Everybody is screaming

By Jim Gerwing

Man alive, is it ever difficult to find a quiet place anymore! I wonder sometimes if it just my age, but I don't readily admit that.

Our favourite coffee shop often plays music too loud for anyone to carry on a normal conversation. Two youngish people are conversing, faces less than 20cm apart, both screaming at the top of their lungs. They are not arguing. Several of the best places to eat in town are so loud that we never go near them anymore. Is everybody going deaf? It is almost a relief to get out into the street with the swoosh of cars, trucks, motorcycles, horns, sirens, sea gulls, and crows.

Newspapers scream out their daily headlines, too often carrying stories of questionable worth. In the last provincial campaign Christy Clark promised 100,000 jobs, Adrian Dix promised nothing like it. Within a few lines we found that Clark's jobs might possibly happen in 10 to 15 years and that Dix was not about to promise things he could not deliver. Big news. The headline screams, READ ME. The article wasn't worth a second look.

Umpteen years ago Justin Trudeau stripped down to his shirt (OMG!) just for fun at a public event and Stephen Harper goes ballistic. His personal attack should not have made it to the last page of a scurrilous journal, much less a respected daily.

Have to sell newspapers. Have to get the attention of the public or go broke. When everything is important, nothing is important. When everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. A real world crisis gets a big headline, and within a few days all is forgotten as the news media chases down a silly story with the same garish headlines. Journalists mouth off on things they do not understand, because they haven't been able to take the time to think or do some research before flapping their gums. How can we take anything seriously?

The stock market soars and tumbles with each new revelation. Up and down, like a yoyo, like gas prices at the pumps. Scramble, scramble, scramble or be left holding the bag. Can't take the time to look before leaping.

So it goes. How much thought is going into public discourse today? What real values underlie the decisions on what to print and how to print it? A friend of mine deals a lot with young people. When conversing with them face to face, they are the most polite people you can ever meet. But when it comes to dealing with them on e-mail, they are decidedly rude, snapping off the first thing that comes to mind, usually with a half-dozen grammar and spelling errors. Instant messaging creates some really frustrating experiences. Today, it seems that taking time to consider before speaking or sending notes just doesn't cross the minds of folks of all ages.

Getting old and somewhat crotchety isn't for the faint of heart, let me tell you. It is downright difficult. Yet, as my younger brother smirks, it beats the alternative. I guess so.