Rome is Burning

Last night, I rewatched the movie, Lions for Lambs, starring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. I stumbled upon one of the best, and timely, movie quotes of all time.

Redford, who also directed the flick, is a college professor engaged in a conversation with a student who at one time was very engaged in the class and the subject matter but who has since resigned to apathy about the world around him.

The student, who comes from a privileged background, was fed up with politics and what he considered a losing battle in trying to affect change.

Meanwhile, two former students who had left the class to join the Army were in Afghanistan, on a mission created by Cruise's character, a senator. The students came from a poor neighborhood and also were fed up with the world around them. Instead of slipping into the same apathetic view of the world, they decided to fight for change.

Instead, they were killed in action.

While the movie was fictional, Redford's comments to the apathetic student were very real and very timely, based on what is happening around us today.

"If things are really bad, as bad as you say they are, and thousands of American troops are dead and more are dying every day, probably as we speak, you tell me, how can you enjoy the good life? Rome is burning, son, and the problem is not with the people who started this. They are past irredeemable. The problem is with us, all of us, who do nothing, who just fiddle. Who try to maneuver around the edges of the flame. I'll tell you something, there are people out there, day to day, all around the world who are fighting to make things better."

Rome is burning.

And, as Redford's character stated, we can't blame the people who created the mess. They are irredeemable.

It's us. We're to blame. We allow these things to happen because we are disengaged from the process. We'd rather watch the Kardashians, the Cavs, the Indians, the Browns or The Goldbergs rather than pay attention to what is happening on C-Span.

We created this mess.

It goes back to the McCain-Obama election and later the Romney-Obama election. Those events coincided with the growth of Facebook.

More people were discussing politics on social media than ever before (obviously). I'd have bought a tropical island somewhere if I had collected a nickel for every time I saw someone post, "Stop talking about politics!"

That's the disengagement.

We would rather avoid the difficult discussions because they don't affect us...but they do. And they're affecting us all in a very bad way right now.

How can we stop talking about politics?

Politics drive the schools our children attend. Politics shapes the way our corporations operate and pay us. Politics isn't simply a difference of opinion on whether we should drop missiles on Syria, it shapes our way of life.

How can anyone want to avoid that discussion?

Sadly, more people were needed in the fight against fake news. It's that fake news that spread and led to Donald Trump being elected.

Remember when we were told if we elected Obama over John McCain we'd all end up in FEMA camps as Obama and his Muslim Brotherhood friends would implement Sharia Law in the United States? Those same people were the ones spreading the fake news about Hillary Clinton.

Rome is burning. Most of us are roasting marshmallows.