Corporate and Civic Consciousness: We Need To Pay More Attention

"History is made every day. The challenge is getting everyone to pay attention to it." ─ Adora Svitak

Paying More Attention

Prior to me paying more attention to my life as an American citizen and my citizenship responsibilities,? I spent a total of 34-years as an engineer and technologist during the glory years of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

This unprecedented and technologically driven period in American history was pivotal to the advent of personal computing, mobile phone development, the expansion of the World Wide Web (Internet), and major innovations in global satellite & space communications. I am delighted to say that I played a professional role in major aspects in the refinement of all of these life-changing, technological break throughs.

I am also pleased to note that during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, I had the opportunity to enhance my organizational and executive leadership skills. This period of my career included senior management roles within the U.S. healthcare practice management, pharmaceutical wholesale product distribution and data center management arenas.

Like many Americans in the late 20th century, the level of energy required to excel in demanding corporate careers was tremendously time consuming. Paying more attention to activities not directly associated with the work on my desk, business travel, and family activities was difficult. ?And in hindsight, at times, seemed nearly impossible.

As I sit here at my writer’s desk today, July 14, 2024, a day after the assassination attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump, I am like most Americans; anxious about our country’s social and political future. However, as I focus on completing this book’s manuscript, I am reflecting upon the fact that many of the technologies developed and refined by my generation in the past are fueling many aspects of our society today. These innovations are now a part of our new normal, and have improved and strengthen the lives of all Americans as well as the global population.

As I think deeper today, and pay more attention, ?I must admit that I have a mixed view of this new normal. ?The use of some of these transformative ?technological advancements leaves me both excited and gravely concerned.

I am excited about the significant and positive changes to many aspects of American life in the areas of personal and global communications, education, medical research, public and private transportation, healthcare, and entertainment.

But I am gravely concerned about the way many of these technical innovations seem to be fueling unattended societal discomfort and disunity. They include:

The degree to which mobile phones and mobile devices have become a necessity and an obsession in everyday life;

• The escalating influence of social media and the increase in the number of bad actors;
• The commercialization and misuse of Artificial Intelligence;
• The broad acceptance of public gaslighting and derogatory language; and
• The polarizing divergence-of-thought and tribalization of our nation’s two major political parties; as well as among elected ?public officials in many States, at all levels.

And as to the latter, I am reminded of this quote attributed to one of America’s Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention.

“The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.” —?Thomas Jefferson

When you combine all of the above, like me, many Americans during these early years of the 21st century, are concerned that the current cultural and political trajectories present a complex and daunting challenge to our American-style democracy’s fragile social fabric. It is not far-reaching to believe that some of the impacts may take generations to repair, if a repair is possible.

My research indicates that a broad consensus of political scholars, historians, and bipartisan observers are convinced? that addressing these challenges will require that a governing plurality of civic-minded Americans “pay more attention” and ask themselves some tough questions.?

These are both revealing and penetrating questions, whose honest and transformative ?answers can only be found within the hollowed venues of unselfish human hearts.

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