"We are full of ourselves and we hate. And we do it 24-7."

Gene Weingarten, of the Washington Post Magazine, writes this brilliant and funny piece of journalistic hilarity and wisdom, after an experiment with a 24 binge of TV, internet, radio, print and other news and commentary.

Cruel and Usual Punishment

The last little bits are the best.

Gene sends this text message to a hip, new radio show only taking text message requests. It reads:

"'Gentlemen:

I have been alone in a room for almost 24 hours with 6 TVs, a laptop and two radios, listening to and watching and reading only political shows and pundits and blogs, sometimes monitoring four or five things at the same time. Just to see if it can be done.

I'll tell you it can be, but I cannot tell you how horrible it is. It rattles the very center of your being. If you care about the state of humankind, it fills you with despair. We are as a people bleak and hostile and suspicious, filled with senseless partisanship and willing to believe anything and everything about anyone. We are full of ourselves and we hate. And we do it 24-7.

Would you be willing, as a sign of compassion and empathy, to do the unthinkable and broadcast right now, as a Valentine to me, 20 seconds of blessed dead air?

Complete silence. Just read my text and then say . . . nothing. Twenty seconds.

Just to show it can be done.'

I SEND IT IN.

It turns out, no, it can't be done."

Read the whole thing. I recommend it.

"We are full of ourselves and we hate. And we do it 24-7."

Progress isn't politics based in that kind of hate. Progress is finding that out about ourselves.

Real progress is choosing differently.

No power in the world could make us stop hating. Courage has us choose better.

And that's what real progress looks like.