Monday, February 25th, 2008 

Is it getting nasty out there, or is it just me? Here are some of the tee shirts and bumper stickers I saw this weekend:

  • Shame on you. Yeah you. The one looking at my chest. [expletive deleted]
  • If you want your husband to listen to you, you’ll have to pry his head out of his butt. [expletive also deleted]
  • Oh, I get it. You’re stupid.

Maybe I should wonder about my neighbors.

So, is communicating with each other getting so difficult that we have to turn people off before they speak to us? I contemplated approaching the woman wearing the “You’re stupid” shirt when I saw her in a local store this afternoon. Ultimately I didn’t; I figured I’d embarrassed my kids enough for the day. But I was curious. Why did she choose to make that statement? What did she want people to think? That she was funny? That she was angry? That she encounters such flocks of stupid people that she can’t function in her daily endeavors?

The 2007 results of the Harris Interactive Poll shows that 56% percent of Americans feel a sense of alienation. The annual poll studies how much control people feel they have over their lives. 2007 showed the highest sense of alienation since 1999. So, not the highest sense of alienation in history. But over half of Americans polled indicate they feel a sense of powerlessness and isolation. That’s significant.

I have a hunch. It’s not that we walk among the functioning stupid. It’s that we’re out of touch. We’re alienated and isolated. And consequently, socially illiterate.

So, the question becomes this. When isolated and out-of-touch, do you choose to engage or withdraw? Do you choose to maintain an open posture, or a hostile one? Is the world around you stupid, or a puzzle which you have yet to piece together?