Friday, December 25, 2015

I get Feedback - ( but not enough!)


I'm moving this to the "front page" just to show that wherever we are around the globe, we're all on the same channel or the same wavelength most of the time.

"Monsieur Beep" lives in Germany, and "Tommy" lives in New York State, near the eastern coast of the U.S.A., and I'm on Canada's wet west coast. Yet, in some ways, it's like we're friends around a table in the local pub, having a beer together, and talking about current events.

This is the great promise of our Internet. The "coming together" of like-minded people everywhere for everyone's benefit. I've noticed lately on Facebook that there's a lot of negativity being expressed by a lot of people who have not yet mastered their own bigotry or hostility toward those whom they perceive to be "different". This promotes similar reactions in other readers, and defeats the higher purposes of having something like Facebook, on which we can all get together to exchange and share ideas and thoughts. And here, I have to interject that I'm as guilty as anyone of "fighting fire with fire" when some idiot mouths off at the world. I feel compelled to "educate" that unfortunate nitwit.

It has surprised and distressed me that so many of those Republican candidates for the presidency are exhibiting such utter disrespect for others and such contempt for the average voter's intelligence, and such disrespect for the ideals of the office to which they are aspiring. I wouldn't vote for most of those for the position of local dog catcher, never mind for leadership of the country, not because I'm prejudiced against rudeness and ignorance, but because I don't believe the world needs a leader such as those with such few obvious qualifications for such an important position. And the fact that they think they do have such qualifications really frightens me. That kind of unmitigated gall should never be encouraged with our votes. On the contrary, it should be shunned at every opportunity, and discouraged wherever found.

And I'm hoping that thanks to the Internet, and the many reasonable and sensible people on it, common sense will prevail, and the higher quality candidates with more acceptable manners and behaviour will win that contest.  And I hope they bear in mind that the U.S.A. makes up only 4.4 percent of the world's population. This means 95.6% of us are NOT Americans. And most of us believe in the greatest good to the greatest number. Think about that.

2 comments:

  1. What does it feel like to be "pushed up to the front page"? Well, thanks for the honour of mentioning my name on your well-respected blog; still, I´d rather prefer the "having a beer together in a pub" version. ;-)

    Ray, hope you´re having a nice time, now around solstice (solstice - a turning point in the darkest winter now headed for a much brighter world.

    Ah yes, you´re absolutely right with your remarks about social media. I´m a great friend of facebook and also of Mark Zuckerberg´s timeline (yes he´s running his own timeline), but I´m with you: some are yet far away from being masters of the art of communication - yet, this is a learning process, and facebook gives us the unique chance to get all people in the world closer together, a task not achieved by any politics, religion or whatever, so far.

    See you.

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  2. Oui, Monsieur, you are also absolutely right, and I wasn't intending
    to denigrate Facebook, even though, looking back, it seems I might
    have been. Sorry about that.

    I think Facebook itself is a wonderful concept, and I have a lot of
    fun on it myself. I just wish that we were not as easily inclined
    toward being negative on there, because that provokes the wrong
    responses in others like me who don't have the strength of character
    to resist the urge to fire back with a similar nasty response.

    We need something like a "Google Translate" but able to check what we
    are writing, and prompt us to keep it more positive, perhaps. And
    maybe without some of those over-used cuss words, like the "F" word.

    I didn't realize Mark Zuckerberg runs his own timeline on there.
    I guess I just assumed he would be too busy spending his money
    or counting it maybe. But if I were him, I'd certainly be saying
    something on it - I love writing, even though I'm not very good at it.
    It tends to get better the more one does it, I believe. But then,
    I believe a lot of things that aren't necessarily true or verifiable.

    And I would enjoy having a nice cold Heineken with you, if it were
    possible. I hope your day is going well.

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