Dear politicians, pundits, preachers, and the rest of you. Please get out more.
I've started wondering why our various "experts" don't seem to know what the hell is going on in the economy. You don't understand people need work – millions of them. You don't get the economy isn't doing so hot for a lot of people. I seriously doubt you get how a lot of the world works.
I think you need to get out more.
Go on, get out, meet the people you supposedly care about and are just like (except for your enormous incomes). Find out how things are at home, how the kids are, and how things are financially. Maybe you can also explain just what the hell you're up to and what you're doing.
Ok the above is a bit of a snarky fantasy, but I think one serious problem we face in the world is that a lot of people speaking for people aren't those people. I'm glad to have some politicians who are "like me," but many more who think they know what *I* need don't seem to get what's going on in my life. Or in the lives of other people.
Class division, geographic division, cultural division. Right now, at least in America, it seems people are more divided than ever.
I've even wondered if maybe a lot of people I think of as, well, complete sociopathic jerks, really are just honestly disconnected. Maybe I'm too harsh and people are so isolated in their social circles that they really do NOT get how the world works. Or care.
Maybe I'm too cut off.
I've enjoyed the Analects and The Mencius, the two classic Confucian works, and there's a lot of emphasis on connection and friendship. Yes, at times it's about within one's own circle, but the point stands. Maybe we need to admit the world is disconnected despite the internet, and figure out how people can connect.
Or at least the folks so convinced they know what's going on can come down from the mountaintop and see what's going on. At least they could lie to our faces.