formulaic abuse and the systematic dumbing down of the population. We start by reinstalling our Constitution; strengthening the arts, letters and history in education; decentralizing the mass media and limiting lobbyists power in the political process.

America can still be a melting pot, the grand experiment, where humanity can evolve and move towards greater understanding and humanism. But, we are addicted and numb from the adrenaline and it's time for rehab.