I haven't been a reader of Kuttner in the past, but I have to say that this article is brilliant in its honestly and accuracy. He clearly has his solid liberal bent, and his disappointment is less of railing against the establishment (as is all too common these days regardless of party) but more of a sigh for seeing such a great opportunity pass us by.
I think that his best point may actually be one of the most underscored. There is a teachable moment here. I agree that the President isn't taking all the opportunity from it, but then again, I think few actually are. If I were to sum up the single largest problem with politics today, it wouldn't be who's in power, mistakes that people make, or even the money that is being slung around. It's the swarm of information without education. If anyone in our world today has done more to correct this mistake than Al Gore, I can't name them, and yet few are willing to follow his footsteps.
We live in an age of information. You can watch the news on more devices than ever before, and in a matter of minutes be inundated with more than you could ever have wanted to know. Depending on what you're watching or reading, you probably can instantly link yourself to more and more information. If you go long enough, you are bound to read two things that are categorically in conflict with one another. Sometimes it is a matter of a lie vs truth. More often it is a matter of coloring. Yes, Global Warming is happening. To say it's not is a lie. Of course, if the dissenter is smart, they won't feed you lies. They will feed you more information. "The Earth goes through climate shifts and warming happens. Always has. Always will," or "We aren't the only factors at play with Global Warming." Both true statements. Those statements could lead people to think that we really have no major crisis. This of course is the problem.
Everything is so polarized now that even information can't teach us. If he says this and she says that, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The problem with this view of the world is that it's rarely accurate. Sometimes the Dems have the right information. Sometimes the Repubs do. Often neither has a good plan to deal with it, but we can never get to that point because we can never agree on the truth of an actual problem.
BP is clearly at fault in many ways for what happened in the Gulf. Unfortunately, the true fault can be laid at everyone who drives a ridiculous vehicle for their needs, the lobbyists who work for big oil, and even the politicians that refuse to take action even when they should. The problem is that no one will hold any of these people accountable because we can't agree that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. We can see black oil spilling across our oceans, and if we're not careful, this will become another "fact" that a year from now we forget about. Those who have the influence to do so need to use this to TEACH us what the problem is and how to avoid it happening again. Politicians need to use this to make sure that they can vote for renewable energy expansion without worrying about how their constituents will react. Our society needs to be taught how our personal actions can make a major difference in whether or not this ever comes about again.
The financial markets are the same. I have written before about financial inequality, and won't repeat myself. What I will say is that when we talk about financial reform, the average person hears words and phrases like derivatives, and market instability, and stops paying attention. The average American doesn't grasp what the problem is. Even educated members of our society don't understand the details of what's going on, unless they happen to be in finance. With all this complicated madness being thrown about, is it any wonder that people have a hard time getting behind anything that makes major change?
These two issues and this article are just examples of how we fail at explaining and educating when it comes to issues. When everyone has information at their fingertips, it is easy to think that we know more. The problem is that we normally know more facts or ideas than we do actually truth and situational understanding. When no one understand what's going on, those who have influence in the media, or who spend billions on ad blitzes are going to come out on top simply because their information will be seen the most. Leaders in our society from the President on down need to work to turn these events and all this information into teachable moments. If people can understand where you're coming from, they can stand for or against you, but at least they will do so with conviction and solid grounding. Right now all we do is stand on what has been spouted out in the moment, and where's the strength in those arguments?
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