“Consider carefully what you ask for and what you get” I wrote towards the end of the presidential election campaign in the USA last year. Now we know what we got. For many of us it was not a happy ending and no one yet knows if it will end in tears.
For sure it is “a different way of doing things”. Chaos, high emotions, short shrift and confusion is a daily feed. “Alternative facts” and Twitter as a primary communication tool is what we are expected to be satisfied with. When high hopes, the “entertainment value” and outrage from Donald Trump’s style fades, will we be left with disappointment, anger and future fear? How will we respond to a world that is more complex and demanding than we wish for?
Is our increasingly digitised world and communication space demanding a different awareness? Increased knowledge and insight about the difference between opinions and “fake news”? Are we in need of a better general understanding of how algorithms source our choices from our clicks and how information is formed and communicated depending on values and purpose? Do we need a better mix and do we want a balance between urgency and patience? Would the urgency of responding to everything immediately benefit from some patience and sharper skills in fact checking, including daring to say, “I don’t know but I will try and find out”? Could we enjoy a dialogue and debate with respectful exchange of different experiences, views and opinions before we are given a fuller and comprehensive answer? Questions I don’t have an immediate answer to, so I will explore them further in the months ahead.
There is either an art to being recognised for shouting the loudest in the shortest time and promising the most, or gaining influence, respect and power by sharp thinking, hard work and belief in the joint effort of oneself and others.
It is about Values, Competence, Responsibility and Style.
Is there a shift in values or is there perhaps better clarity of difference in values, our moral compass and how we want and are able to communicate and handle what we stand for?
When I feel like closing the door, putting a blanket over my head and just wait for better times I pick myself up with a mixture of reality check on what can be achieved (for good and for bad) when we join together and a call from Joe Hill “Don’t waste your time mourning. Organize”. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joe_Hill
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