BELIEF AND IDEOLOGY

I often wonder where all the anger and contention in U.S. society is coming from. Let's face it, we have it pretty darn good, despite our squabbling political classes in government, business and media. Our biggest problems are fixable, with the exceptions of climate deterioration and the Sun's inevitable changes. 

I often think that social media's blessings of easy communication and expression are also its curses. We can now communicate our deeply held opinions without much effort 24 hours a day. We can blurt out our ideas without having to formulate a tight exposition for an Op Ed piece in a local newspaper. We don't need megaphones to broadcast our politics or our rants about bad etiquette. 

In short, we are finding out more about those who live among us than many of us wish to know.

The U.S. developed as a free-wheeling place where you had plenty of space to do your thing as long as you didn't intrude upon others with that thing. The lines between public and private were fairly well drawn by local conventions. If you overstepped, your neighbors or the local authority would pay you a visit in person. More often than not, that took care of it.

Not so any more. With the overwhelming amount of sharing on screens has come a pusillanimous shrinking of social interaction in person wherever population has reached urban or suburban levels. Real-time alienation is increasing as virtual discretion is decreasing. And how is this working for us right now? I'm not impressed.

There are some people in my life whose belief systems or ideologies, as expressed in social media, simply leave me cold. And I am sure that is reciprocated. There are complete strangers, known to me on Twitter as "followers", who seem very congenial indeed, but I have to wonder if they are real people with whom I could sit and chat. I dislike being followed or following generally, by the way.

Ideologies have always bothered me along the lines of the discomfort I have with prepared breakfast cereal concoctions, like the ones with cartoons on their boxes. They portray themselves superficially as sustenance but reading the ingredients more closely tells the real story. In other words, "social justice" as a current ideology may well resemble Fruit Loops cereal when you look at it, but, more closely examined, it is just artificially disguised empty calories.

Belief is something I hold dear. But my use of the word is different from the common use which applies to religion and gravity alike. For example, I do not see simply accepting a prescribed set of religious dogma or rituals as belief. I do use the word in the context of people or ideas which hold personal credence in my estimation over time. 

"I believe in you." is a statement of reverent trust in my personal mind. I reserve this for the very few people I have known who have demonstrated the highest forms of faithfulness and personal ethics in everyday living. So, obviously, I would not say, "I believe in (a) god." I may leave open the possibility of any number of superhuman entities in The Universe, but I believe in none. I may imagine such an entity, but I do not spend my time believing in my fantasies. 

I cannot say "I am a _________." any more with conviction. I have studied many ideologies which are often confused with identities. Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Communism, Libertarianism, etc.. Since leaving the imposed identity of Roman Catholic, I am resistant to use an ideology to define myself. 

In fact, as I grown older, I am increasingly resistant to use descriptives of any kind to define who I am. Yes, I was born male, but do I identify with what maleness seems to mean around me most of the time? I have identified as homosexual based on my sexual attraction exclusively to the male body. But what does that mean to me as an old man who has been neutered by harsh treatments for diseases? I have no belief in my maleness or my homosexuality. 

This always brings me to my long-standing belief in my individuality. I do believe I was born alone. I believe I will die alone. How can any ideology or group identity override that belief? How can race or ethnicity have any relevance over that unique, but also universal, individuality? 

My medical center had an ad campaign for some time called "Human First". It rankled me. I always felt it would have been more enlightened if it had said "Sentient First". That would indeed be an idea which is inclusive but also respectful of the individual across many forms of life. Our ideologies are indeed simply human, but we are capable of believing in the capacity of each human being to enhance whatever that means, rather than fighting over what it must mean.