Margaret Thatcher once said, “Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.” I don’t want her to be right, but I think she is.
I hate driving to school in the Atlanta traffic when it’s rainy and cold. I would rather stay in my warm bed and watch back-to-back episodes of “The Walking Dead”. Plus, sitting in class for five hours? Not fun. I don’t want to shame my own name by mistaking assonance for alliteration in front of all of my classmates. Nor do I want to feel the shiver of nerves in my belly when I have to present an excerpt from my latest writing project in publishing class.
However, I always decide to get out of bed and go to class. My brief discomfort on the highway and in class is nothing compared to the joy I’ll experience in graduating, getting gainful employment and making enough money to be able to stay in bed and watch all the television I want. On second thought, I’ll probably be doing something much better than watching television.
According to the good old boob-tube, I should feel so moved by the drama in The Walking Dead that I will be eager to buy any of the products advertised during the commercial breaks. I should feel angry about the violence in recent news, enough so to quickly vote in favor of new laws or regulations without really thinking about the cause of the violence or whether or not the laws will be a deterrent. I should feel enough sorrow to adopt a rescue pet every time I see that commercial with the Sarah McLachlan song. I should also feel enough happiness about the Atlanta Falcon’s most recent season to support taxpayer money financing a new billion-dollar stadium.
I wouldn’t say that we are governed by our televisions. I also wouldn’t say that our government is the reason why we have become a nation of “feelie” people. Nevertheless, we do spend a lot of time talking about our feelings, acting on our feelings, and wallowing in our feelings. Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer and Maury Polvich wouldn’t have careers otherwise. Perhaps we should all try to make logic sexier. Maybe we should have “Thought Idol” instead of “American Idol”. Maybe we shouldn’t refer to those politicians with advanced degrees as elitists. Maybe we should follow the tweets of inventors, scientists and modern philosophers instead of the tweets of Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian. Maybe we should spend more time thinking.
