The problem with social inertia

• Feast countdown = 46
• Current craving = Pretzel chips and hummus
• Current craving distraction = A trip to Wal-Mart (along with the rest of Rolla)

Today, Maureen Dowd zeroed in on an idea that I've been mulling over lately, that is, the overwhelming tendency for societies to overlook their own problems and affirm the status quo.  This mindset of "it's just the way things are" is incredibly powerful, as evidenced by the historically slow pace of social revolutions.  Each of us grows up learning a certain way that the world works, and unless something or someone drastically interrupts our way of thinking, we continue to reinforce our own narrow perspectives.

In Maureen's case, she points to her unquestioning acceptance of the Catholic Church's policies toward women.  While quizzing Muslim women who accept their subjugated status in certain societies, she suddenly wakes up to the reality that she is guilty of the same -- why had she not bucked against the Church's misogynist ways much earlier?  She laments, "I, too, remained part of an autocratic society that repressed women and ignored their progress in the secular world."

Ironically, we as Americans do this sort of thing all the time.  One commenter on the column exposed the phenomenon outright: 

"Americans fancy their own churches, corporate silos, and consumer niches as empowering zones -- but thanks to your column today, perhaps more will question how too many yet live in massive denial, massively abetting the powers that be."

I see it here in southeastern Missouri very clearly.  As one of the 10 poorest districts in the entire nation (and dead last, at one point, when considering women), MO-8 represents a region that seems resigned to the present state of affairs, unaware of the potential for real progress.  No one wants to admit that they're being had or that they're falling behind, so it's easier to just point to the rest of the world's problems and turn a blind eye to the growing crisis at home, as many of their politicians do.  I hope to help shift that mindset in the coming months.

As a final thought, I went on an amazing hike yesterday in the Mark Twain National Forest, about 2.5 hours southeast of Rolla by car.  It turned out that I enjoyed the drive almost as much as the hike, as I passed tiny towns of 1000+ people and rolling cow pastures (see pictures below).  This part of the country is truly captivating.  In the midst of it all, though, I forced myself to take note of the alarmingly low living conditions in these rural areas.  It was almost too easy to ignore the broken-down trailers scattered across the idyllic landscape, but once I noticed a few, I couldn't stop noticing.  

I know I've written about this before, but I like to play with the concept of breaking social inertia.  So few people in the world do anything about it -- the process of removing ourselves from our own societies for a moment, taking an unbiased view, and uncovering the disturbing conventions that we've come to accept.  As Maureen discovered, we're all guilty of it, but only a fraction of us realize it or even act on it.