Why Am I Doing This?

I am an avid reader.  I start my day with news clip emails from The Council on Foreign Relations, The Chicago Sun Times, The Chicago Tribune, Politico and a Daily Roundup of Greek related news from my own organization, the Hellenic American Leadership Council.  I’ll read The New York Times on my commute to work.  I read The Atlantic magazine and its online offerings.  I keep up with reporting across the political spectrum and around the world as well as business and sports news via Twitter.  I subscribe to Foreign Affairs and to Sports Illustrated.  I usually alternate between two books over a two week period.  And when I’m on the move — walking to the train, walking to meetings, riding my bike — I’m listening to a variety of podcasts.

So what?  I don’t catalogue all this because I am somehow impressed with my reading habits.  Having reviewed the reading routine of the likes of Warren Buffett and Admiral James Stavridis make it clear that I have a ways to go before what and how I read is noteworthy.  I listed all of the above to emphasize how easy it is nowadays to be informed.  Pick the topic, and you can likely become quite fluent on it with a smartphone (to get podcasts), YouTube (for educational tools like Ted Talks), the internet, and a library card.

With such easy access to information, the poverty of our public debate is remarkable.  I’m not even referring to the failure to agree on common facts or the proliferation of alternative realities that Kurt Andersen brilliantly analyzes in his great Atlantic piece “How America Lost its Mind” and his book Fantasyland, both of which I highly recommend.  What I really regret is that we aren’t engaging in dialogue.  We tweet and are encouraged by the number of retweets.  We may post an article we think is important and then keep checking how many “likes” we get.  How often do you actually check if the people that “like” an article you post/tweet about have actually read it?  Do you try to engage in a conversation with them about your thoughts on the article?

Maybe there is no interest in discussing any topic in more than 140 characters.  Experience tells me otherwise.  So I hope to spark higher quality dialogue at least in the various circles I am a part of.  I will consistently blog on issues that I’ve formed an opinion on (and you all know I’m not shy about my opinions).  Then I hope my family, friends, colleagues acquaintances add to the discussion or disagree.  I look forward to this little experiment.