, 01.21.2018 10:27 AM

The book I will write one day

I fantasize about writing a novel in which the main character knocks cell phones out of the hands of distracted people who are walking towards her.

She would be regarded as more of a terrorist than Osama bin Laden.

Postscript: This post was written entirely on a call phone.

4 Comments

  1. P. Brenn says:

    lov the convenience of cell phones, iphone etc but I agree on your theory ..been a disaster …mental health , brain rest , attention spans , bullying , socialization hindrance , distracted driving ,walking , burner phnoes and illegal activity yadayadayada

  2. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    I too regret shorter attention spans and a lower threshold for success in public life. But hard-cold-reality remains king-maker and right now, Trump looks like he’s heading for the mother-of-all-thumping in 2020.

    So far, the best ally the Democrats have is an inadequate president. Trump needs to man up and meet political necessity, otherwise he almost inevitably will be toast.

  3. Charlie says:

    Nope.

    24/7 cable news paved the way for Donald Trump.

    There are a lot of factors that went into his election; systemic and putrid racism in American society, the extreme polarization and tribalism of US politics and the normalization of stupid people in public debates are some important ones.

    But none of those were as central to Trump’s success as the toxic mixing of 24/7 dramatic news coverage and the entertainment of Trump’s reality television persona that fuelled him through the election.

    Networks legitimized him because they were incapable of not affording anything and everything coverage.

    Cellphones have been around a long time now. The short attention spans we all suffer from is a result of information overload brought on by the internet; the very same internet that kept pushing network coverage of Trump.

    Again, there were pre-existing conditions that were ripe for exploitation by Trump (American voters shouldn’t absolve themselves of responsibility either), but news networks had given Trump the runway he needed to conduct his theatrics.

  4. Steve T says:

    Further to what Charlie said above, and to your point WK, I think Trump capitalized on the fact very few voters want to familiarize themselves with the issues. Instead, they want the issues spoon-fed to them, in single-sentence memes or headlines. They love the idea of cartoonishly simplified good/bad decisions.
    Many politicians have done this in the past, and usually it’s the far edges of the political spectrum that do it. For the lefties, it focuses on government being the solution to everything; certain groups being perpetual victims who need compensation; and other groups being perpetual villains who must pay that compensation. For the right-wing, it focuses on painting government as a bunch of inept buffoons who are incapable of fiscal management, foreigners being the cause of all our economic woes, and economic Darwinism being acceptable.

    In both cases, those who benefit from the oversimplification are happy to perpetuate it.

    Trump took this long-standing tradition to the extreme. Many simple-minded voters were tired of processing the incrementally-complex world, so they eagerly accepted a candidate who told them what they wanted to hear in nice cartoonish soundbites.

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