The CNN Countdown Clock from embracethechaos.com
I have been totally glued to the coverage of Hurricane Irene because one I am a weather freak, and I am so nerdily interested. Secondly I really enjoy coverage of major current events, while this coverage is usually not for a good purpose, I love when the news focuses on one thing, and as a nation we are all glued to what is happening. While this was something I always enjoyed, during this coverage, for the first time, I was turned off. I am nervous of living in a world where everything has a countdown and everything is on a catastrophic path to destruction.
This growth of the countdown has been such a dramatic and growing phenomenon. Countdown to the Debt Crisis, Countdown to the end of space travel, countdown the overthrow of the government in Libya, and countdown until President Obama and his family gets ice cream. While this might make for good ratings and dramatic television, I do not think this puts our world in a better place. While CNN is winning with exciting television, our world is becoming more of a divided place.
Almost everyone can agree our politicians are the most divided in history. Washington did not magically become this way, it is in a direct result of 24 hour news cycles and dramatic countdown television. Back in the day our politicians would go to Washington and a news cycle would keep us up to date on what was going on, but their day to day work was not magnified. Now anything a politician does can be on CNN within minutes. This has lead to hypersensitivity to every little thing and stance a politician takes, and then each movement can be used as a way to grandstand. In my humble opinion, expanding the debt ceiling should not have been such a big issue, we simply raised the debt ceiling numerous times before with no issues, but this time our divided parties got to grand stand and choose dramatic sides. Did this help the country move forward in a positive way, in my opinion no, our credit got downgraded, we did not come up with a solid plan to eliminate the debt, and people are more divided than ever.
In the world of improv the grounding philosophy is yes and, working together, and positivity. Through that method we create amazing worlds, add interesting and exciting details, and quickly solve the problems our characters are experiencing. This is something that apparently used to happen in our nation’s capital. There would be a problem or issue, people would get together talk about the different approaches, and then people would compromise and come up with a pretty solid solution. A win win scenario, but now that does not happen. People refuse to work together, we get crap deals, and the first discussion is about who won, and who is now in a better place to win the next election.
I do not want a divided government. Most of my viewpoints span the political spectrum, some things I side with the Republicans, some things I side with the Democrats. What I want them to do is come up with solutions, not force everything to be a dramatic game of who can win. Not everything we do should be a countdown, while I want politicians to feel the pressure of coming up with solutions, when CNN is rocking a countdown, I don’t think anyone is happy with the solution. Sadly, these decisions give Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper a bit more things to talk about. How can we take a page out of the improv handbook, calm down the dramatics, work together, and come up with solutions to the major problems we are facing.
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