In my lifetime, I’ve never seen our country divided like it is today. There’s always been a level of ideological, political and social beliefs that have caused disagreement, but nothing like what we are experiencing today.

I think it all started to unravel about 10 to 15 years ago; how and why we got to where we are today being complicated and worthy of discussion. I will leave that for another time. Here are three things I think have changed during that time.

First, we’ve forgotten how to listen. We think being heard is much more important. Stephen Covey put it best when he said, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Today, you can quickly be admonished and sometimes even ridiculed for merely listening to someone else’s point of view.

Second, a great majority of us have turned our cognitive thought processes over to the fringe. It used to be the folks on the fringe, those that screamed and yelled their beliefs and drowned out opposing ideas with volume, were not part of the middle American, intellectual process. Today, the “fringe” has taken over the center, the MSM panders to them and thus chaos reigns.

Thirdly, the most despised word in today’s partisan, ideology-driven conversation is the word “compromise.” It’s my way or the highway; it’s my candidate or nothing, “not my president.” If I don’t agree with you on something, you are not only wrong you are evil. Compromise used to be the way we moved forward as a nation, it’s not so true anymore.

We’re headed towards the cliff at warp speed with eyes and ears wide shut. I wonder if there’s still time to find the steering wheel and brake before it’s too late.