The Gospel Of The Clueless

"There is an almost universal quest for easy answers

and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people

more than having to think."

- Martin Luther King

Do you get the feeling lately that there aren’t very many people paying much attention these days? I don’t mean paying attention to an individual issue, I mean paying attention period. Everywhere I go whether it is online or in the real world, I run into people who are so lost in their own little time and place they are completely oblivious to what is going on around them.

I was downtown the other day, stopped at a red light. A nicely dressed man, about forty, crossed the intersection in front of me with his finger buried up his nose. I can understand people in their cars forgetting that their windows are actually two-way glass and indulging in a little nasal mining but out on the street?

He struck gold and hauled it out of his nose to take a good look at it in the middle of the intersection, pausing to hold his finger up to seriously examine his find. What in God’s name could anyone possibly have up their nose that they would want to examine it? Were they expecting that this one time, whatever it is would be different than the hundreds of times before?

It’s incredible. People are completely tuned out.

Everywhere I go people are on their cell and smart phones. They’re texting, emailing and talking and they do it while they’re driving and while they’re trying to cross the street without regard to personal safety or the safety of others. Too often, they are so focused on the momentous communication they just received that they are completely unaware of the half-ton truck in front of which they’ve just walked.

I watched one young woman walk out into an intersection against a red light. She was so focused on her mobile phone, she didn’t notice either the light or even the intersection until the traffic slammed to a screeching halt to avoid running her over. Then, of course, she was suitably annoyed that someone almost hit her and forced to look up from her phone.

It is life without thought; life without even an attempt to think.

Earlier today I was listening to a radio talk show I particularly enjoy and they were discussing the issue of swaddling. You know, swaddling; as in “and Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manager.” That kind of swaddling.

After centuries of swaddling newborns, apparently it has suddenly become dangerous. It arrests the development of newborns, could cause hip dysplasia, lead to SIDS and death. Where is the evidence to support this nonsense? Where are the overwhelming reports of cases of swaddling having threatened, injured or killed babies?

There aren’t any, of course. Like so many of the solutions being offered today, they are solutions by self-anointed experts looking for a problem.

The sad thing is that because we have become dumber, a lot of people will jump on the anti-swaddling issue just as so many jumped on the “vaccinations cause autism” bandwagon. God, even Oprah was behind that cause and her devoted fans followed her mindlessly as if she was a female reincarnation of Moses leading them out of bondage to the Promised Land.

It was a crock, a fraud by a single doctor in England who falsified a study for no more noble reason than the cash he received from a pharmaceutical company. Hundreds of thousands stopped having their children vaccinated for diseases like polio which was all but eradicated and is now making a comeback thanks to this stupidity.

It wasn’t that there wasn’t more than ample information available at the World Health Organization and government health departments around the world that contradicted the report. There were but people were too lazy to do any independent research. People like Oprah and Jenny McCarthy said it was so and that was good enough reason for them to risk their children’s lives.

To this day, even though the fraud has been exposed, there are still far too many who believe that vaccinations cause autism because people like Oprah once said so.

We have more information available to us than ever before thanks to technology but technology has dumbed us down to the point of becoming almost mindless. It has made us intellectually fat and lazy; too lazy to actually research things for ourselves and then analyze critically what we’ve learned. Why bother when you have Wikipedia and thousands of blogs and social media sites just itching to tell you the truth?

We can no longer separate fact from opinion let alone from fiction or fantasy.

There was a time when we actually paid experts to provide the facts for our encyclopedias. Now, any idiot with a keyboard and an Internet connection is an expert and there are plenty more idiots just willing to believe whatever they type.

It is the Gospel Of The Clueless.

The technology whiz kids predict that soon our refrigerators will maintain an inventory of the food they contain and when we’re running low, they will order more for us. Samsung is already producing a refrigerator with Wi-Fi for that amateur chef who suffers separation anxiety from being away from the computer for more than a few minutes.

Isn’t that just what we needed; machines that think for us and keep us connected to the Great Mindless Void that the Internet has become? Our phones are already smarter than too many of us and now we’re getting ready to have household appliances that will be smarter than us as well.

At this rate, we’ll be lucky if most people remember how to tie their shoe laces in the not too distant future although some bright light will probably develop an app to do that for us.

Whether it is political debate or an understanding of the major social issues challenging us today, most people have no more clues about what drives them than their toaster, although it appears their toaster may soon have enough technology to figure it out.

