Out in the middle of a vast and very unforgiving desert there is a table with chairs on a low rock ledge that looks like they belong in a warm comfortable kitchen. Slowly, over time, one by one, people come in various states of composure to sit at the table. They are all very hard people; made sharp and unforgiving by their journey.

It is well known how our system nurtures black on black violence, or minority on minority violence, and then never reports on it or does anything to address it. Much like a parent who works to keep their adult children fighting with each other so the parent can maintain control.

For several decades now, this same process has been at work to divide America politically. The number one tool in this game is to oversimplify the issues, making sure everything is seen as right and wrong; us and them; black and white. In support of this effort to oversimplify everything, are the trolls whose job it is to make sure conversations stay at the level of ten year olds, with nothing but sarcasm and name calling. Some of it overt, intentional, and scripted; like the soft comedy of Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. And some of it is passive, simply encouraging a story or personality to be seen in the media; like the outright insanity of Keith Olbermann. All of social media is cluttered with these trolls, using these direct and indirect tactics to disrupt any interaction that appears to be headed towards an adult and reasoned conversation. And, just like ripples radiating out from a pebble thrown into a pond, the public adopts this behavior as their own. Creating a sea too tumultuous to navigate.

The people who make it to the table are survivors. At the table, they battle within themselves between the two conflicting urges: to kill the others at the table or to start an interesting and enriching conversation. They embarked on the journey to find the table in the desert for the latter, but the journey has conditioned them to the former. Very few survive for long.

Everyone must find their own strategy for confronting and overriding these distractions, but it all starts with awareness.