People often claim they strive to find the best in others, but the truth is many of us seem programmed to look for the worst. At least if you look at what draws our attention in headlines or even political ads. Go ugly early wins more elections than it loses. Sure the occasional cat video, cute baby picture, or feel good story may pop to the top of your news feed, but the home-runs are almost always negative. A list of worst things is generally more popular than a list of best things.
Traditionalists want to tie this phenomenon to our flagging culture. The proverbial back in my day rhetoric. Depending on their specific bugaboo they’ll trace the tipping point back to the OJ trial, Nixon, hippies, the Black Sox scandal, or some other cataclysmic social event. We’ve been doing it for all of history. In the late republic prominent Romans likely blamed the Gracchi brothers for ruining everything just as Archie Bunker blamed non-WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) for society’s ills.
Honestly, I suspect they’ve got it all wrong. There’s no single event signifying cultural Armageddon. Despite our best efforts in looking for an external catalyst the answer lies within ourselves. Our cultures aren’t living entities; but they are created, driven, and modified by a collection of human beings within them. The intricate interactions of millions of people with each other change and mutate our cultures through time. Whether it’s a great thinker, a new technology, or environmental changes something is always driving change.
Dealing with change scares people. Sadly the misfortune of others often makes people feel better about themselves. The Germans even have a single word for this feeling – schadenfreude. Today’s featured map comes to you from collegehumor.com and is firmly in that spirit of schadenfreude. If you’re feeling down about your most recent real estate tax bill just think of New Jerseyans who suffer the highest property taxes.
Today’s Map
As much as I might worry, I doubt this negative post will do much for my blog popularity. Perhaps I should’ve just posted that picture of me and my cute cat.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen