And now what?

For those of you who have been following this thread over the past couple of weeks, I'm sure there are some who are now yammering about how it's all nice and well to complain, but how about suggesting a solution. I would just like to say that's anything but the way forward. Oh, sure, I know I could come up with suggestions. That's not the problem at all. The problem is that we need to find a way to start talking again.

That's the real thread I've been harping on: we can't or don't or won't talk to each other like reasonable adults, because, I believe, we have simply become unreasonable. There's too much nonsense in the discussion. I don't care if you think you're right or left ... everybody I talk to is in the center, or so they claim, and everyone else is "out there" somewhere. What kind of nonsense is that? I don't care if your for against anything, but I would like to think there's more to all of it than a simple well-that's-my-opinion-and-that-is-that.

The way I see it all right now, everybody's wrong; nobody's right. Why? Because as I noted a couple of weeks ago, we need to decide collectively what we want, and we have no real collectivity anymore. At bottom, it's all about values, and as I have been saying repeatedly, we have no idea of agreeing on values independent of some predefined position. The Fundamentalists (of all colors, shapes and sizes) will tell you there is no chance without getting You-Know-Who involved. The humanistically inclined will tell you there is no chance as long as He is. If religion has something to offer, then it has to be offerable beyond the confines of a strictly encoded doctrine or dogma. It has to be something to that appeals to the humanist as well as the "true believer". On the flip side, should any secular thinker have a suggestion, it must be frameable in a form that the religious individual can understand. In other words, we have to stop accusing the other and start listening to them.

But, I'm not convinced that this is possible anymore. I'm serious. I'm deeply disturbed by the low level of discourse that I experience every day. I'm deeply disturbed by the obstinence and intolerance of the participants. And, I'm deeply disturbed by the readiness and willingness for violence -- be it physical or psychological -- of too many in the discussion.

What we need to realize that the "system", if you will, is broken. It cannot be fixed. Yes, let me repeat, there is no way to fix it. The only chance we have is to change it. If we don't there is going to be more suffering than the world has ever known. You think I'm exaggerating? Just wait. You don't really want me to be right.