America’s Ugly Truths: The Invasiveness of Societal Influences
Ervin (Earl) Cobb
Leadership and Business Management Consultant, Speaker and Bestselling Author
You can listen a virtual reading and watch a presentation of the essay here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/663700544
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, my wife and I, like most other Americans, for months on end were isolated in our home. We would only leave the house to get groceries and watch the news to stay current on what was happening throughout the country and the world. Also, like most Americans, we watched closely as a nation of unexpecting people struggled to come to grips with the unique fear of a global pandemic being caused by a deadly, and uncontrollable disease.
From the hoarding of sanitizers and paper products to the inflation of prices for household necessities, to weaponizing the act of wearing a face cover or mask, the glaring lack of national cohesiveness during this global crisis overshadowed the societal unity that was being requested and expressed by many Americans. ?Many Americans, of all persuasions, asked the question, “Why can’t we be a kinder and more humane society?”
While researching for a new book, I decided to spend some time untangling and evaluating the impact of societal influences within the American culture today and how individually, and a times in combination, these social and political influences contribute to preventing the average American from becoming a “kinder and more humane” person.
My research led me to come face-to-face with the blatant reality of another one of America’s ugly truths, which includes colonization, slavery, Jim Crowism, systemic racism, and discrimination. Realities that are the “price to be paid” to achieve the goals of the ruling class of American society.
The reality that I recently came face-to-face with is the fact that it is not just the nature and magnitude of the growing number of social and political influences bombarding our lives in America today, but the premeditated invasiveness of the well-crafted influences.
The analogy that I find most descriptive of the degree and nature of the invasion is as follows:
In medicine, the word invasiveness is defined as “the ability of ?microorganisms to enter the body and spread in the tissues.”
In the context of this article, I define the word invasiveness as, “the ability of talk radio, cable news, social media, political parties, trade lobbyists, think tanks, religious groups and even manufacturers of drugs and medicines to enter our subconscious mind to spread their preferences, beliefs, and desires in the tissues of American culture.”
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To be fair, my research revealed that most of these invasions are not malicious, misguiding or what you would consider anti-humanitarian. However, all the individuals, groups, organizations, companies and institutions responsible for developing and financing the multitude of daily invasions, wish to influence our society to accept their preferred social philosophy, attitudes and politics.
Over the past couple of decades, as the invasions have intensified and become more sophisticated as America has advanced technologically, intellectually and politically, they have altered America’s societal landscape. However, more concerning is what appears to be a permanent change in the most important facet of a democratic and humanitarian society, which are the rules of social interaction. These are the social rules that are condoned and accepted by the governing majority.
These changes became most obvious during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with a rising volume of divisive rhetoric, hate-baiting, and anti-humanitarian actions occurring across the country; the confrontational episodes of terror, belligerence and the defiance of federal and state orders associated with business closures and the wearing of protective face covers and masks; and the shocking January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States capital.
Unquestionably, in addition to social and political influences, there are many factors, which can contribute to the spread of preferences, beliefs and desires in the tissues of American culture. However, my research led me to determine that the most invasive social influences in America today include:
There is not space in this article for me to detail the specific impacts and the methods by which each of these influences ferociously frame the thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and preferences of a vast majority of Americans.
However, in the new book titled, Why Is It So Hard: Becoming a People Person in the Post COVID-19 Era, my wife, Dr. Charlotte Grant-Cobb, and I concisely document the year-long research and reveal the results of our efforts to examine the complexities, and interrelatedness of these nine influences in an unbiased manner. We also purposely highlight the most relevant published work of other authors, scholars, community activists, and media professionals.
It is my hope that this blatant reality IS NOT treated as an ugly truth and the price to be paid, but as a contemporary and controllable ?threat. A serious threat not only to America’s ability to become a kinder and more humanitarian nation, but also to the American-style democracy that all of us have participated in and enjoyed, at various thresholds, for over 230 years.?