better at choosing a restaurant than choosing a President

Schizoid

we are at a schizoid moment:

the best of times co-existing with the worst of times,

the Internet and our devices have allowed us to cooperate together,

to share experience, ideas, reactions,

to crowd source as a way for “me” to become “us,”

Waze, TripAdvisor,Yelp—ways to pool experience,

and for all to grow larger, to make better choices,

websites like Wikipedia sharing knowledge,

making sure it’s right,

AirBnB and Uber opening up possibilities

for where to stay and how to get around,

blogs and websites can be gifts to others if they want,

the best of us releasing itself,

though glitches and unintended consequences 

come along for the ride,

and our social media certainly has the anti-social about it,

but the move to rightness and cooperation pushes itself forward,

then I think of our politics,

where the worst of ourselves is rewarded,

a zero-sum game in which the only way one side wins

is for the other to lose,

problems ignored while “mano” fights “mano,”

Rome can burn, but the Senator doesn’t care if he’s re-elected,

we do better figuring how to choose a restaurant

than how to choose a President.

by Henry H. Walker
June 18, ‘18