Everything has been reduced to emotions now rather than analytical thought. Emotions are easy, thought is difficult and requires some effort but we are becoming a society that is unprepared to make much of an effort to do very much of anything.

We don’t even want to pay our own way anymore. It’s just easier to whine about how difficult life is and demand that someone else pay for a part, if not all, of what we want.

University is expensive and working to earn enough money while going to university is hard so, make someone else pay. That’s easier and doesn’t take any effort at all.

Voting based on a candidate’s record actually means having to examine the record and compare it to the promises that were made in the last election and that, we all know, is hard. It’s just easier to support someone based on our feelings. If we like him or her, or think they’re cool; that should be good enough reason to vote them into office. What damage they might do while in office is really irrelevant compared to what we feel.

We’ve reached a time and place where nothing matters but what we’re doing at the moment. We don’t plan, we don’t think and we are unaware of the bigger world around us. We go online, see a few tweets about an issue and thanks to Twitter or Facebook or whatever, we have all we need to know to decide whether or not we will support or oppose it.

Thinking is not required. Neither is being aware let alone committed.

You don’t have to take my word for it, look at the inane comments from both sides of the Presidential election argument currently on Twitter. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was a badly written comedy show starring Charlie Sheen or an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. The amount of rational thought or critical analysis that has gone into the discussion is less than is required to slap together a piece of Ikea furniture.

Ok, bad example. Assembling Ikea furniture isn’t all that easy but neither is thinking. It takes effort; more effort than picking your nose in public or fiddling with your iPhone. It takes assembling information; real information, not the opinionated articles of this blog or others and once you have that information, it requires analyzing it.

I know that’s a lot of effort for many but if deciding who you’re going to trust to govern your country isn’t worth that effort; then you might as well let your refrigerator vote for you because it will probably give it at least some serious thought before casting its ballot.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

Trolls!

When we were kids, we didn’t have computers and the Internet, Xbox and Game Boy. We had hockey sticks, balls, trucks and books of fairy tales by people like Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. Those books were full of mystical stories about wonderous creatures that included sorcerers, fairies, elves, unicorns, giants and…….trolls.

Trolls were ugly little creatures that, for the most part, lived under bridges and in caves. They were dangerous and at six years old, we were rightly frightened of them.

Later, I would learn that the mythology of trolls originated in the Scandanavian countries, primarily Denmark where originally they were considered to be the spirits that lived inside rocks and other inanimate objects. Later, they would evolve to take on a human-like form. Usually they were ugly creatures although in some tales, they were not.

I still remember those old stories somewhat wistfully because we lose that sense of wonder and the ability to believe in things that are magically, even if they are a little scary. All too soon, I became aware that fairies and elves, unicorns and sorcerers don’t exist but trolls do.

Trolls are real. They walk among us and can be found all over the Internet.

Internet trolls are the ones who post highly inflammatory (and usually incorrect) messages across social media and in chat rooms. They surf the web looking for memorial sites where they can leave hateful, spiteful messages that denigrate the deceased and which are designed to hurt those who mourn.

Internet trolls frequently jump into conversations which are none of their business, hurl insults at one or another in the conversation until it becomes impossible for the original participants to continue. They act alone and they act in groups. They are cowards, bullies and lack any standard of recognizable values.

Some think these trolls exist primarily because  the anonymity the Internet provides allows trolls to bring out the worst in themselves. But I think it is something else that causes people to become trolls.

I believe trolls are insecure people with small, petty lives in the real world. They are lonely nobodies crying out for attention in any way they can get it. They are ill-informed on most issues, have little interest in becoming informed and their self-esteem is so low that they are threatened by anyone who challenges their shallow beliefs and opinions.

I get accosted by one or more trolls every day. I don’t take it all that seriously because I see them for what they are; sad, pathetic people with pathetic lives but others, most of whom are more sensitive than I am, often take these troll attacks to heart and are either intimidated or hurt by them.

I have had friends on Twitter who have been bullied to the point of closing their account and for no other reason than because trolls decided to make them a target.

I’ve seen trolls attack families grieving for the loss of a child, gather together to encourage someone to commit suicide online for their entertainment and other trolls flock to web sites that pay homage to serial killers, racists and homophobes.

They offer nothing of value and their ideas and as much as they are hurtful, their words are silly and the comments absurd.

Trolls are everywhere and at some point virtually everyone who uses social media on the Internet, on a regular basis, will encounter one or more of them. When that happens remember this. Trolls can only hurt you if you allow them to hurt you. Block them, report them or ignore them. They crave attention. It is how they validate their pathetic little lives. