The Internal Threat

We live in a democratic society. We move through each day rather smoothly, almost like clockwork. People go about their daily routines in an orderly, rational manner. We must obey the laws or suffer the consequences. We must follow social norms or be labeled less than normal. We must get dressed, go to work, eat, come home, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again or face the penalties of "erratic behavior." However, under all this order, there may be a deep internal threat to the very democratic society that promotes it.

The emphasis of rational norms administered by government, its institutions, and the larger society may very well lead to the destruction of other precious democratic principles, if it hasn't already. Today, we live in a fast paced world. We are out to get things done: people to see, things to do, stuff to learn. Any alteration from our mapped out attack on the day leads us to unwarranted stress. A traffic jam keeps us from that meeting we are suppose to be at. A friend calls and wants to go to dinner, but that would keep us from the episode of American Idol we were planning on viewing. A homeless man slows our to the office by asking for a quarter or two. Today's norms and values place an emphasis on efficiency and economy at the expense of justice and equality.

By shifting significance to the norms of today, is it possible that we are loosing the greater value of life. Are we being labeled guilty before proven innocent because it's faster? Do we not care to make schools in the Bronx better because it does not effect our own lives? Are we willing to give up a fantastic opportunity because it was not in the plan?

We need to take a minute, or at least a second, to slow down and figure out what exactly is getting pushed aside and lost in the array of rules of cultural norms and bureaucratic order?