For me it was when I was driving home one day. I was minding my own business, driving home from work, listenin to the radio. I was in my mid 20's, almost 20 years ago, and the person on the radio began identifying personal values and using adjectives which described how I think and how I live. The person on the radio used one word to describe me and then BAM it happened, I had been labelled a fill in the blank.
Looking back its easy to see. But at the time I really did not realize what had happened. My parents never told me I was a fill in the blank. My teachers never told me, my friends never told me. My pastor never told me. But someone I've never met and will never meet, was able to label me with one word. Amazing.
Labels allow people we've never met to, well, label us. It allows someone you've never met to categorize you in such a way that may be 180 degrees off base. Maybe they know someone who is a fill in the blank, and they do not like that person, or something they stand for. Well, then they hear someone call you a fill in the blank, and BAM, they do not like you either. They have never met you, they have never heard your voice or your views, but because you are a fill in the blank, they have categorized you in such a way that fits their world view. Laziness is really what it is.
I suppose people have always used labels to put other people in a box. I suspect though, that the use of labels as a weapon has increased in the past 25 years or so. Two reasons why I think this. During the past 25 year period 'the media' has become more homogenized. By that I mean, if you turn on any of the 6:30 national media broadcasts, chances are regardless of the station you choose, the news you see will be the same. If you do not believe that, test it out. You'll see.
One other phenomenon of the past 25 years or so has been the rise of the audience of talk radio. Most of talk radio is labelled as conservative. The rise of talk radio has coincided with the homogenization of the major media outlets in to what many conservatives believe is simply a house organ for one political party and one ideology. If you make your living making sure your 6:30 news cast, or your news paper, is profitable, and this talk radio phenomenon starts taking market share from you, and you can label it as conservative, then demonize the term and people who subscribe to it, well then you just might start using that label as a club to beat up people with in order to protect your franchise.
Both sides do it, all sides do it. Its easy. To repeat myself, its lazy.
We are in a critical time in our country's history. Our federal government is behaving in unprecedented ways. It is of an unprecedented size, wielding $3.5 trillion dollars worth of power. I believe the debate has shifted. It has moved past liberal versus conservative, beyond Republican and Democrat. The debate has moved to right and wrong, smart and dumb, America loving or America trashing. Live your principles, and evaluate others' priciples based on what they do, not what they say. And limit your use of labels. If you use them too much you may come across as dumbing yourself down the same way the media has.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
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