I returned to Facebook about a year ago, and I'm experiencing both the addictive nature of the beast and increasing dismay. It is, in every way, a battlefield, a pure, unadulterated reflection of life as we know it.
Communication has its origins, I think, in the word "community". It's about us and our relationships with each other. Words are important, they express, more than anything who we are. We think we are talking about other people; but we are really only expressing ourselves.
Words are used so carelessly these days. Careless people fling out words in sound bites that sound like they mean something, but I think we have little clue. I hear "Hitler", "Democratic", "Republican", "Immigrant", the F-Word; the N-Word; and so on. These words are shocking, or they used to be, but now I hear them flung about as ammunition in the battle for My Side; My View; My Beliefs. If words could kill, there would be a lot of dead people formerly on FB. Oh, wait, that has already happened.
We lament the fact that representatives of our government have lost the ability to work together; to compromise; to negotiate; to get anything done. Why are we surprised by this? We elected them, based on their declared intention to do nothing more than oppose anyone who disagrees with them. They are a reflection of how we conduct ourselves in our own lives. The tone of our rhetoric and conduct is "My way or I'll run over you on the highway!"
We just seem to be against everything and for so little. This is only a little planet, and we are all human beings together here. The problems of our world; the hopes, the joys; the fears are all ours together. It is not a competition. No one is gong to win - not the current argument on Facebook or anything else. There are no winners. There are only angry, fearful, gun-toting people who feel increasingly alienated from each other. I'm afraid too. I'm afraid for our earth; our children; our future.
We talk about God and love endlessly. They are also words we fling about carelessly. True faith and love is evidenced in our speech and our actions, not in FB postings. By the way, I hope the God I know is not spending time reading Facebook. Until we act with the love and faith we profess, I fear that we are all going down.
Communication has its origins, I think, in the word "community". It's about us and our relationships with each other. Words are important, they express, more than anything who we are. We think we are talking about other people; but we are really only expressing ourselves.
Words are used so carelessly these days. Careless people fling out words in sound bites that sound like they mean something, but I think we have little clue. I hear "Hitler", "Democratic", "Republican", "Immigrant", the F-Word; the N-Word; and so on. These words are shocking, or they used to be, but now I hear them flung about as ammunition in the battle for My Side; My View; My Beliefs. If words could kill, there would be a lot of dead people formerly on FB. Oh, wait, that has already happened.
We lament the fact that representatives of our government have lost the ability to work together; to compromise; to negotiate; to get anything done. Why are we surprised by this? We elected them, based on their declared intention to do nothing more than oppose anyone who disagrees with them. They are a reflection of how we conduct ourselves in our own lives. The tone of our rhetoric and conduct is "My way or I'll run over you on the highway!"
We just seem to be against everything and for so little. This is only a little planet, and we are all human beings together here. The problems of our world; the hopes, the joys; the fears are all ours together. It is not a competition. No one is gong to win - not the current argument on Facebook or anything else. There are no winners. There are only angry, fearful, gun-toting people who feel increasingly alienated from each other. I'm afraid too. I'm afraid for our earth; our children; our future.
We talk about God and love endlessly. They are also words we fling about carelessly. True faith and love is evidenced in our speech and our actions, not in FB postings. By the way, I hope the God I know is not spending time reading Facebook. Until we act with the love and faith we profess, I fear that we are all going down.
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