“Don’t try to treat me like I ain’t famous, My apologies, are you into astrology? Cause I’m, I’m tryin’ to make it to Uranus..”*
That force is a lack of accountability.
Accountability is the most potent influence not only determining the worst decisions ever made, but also the most victorious leaps in progress. The lack thereof allows chaos to rule and structure to decay. When enforced, accountability builds mountains and strengthens bonds. Without leadership, organization will cease to exist. Communities rely on putting trust in leaders to guide their prosperity. Growth and evolution are only prevented by how successful these leaders are in pulling communities together in an alliance toward a common goal. And without accountability, communities have nobody to hang when the shit hits the fan.
At some point in the last decade Generation X and Y, both generations who’d tell you to go fuck yourself if you labeled them, started to take a backseat to the world spinning around them. The Baby Boomers already signed off on taking any responsibility. Boomers were ready to pass the buck as soon as they got theirs. They would pull it off without remorse because they did very well in the late 1990s betting on hot internet IPO’s and real estate. At the turn of the century computers and video games were becoming mainstream, much like a clogged toilet eventually goes mainstream. The outside world soon became a distraction. And if you’ve ever seen a riot, you know what happens when nobody’s looking. People break stuff. Accountability was being broken down and leading to an equally sized catastrophe of new societal ethics and culture.
Off the top of my head here are some of the results of this new era of zero accountability:
- Dominance of tabloid journalism as a main source of news
- George W. Bush elected president
- Terrorist attack on the US on 9/11/2001
- Reality television
- George W. Bush elected president, again
- Fox News Corp dominance of national media
- The same Fox creates the Tea Party, a splinter of the Republican party
- Lindsay Lohan becomes a star, the it girl
- Dominance of rap in most music offerings
- Shitty pop music and the shittier pop stars who created it - Bieber, Gaga, Perry, Rebecca Black
- YouTube celebrity
- Paparazzi photos becoming news stories
- Lindsay Lohan becomes a pariah, the holy shit girl
Once again, the internet is the cause of and solution to all of life’s modern failures. The explosive growth and acceptance of such a globally impacting phenomenon was entering the forefront of change in public virtue and scrutiny. Society is no more of a majority-rules somewhat consistent tribe of equal values, but more of a metabolized goo filling any cracks in the concrete. Without the real danger of calling someone a dick to their face, and being immediately punched in return, people could exploit these new avenues of risk without consequences. Libel and slander were now a daily blog away, and extreme hatred such as racism and sexism could be put on display without any recourse. Truth wasn’t relevant anymore, because it was just as easy to lie. People began taking the internet seriously, but without any concern for accuracy or moral compass. Over time this developed into social media calling the shots. We make most of our decisions these days based on what 4 out of 5 reviewers found “useful”. We dislike a song because everyone seems to be calling the singer a douchebag. We choose what movie to watch based on how many tomatoes it got. Dictating our lives like this is nothing new - newspapers and television news have been influencing us for decades - you now have no filter attached. Everything is OUT THERE and will remain out there FOREVER. Good, bad, ugly…fugly. Tommy a little 12 year old brat from Georgia Heights thinks the new Incubus album is bad because the “band is all faggy now”. Alex, 25, an aspiring professional athlete from Albany claims “fuck this phone - it breaks easily and is pure shit, get the Samsung”. Megan, 42, a yoga instructor from Wichita eschews Red Bull energy drinks because “you shouldn’t drink this crap it’ll kill ya and destroy your liver.”
With such qualified and mature wisdom guiding the way, how can we fail right? Don’t worry about the outcome because nobody’s watching. Our leaders are too busy with getting theirs, that you should be getting yours. Throw caution into the wind and buy that Kanye album. You know you want to. He has silver teeth. That’s so awesome. OMG look at the shiny teeth. I’m gonna text Lindsay she will freak out.
