The Deceit of Distraction

When my kids were growing up, I discovered a highly useful strategy for averting potentially undesirable situations. In fact, it totally altered their immediate focus.

Imagine being a shopping mall. Your child sees a cookie shop and says, “I wanna cookie. Cookie.” You say, “No. We’ll be eating supper soon.”

“But I’m hungry,” he says as he starts to whimper. Tears well up in his eyes. You can tell he’s seconds away from a major meltdown.

Suddenly, pointing to the other side of the mall, you say excitedly, “Oh, my goodness. Did you see that man who just walked by? He was wearing the weirdest hat I’ve ever seen!”

Your child looks but can’t see anything. You pick him up so he can see better. But he still can’t see the man. “Hop in your stroller and we’ll go see if we can find him. It was awesome.”

So off you go… looking for the non-existent man. Your child is curious. Interested in something besides that cookie. Disaster averted.

Why am I sharing this story? Because I see it all the time in the political arena.

We have so many real challenges in this world that need our attention. And I’m talking about things that are important to life. And I really mean LIFE. Such as:

• We’re polluting the world we live in, that provides our sustenance. In the US, 12,000+ square miles of our country are covered with trash in active/closed landfills.
• Our oceans are filled with plastics which breaks down into micro plastic particles which get into our food chain. Our bodies can’t handle this. It’ll ultimately lead to health problems.
• In the US, over 48,000 people died in firearm-related deaths in 2022. But we can’t do anything about it?
• Affordable health care for our citizens.

These are just a few of the real-life challenges we face. And what are we talking about instead? Dr. Seuss books harming children, Haitian immigrants eating pet cats, and who celebrities endorse for president.

The list could go on. These are distractions, pure and simple. Some are caused by politicians who want to win at all costs. Other distractions come from corporations that want to ensure huge profits.

And they get us all riled up about things--even at the expense of harming others.

We have a moral responsibility to expand our view about what’s happening in this world. That means we need to climb out of our own rabbit holes to learn more. To understand what’s really at stake.

AND …. We need to identify what really matters to us ….

Most of all, we must take action to create positive change in our polarized world.

P.S. Many thanks to Joe Davey for sharing his ideas and statistics with me.