CosmicSandBox’s Weblog

Are you getting fed up with having to think, feel and say everything in a 5 second sound bite?  I am. Not only is the media spitting everything out in sound bites, but it is infecting almost all our communication – even within our own heads.  You’ve heard of the 5 second meditations haven’t you?!

My father always needed us to say whatever in 5 seconds or he lost interest. My kids with ADD are the same way.  Maybe my father had ADD before we knew it existed.  He’s 93 years old now and doesn’t listen to anything at all anymore! 

I don’t think many people even realize that this dehydration of speech has happened to us.  We’ve just acclimated and evolved into short attention span beings on the run.  But like fast food, it puts fuel in our tank, but doesn’t satisfy the soul.  We never get that FULL feeling that floods the whole Being.

Bill Moyers spoke of beware the “terrible simplifiers” on his PBS program The Journal. He was referring to the political media reducing whole speeches, sermons, articles, etc. to 5 second sound bites that inflame, distort and can even bring down an empire. 

We can’t even relate to things like the Lincoln vs. Douglas debates of the 1850’s for the Presidency. People actually hung on every word, talked about it for weeks and had their own debates around the kitchen tables. Can you even imagine that happening today? 

In more recent times, I recall the Grateful Dead refused to make a 3 minute record which was required in order to play on commercial radio until their one and only commercial single, Touch of Gray. Their rich culture -changing charisma couldn’t fit on a 3 minute sound bite recording!  You needed their whole creative, free flowing extravaganza to effect the shift in consciousness of an entire generation.

We can’t shift the consciousness of the world today if we keep insisting on getting our wisdom from sound bites.  I think that most of us blogging, or taking the time to read blogs, want to see a shift in consciousness that will help us move toward more peace and harmony on the Planet. We obviously appreciate words.

Sound bites are only one dimensional. Therefore, they provoke conflict because they evoke the opposite stance. This still only gives you two dimensional conversation that just goes back and forth forever or going circular. Real conversation and debate is three and four dimensional and provokes understanding of the others’ perspective.  Then one isn’t just a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc. Labels don’t work. Each one is an individual who has ideas and beliefs that align with various philosophies in subtle ways. 

Sound bites are rallying cries in battle. Hitler used them constantly to inflame his audiences. They stick in our minds like advertising jingles that we remember for 40 years!  “ Plop, plop fizz, fizz. Oh , what a relief it is!” comes to mind.  Do we really want our world run by sloganism? 

I want real relationships with real people that want to exercise their minds as much as their bodies and their stomachs. I want others to listen to me long enough to understand me and what I’m trying to say.  Please slow down, take a 10 second meditation (maybe more) and let’s consciously listen to each other for as long as necessary.  I think our lives depend on it.