Welcome to the first edition of Blowing In The Wind…..my new Newsletter…..The Nexus of Politics…..Culture and Business.
Like all my writing…I’m obsessed with questions. Diving deep without fear. Asking and asking again. Pushing. Because it is my deep-seated belief that if we don’t ask questions we will never get answers…only someone else’s truth…and we know where that gets us.
The better and deeper the question…the better and deeper the answer…and then? It's up to you…. but at least you know you have looked at all sides of an argument…a “fact” …a story…a point of view.
Wear the other side for a while. Walk around in it. Be uncomfortable…of course it doesn’t fit right….be so uncomfortable you hurt…. but when you come back you and take it off you will be stronger and hopefully more open and inclusive in your thinking.
Seems to me that we have become skittish…maybe even afraid…. too correct across the board….to really listen and hear other views. We shut down speakers…. drown out views that differ from ours…have lost the art of open discourse…
We have nothing to fear. Make no mistake…words can and do hurt. We don’t have to go back far in history to know that’s true. Yet like all battles you can’t win by ignoring the other side.
Imagine a General who ignored the enemy…paid no attention to their positions….their weapons….their training….their motivation. That General would lose.
Blowing In The Wind needs your participation…I need your views…your topic suggestions….your comments and your agreement to listen and hear others….take a position…..but as they say in all the Boxing Movies…Keep It Clean.
Here we go…a few topics, out of many…a summary of what I hope to share and delve into the next few weeks and all are at the Nexus….
WHAT NOW?????
COVID…The Plague
Covid is still ravaging the globe. The plague hasn’t gone away….but it looks like the various vaccinations protect and mitigate the worst of it…even with the mutations. I had my 2nd shot and was truly and honestly emotional…saying a prayer….thankful for having gotten through Covid, almost a year ago and thinking of all those who hadn’t…
But what now?
In most places the distribution system has been faulty and incompetent. People have jumped the line to grab their own- even posting and crowing about it - and left those who really needed it without the shot.
There are those who don’t trust vaccines…and those who don’t trust those who are giving the vaccine…..a huge and important difference.
There are Covid scoffers….those who purposefully ignore and flaunt the rules. Sadly many have died too.
And as always, it is the most vulnerable….the most underrepresented in power who suffer the most.
Needless to say,…while we focus on the vaccine we must also focus on getting kids back to school; on small business that is hurting; on restaurants that are closing…on people who are out of work with few prospects and those who have been keeping us all afloat…at low wages and danger to self while we quarantined and of course the huge profits made by the very few whose businesses surged on their backs.
Will be wearing masks forever like they do in parts of Asia?
What will offices and work be like?
Are you ready to go back to see a movie? A play? A concert?
What other dangers are out there….the experts say more…..how do we begin planning?
The New Normal?
Those who follow me on other platforms know my view….THERE IS NO NEW NORMAL….normal defines a statis…a static state to benchmark behavior. Seems to me that we are in the most dynamic environment we have been in in my lifetime….the dynamic created by the Who Knows What’s Coming Next world we live in and how do we deal with the mess we have created with out of control hate; fake news; deliberate misinformation; inability to listen and hear….Social Media…inequality….poor workplace experience and on and on.
When the consultants and pundits show up talking about preparing you for The New Normal….show them the door….they have begun by not listening or hearing. Not The New Normal.
And yes, I know I started by saying that you need to listen and hear all….so I’m a bit of a hypocrite occasionally…
POLITICS IN THE USA
Don’t meant to get partisan and I apologize to my non-USA readers for injecting our dysfunction. Yet, sadly, we are not alone. The Plague…in all its aspects….Not The New Normal….have infiltrated much of the world.
What Now? Trump is gone…but he is not. Right, Left, Middle are all still obsessed with him. The irony….maybe the joke on investors is that he doesn’t need Social Media….on-line and off all the news and opinion sites continue to amplify his name and views.
I’ve written about this before. when he was active it was a reverse megaphone…he posted and the media amplified. Now they just amplify.
Everyone had a right to vote as they wanted. it's the basis of Democracy. And people of all races; colors and creeds voted for Trump. Needs to be understood. Now it's time to move on and we seem frozen.
The Impeachment went as expected and now there is talk of an eye for an eye…..as the line goes from Fiddler on the Roof….” We’ll all be blind and toothless”.
Is all violence the same? Can we…should we…. equate looting and burning with an attack on the Capital and a hunt for our leaders? Is lawlessness in Portland the same as lawlessness in DC?
How do we move forward? Learn from the past and forge ahead?
How do we face hate….back in the day…it was “I have seen the enemy and it us”. Can we get there?
People are still dying. People are hungry…out of work…damaged….fearful.
WHAT NOW?
And there you have it….my first foray. Lots of questions…let’s begin…next edition one topic in depth
Because the answer my friends is…
BLOWING IN THE WIND