Not Knowing

Yup, long time since last post. Busy busy.

Today, Occupy Wall Street is marching in Philly. My secretary had no idea what that was, although its been in the news for close to a month. Granted, mostly in NYC, but still, that's pretty close to Philly that we usually get their big news. Yes, it started small, but its grown quite a bit in the last two weeks. I don't watch "regular" news, primarily The Daily Show, Colbert Report and Countdown, but since its been in the newspaper, I figure ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox have at least touched on it a tad.

Also today is the fall out from everyone (you'd think at least) hearing about Steve Job's death. Again, my secretary had no idea who he was. Only the man that created Apple, the iPod, the iPhone, iTunes, essentially he created our personal computing/social media culture. Without Jobs, there would be no Twitter (which is, of course, how I first learned of his death at 7:40 p.m. last night), no Facebook (no Winklevii for Zuckerman to allegedly cheat, hah), music would still be bought on CDs as complete albums, TV/movies would still only be on TV or through DVDs and we wouldn't be up in arms with Netflix raising prices to stream movies and TV. I wouldn't be writing this blog right now, and neither would millions of others. We'd still get our news via paper or TV.

I was a little surprised my secretary hadn't heard about Occupy Wall Street, but then again, she doesn't pay all that much attention to life outside her kids, her job, her home. But that she didn't even know who Steve Jobs was just gobsmacked me. How could anyone not have heard about Steve Jobs?

But I also remember that my secretary doesn't read a news paper, she doesn't watch the news, she doesn't have a smartphone, she doesn't vote. She has never voted in any election and sees no reason to start. As such, she doesn't bother finding out anything that's going on in the world, the country, even her own city unless it directly impacts her family.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, more than half of this country is the same. Everytime I think how can people vote against their economic interests, I have to remind myself that the vast majority don't even know what their economic interest is, and don't bother to find out enough information to vote.

Even in our last presidential election, 122 million voted out of approximately 230 million voting age people. Just over 50%. That means almost half of this country doesn't care about their economic interest, their social interest, or really much of anything beyond their own life, much like my secretary. The vote was historic. We'd either have the first black president, or the first female vice president. Yet still half didn't care.

I can't imagine going through life and not knowing what's going on. I remember how embarrassed and dumbstruck I was when I went on a two-week vacation to France in August 2005, and because my in-laws' computer connection was very slow, I only checked my email a couple of times, nothing else. My in-laws didn't get a news paper (and I'm not sure I could have read much of it anyway). It wasn't until I came back to the US that I heard about Hurricane Katrina. How could I have not heard about this during my trip? I swore never to be so out of touch again. Its one of the (many) reasons I don't think I could ever be a Survivor contestant, don't think I could stand to be so unplugged for an extended amount of time again.

I'm sure some people like not knowing what's going on. "Ignorance is bliss" is the phrase. I don't agree. All ignorance does is allow other people to control things that affect your life, even if you don't realize it. Its amazing, for example, that one person controls so much that he got all or nearly all Republican office holders to sign a pledge never to raise taxes for any reason (although despite this pledge, some apparently distinguish between raising taxes on wealthy people - no no no - and the middle and lower classes - yes yes yes). Is that really the best thing for this country or just for a few thousand? But this is what comes from not knowing and allowing others to control this country.

One doesn't have to be smart or understanding everything that happens. I don't understand investment banking, although I've been trying to educate myself (and what I've read so far, just strikes me as incredible that people were so gullible - no actually it doesn't - and that our country has let so many people get away with almost outright fraud - except that its hard to prove because people are so gullible). But it doesn't take a genius to recognize the inconsistency in someone saying they pledged never to raise taxes for any reason, but its ok to "broaden the tax base so more people contribute (i.e. pay) taxes. Um, if that doesn't mean a raise of taxes on some people, i.e. those at the bottom of the base, which supposedly you pledged not to do, I don't know what does.

I may not agree with other people, but at least read a newspaper, or watch some news on your computer (thank you Steve) or TV (and make it more than just Fox news, please). At least know the names of the people who have a significant impact on your life.