Do you ever turn on the tube and wonder what the heck the world is coming to? It amazes me that out of every 10 stories published in the media, 8 of them are negative. Just about every night we hear about some mother who has burned her children in her car, some maniac is on a killing spree and 10 more Americans have met their maker in Iraq. Heck, half of this is local Dallas news even (other than the war coverage).

I am beginning to think that the information age has turned into the “DAMN, the world is a scary place” age.

Is the U.S. really worse than it used to be? People comment on this all the time. They can’t believe how their environment has changed since they were kids. Would you consider letting your kids “run the town” like my friends and I used to back in Iowa? I don’t think many parents would seriously consider this nowadays.

The funny thing is that crime rates in the US have declined steadily since 1994 and in 2002 they reached the lowest level EVER recorded. See the graph below (from the US Dept of Justice):

Here’s my theory… I think that all the media hype over every single violent crime incident has caused the average American to become paranoid and fearful. In truth this country is at LEAST as safe as it used to be. Unfortunately the common perception is that it’s much worse.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating letting your kids run wild in my neighborhood in Frisco, TX. That would be dangerous simply because there is enough traffic to warrant concern. People drive a tad faster (and with less care) in Dallas than they do in Grundy Center, IA. I just think that we should remember that most people ARE decent, (mostly) law abiding individuals that care about each other (at least a little). I see parents in the mall in Frisco just FREAK OUT if they lose track of their child for more than 5 seconds. Do they think that everyone they don’t know is a kidnapper or something? Most people adore children and would really go out of their way to make sure that child was safe if he/she couldn’t find Mom. Enough said on that one.

So exactly how much trust should you put in the media? We all know that the media is extremely liberal so if you are conservative you are pretty much obligated to view the television with skepticism.
Let me first say that I consider myself to be a middle of the road Republican. I don’t agree with everything the party or the president does (you would be surprised at what I disagree with but that’s a can of worms I will open later). I do however still believe that the Republican party stands up for values and causes that I support. In the absence of complete information on a candidate I would always vote for a Republican over a Democrat for that reason.

Let me get to the point here. People’s reaction to films and stories like Fahrenheit 9/11 drives me nuts. It amazes me that people will run out and go see a film like this (and Bowling for Columbine for that matter) and take the story as complete fact. In reality there are tons of inaccuracies in Michael Moore’s documentaries. They are basically bits and pieces of time that are questionably accurate. These pieces are assembled to make the viewer sympathize with Moore’s cause. How nice.

Check out this link if you want to hear the “other side of the story” re: Moore’s latest work. I’m not pretending to have gone out and verified Kopel’s facts but I just think it’s interesting to hear from both sides of the story.

The problem with all this is that the average Joe will not seek out the facts (or even know that he should). Who is educating the masses when it comes to this kind of thing? The media is. It’s pretty obvious to most people nowadays that the media is blatantly anti Bush and FAR left leaning. Just go watch CNN or other and ask yourself what slant they place on each story. You will find that it’s decidedly liberal.

It’s sad to think that today you really can’t trust the news any more. I never doubted the local or national news stations until a few years ago when I noticed this trend. Now I just watch and shake my head. I don’t watch Fox news either because it leans too far to the right for me. I guess I will rely on word of mouth to get my news from now on. Maybe someone will develop some filtering software so that I can filter out liberal/conservative slants and bias from news I could download or something…

This brings me to my next thought. Were there any “good old days” when this problem wasn’t around? If they exist, should I even yearn for the good old days at all? Is it possible that I was too immersed in other things to notice that this has been going on forever?

It seems to me that every adult I have known has at one time said “back when” and “good old days” or something like this. Is this just a function of getting older?

I think that everyone has a “sweet spot” in their life that they consider to be the good times. Some people consider this high school. Others talk about college. Others consider this to be the time around their first born child. There is one constant with this though. As you age you become less relevant to popular culture. You move outside the target demographic for “cool” things. Thus, when you get to your 30’s you are no longer really in the mainstream of what’s hip. As you feel less relevant (and feel like you are getting older) you yearn for the times years ago when you WERE the target demographic.

I’m not sure I want to be involved in all of the stuff going on today with people 10 years younger than me but there is definitely a line dividing us…

Well, that’s it for this one. It feels incomplete but I didn’t have a lot of time to write this so take it for what it is. If you have comments, please leave them and I will respond.

Peace.

Manly

P.S. My bud Richard and I did the “Muenster” ride today (7/19) north of Denton, TX. Pretty cool with some good high speed spots and a few twisties. I will attach a couple of the pics. We stopped in Tioga, TX for some famous babecue (it was good). Not a bad ride really although it took us much longer than we thought it would even though I had the bike wide open many times. It’s my second time on this ride.

Pics: