headline philosophy

We have entered an age of Headline Philosophy. I am not a philosopher, I am not a historian, nor am I an educator, but merely someone who happens to be living in the present. I have been mulling this idea for some time, but after the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday, I feel it's time to put my burden down, regardless of whether anyone reads this. These thoughts are placed on hypothetical paper to unburden my soul, whether read by another or not. I feel thoroughly saddened by the event of yesterday, and it solidifies the underlying throb in my heart.

With nearly every glimpse of another human and conversations we have with those close to us, or distant, we are making judgments. Some judgments might be valid and others extremely misguided. Regarding the physical, we automatically make assumptions without having a degree of actual knowledge. Our eyes see, our brain processes images, but our heart draws a conclusion. But today, it isn't about the physical; it's about the philosophical. It's about making decisions that form our worldview and become part of our deepest inner being, from headlines, from crafted, segmented parts of speech. We are witnesses to the part and not the whole, and that is becoming the entirety.

Anyone can, and some have, taken something that I said and created a narrative that suited their opinion of me. I find this so disturbing and unfair. This is precisely what we do with everyone, from a family member to a politician, to Charlie Kirk. We deliberately find and search for the one thing someone has said and hold that as proof of the person's integrity and their whole being.

When a marriage fails, we are quick to blame the most obvious perpetrator, and the other automatically becomes the victim. It may be accurate, but likely not completely. We judge a person by their act of impropriety and ignore the other attributes and acts of goodness that they have previously performed. We want to blame, find fault, and justify our disgust with the situation.

Whether it is the murder of an insurance executive or a man with whom you disagree, we look for something to validate our headline opinion of that person. We search for the justification of our thoughts and opinions and disregard the humanity of the individual.

There is much I disagree with —from family members, friends, neighbors, and politicians —but I have to recognize that they are much more than my opinion or the headliner comment that was intentionally curated for the most effective moment of contact. It is these moments that are the ones that formulate our opinion and take a deep, cemented foothold in our philosophical belief. We don't conduct a deep dive; we accept the calculated one-liner. We no longer lean into a deeper belief system that I believe deliberately entered into our world thousands of years ago. We form our beliefs from the culture of the day, not anything deep-rooted. We are a culture of superficial, surface-level headlines. We are no longer like the oak tree but a quick-growing weed that continues to populate the garden of our soul.

I sound angry and maybe over the top, but I am sad and weeping for who we have become as a nation. It's about the soul of our people. The brokenness of our world. The hatred and anger that is prolific. It's the turning away from decency and respect for life.

I hope this is a turning point.