I don’t think we know what we’re doing here. 

Wait a second… hold on….

What? You said what? Oh, okay. But I thought you we’re going to take care of that. Oh, no, not me. I thought she was. You did what? Yes, but I thought he said…

I’m not being very clear here, am I? Let’s start over.

I’m concerned that human beings don’t know how to get along. Specifically, we don’t know how to cooperate or communicate. I think we can see this playing out on the world stage right now and it’s likely that we can see this in our own homes, communities, towns, cities.

I know that I see it in my own home. I’m always amazed at the lack of communication and cooperation which is kind of scary because I live a co-op where folks are supposed to be good at this. In this little home on this big planet, people that have a lot of common ground struggle to get even simple things accomplished. Why is this so difficult?

Of course a lack of communication and cooperation may occur for different reasons at different levels of society. In my home it’s often because the 5-7 people living here have busy schedules involving school, work, volunteering, creating art, etc. Coming together as a household is often easier by chance than it is by plan. Time is just one factor, there are others such as personal priorities, skill levels, health, and personal history.

On the larger levels such as city, state, nation-state there are even more variables to consider. May I be so bold as to suggest that a part of the problem at this scale is that those that control important societal mechanisms for communication such as media, schooling, etc. do not function in a void. They have agendas which are often kept secret. Call it a conspiracy if you want, but what it comes down to is a relatively small group of people are privy to information gathered by the vast resources of the network they control. This information is used not for the benefit of humanity, but for the profit of the elite which control it.

Democracy is a farce. Not in theory but in practice. The farce is that it’s not being practiced, at least not in the U.S. which proclaims itself to be the home not just of democracy, but of freedom and justice. In fact, it might even be argued that the U.S. is greatly opposed to democracy within it’s own boarders and abroad. The truth is the U.S. increasingly operates as a rogue nation which ignores world opinion as well as it’s own citizenry. Rather than cooperation it relies upon coercion and secret deals.

It could also be argued that communication and the free flow of information in the U.S. are carefully, almost secretly restricted. Yes, it’s true that, at least at the moment, anyone can with minimal access to a public library and some basic skills can publish to the web. But look at the other, more established media: radio, television, and print. All of these are increasingly owned by a very, very small group of multinational corporations. Folks such as Noam Chomsky have written on this topic quite frequently.

Let me bring this back around. If we hope to evolve into a sustainable future, we humans need to look at how it is we communicate. We should examine every sphere of our lives: family, neighborhood, town, city, etc. We should also seek to understand the connections between these spheres and how they interact. How is our behavior changed by the messages broadcast by CNN or the local news? If, for example, we are bombarded by messages designed to make us feel afraid of our neighbors (city crime) or middle eastern men (terrorism) how does this affect our daily behavior? Do we interact in a less meaningful way with our family and friends because we spend to much time watching the fake family and friends found on tv sitcoms? Is the attention span of children shortened after years of commercials and MTV videos?

It can become overwhelming very quickly. We are not only what we eat, but what we watch, see, hear, and say. There’s much to consider if we want to learn more about how we communicate and relate to one another.