Still here; waiting for the din to subside

    Judging from the hits on this site over the past week, it is apparent that regular readers are looking for the latest entry.
    The world rotates on its axis. The sun rises and sets. Actually, it doesn't move at all, we do, but never mind.
    I'm still here, but I am taking a break, waiting for the din to subside.
    I came to the conclusion that I had become part of the din, and in danger of being dragged down into the swill of excessive rhetoric that in this era of polls and polarization adds nothing of any substance to the public discourse.
    The debt crisis debacle did it. Why comment on insanity?
    I fear that our culture is dying.
    Our political system seems to be broken, perhaps a victim of instant transmission of whatever sensation presents itself, and the 'round the clock news cycles.  Too much abuse of the freedom of speech, and assembly. When is an assembly of concerned citizens in danger of becoming a lynch mob? It may be simply a matter of publicity, and momentum.
    I see too much apathy turning from the spectacle of too much ignorant ranting.
    I will continue to write, but not in the arena on one-upmanship, where the latest cut, the cruelest dig, wins the day.
    I choose not to engage in battles of wits with the witless. It will not be about volume, but about the elevation of ideas.
    Reason, ultimately, triumphs over zealotry.
    My personal decision changes nothing, I know. It flies in the face of the power of publicity, celebrity, and confrontation, and ratings. But if I believe that reason prevails over rants, I will not be one of those who rant.
    Old-fashioned, perhaps, in this era of instant polls, and the abdication of responsibility by the traditional gatekeepers.  But if you value substance over popularity, you can sleep better, walk a little taller, and retain hope for the culture.