When my folks were growing up, they knew of war, racism, politics, activism, poverty, hunger, and wealth beyond words.  All of that and more still exists today.

What do we have today that they didn’t have then?  A lot more people and much bigger microphones.

There are 4 billion more of us than were alive at the mid-point of the twentieth century.  The estimated population of the world in 1950, which also happens to be the year of my birth, was 2.555 billion people; today’s estimated population is 6.764 billion.

The noise level globally is so much higher, and it has become necessary for us to raise the volume of our discourse to be heard.  The 24-hour news cycle, ’round the clock television and radio needing to be filled, and the Internet make communications instantaneous from one side of the planet to the other.

But are the issues any different as between the generation of my folks and mine?  Or as between mine and that of my children?  In fact, has the world known a time when there were no wars, no racism, no politics, no poverty, no hunger?  I rather doubt it.

If the issues are no different than they have ever been, never mind just the twentieth century, why, then,  do we  perceive the debate has changed in tone and volume?  While there are complex issues involved, the answer may be far more simple than we realize.

Willie Sutton, the noted bank robber, when asked why he robbed banks, answered:  “Because that’s where the money is.”

When simply because it’s there is the reason why we climb mountains, too, it may be no more complicated an answer to the question of tone and volume as well.  People groused and complained about life and all of those same issues in the past just as we grouse and complain about them now.  If the issues are the same, the complaints are, too.

People shout and spit and swear and get all nasty and rude simply because they can. Today, though, the sound systems are stronger, more powerful, the means and the opportunity to be heard so much better.

The Internet, talk radio, reality shows, and people’s long-standing tendency to crane their necks at accident scenes all contribute.  We gravitate toward the unusual and bizarre, and we can’t take our eyes off of it, and in the instance of shouting out one’s upset, we can’t take our ears off of it.

Are there more assclowns in the population today than before?  Certainly.  Is there a higher percentage of assclowns among that population, though?  That’s the question, for even if the percentage is no higher than it was a half-century ago, with more than 4 billion of us today than were here then, the numbers would be staggering.  If they all chose to shout at once, well, you can imagine. . . ., no, actually, you can hear.

Are we becoming less civil toward each other?  Less tolerant of differences?  Romans vs. Christians was pretty uncivil and intolerant.  Muslims vs. Jews?  The Inquisition?   Manifest destiny vs. native Americans.  Asians during World War II?  Slavery all over the world and the mistreatment of blacks?  European genocide of aboriginal tribes in Australia?  The list is just too long.

Rather than ask if we are less civil and tolerant of each other today, perhaps we should be asking when we were civil and tolerant in the first place.

The stage is larger, the troupe is larger, and the audience is larger.  The need for volume, therefore, is greater, and the equipment to deliver the message is more sophisticated.  Volume exaggerates it,  distorts it into entertainment just like that car wreck we stared at on the way home last night.

It isn’t so much we’re getting worse than we used to be as it is we’re just not getting better than we have ever been.