It’s been remarkably too long since I’ve written anything,
but I decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to write just for the sake of
writing. I actually wanted to be writing about something that I was inspired
about. Well, clearly inspiration has been lacking lately, but tonight it was a
little different. It’s amazing what a nice glass of Honey Whiskey and a couple
of episodes of The Newsroom will do.
First off, if you haven’t watched The Newsroom you might not
want to continue reading. Just fair warning.
It’s difficult to be romantic about America lately.
Negativity and polarization reign supreme, the rich get richer and the poor get
poorer, and the idea of the middle class has become an endangered species. It’s
hard to find reasons to be hopeful and challenge the status quo. The system is
so deeply ingrained in the expectations of society that we are no longer
surprised by its unfairness. It’s easier to say, “Nothing is going to change,
why even try.”
But that complacency is exactly what is killing the country.
In the season finale of The Newsroom, the entire episode is about Will McAvoy
being called The Greater Fool. He sees the term as an insult to his crusade to
change the mentality of news. He sees it as a failure of his mission to bring
dignity and truth back to journalism. It is not until the end of the episode
that he realizes that The Greater Fool is one of the most important members of
our American society. The Greater Fool is, as Sloan Sabbith puts it, “someone
with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed
where others have failed. This whole country was made by greater fools.”
We are sorely in need of more Greater Fools in this country.
We no longer believe that magnificent things are possible. We no longer believe
that is worth reaching for the stars just for the sake of reaching. Now, there
always has to be a reason or an endgame. People don’t do things just for the
benefit of doing them anymore. The idealism and interest in making society
better is gone and has been replaced by an interest only in the self.
So, how do we change society? It truly must be a Greater
Fool who thinks they can change an entire country, but with enough of them, The
Greater Fools can win. We can rise up and change the way society thinks. The
challenge for us is to stop accepting the status quo.
If you consider yourself to be a Greater Fool, take the
small steps every day to stand up to the unfairness and idiocy that is
witnessed everyday. Don’t let things just slide anymore. Period.
