10/13/2020

When information was hard to come by, it was easy to agree on a common set of facts. Now in this age of  social media, it seems everyone has flown of the handle. There's so much information - too much information. No matter how outlandish one's viewpoint, there's always a set of "facts" to support it and online forums to find other true believers.

Compounding this problem of a deluge of contradicting information is the incompetence or complete absence of any leader or authority that can corral the masses. Experts get it wrong all the time. Institutions fail. Everyone has his own agenda and trust is at an all time low. 

How crazy can things get? I don't know. I always assumed that there's a maximum amount of discord/idiocy that society can sustain. It seems that there's no limit and this state of affairs putters on despite itself. 

This pandemic has revealed that when it comes to having a unified response, there will always be people who think they know what's best for themselves and to hell with the rest. But maybe that's just the way it's got to be. Blame liberal democracy. No modern democratic government has the stomach to go full authoritarian. In the end you can only do what you can.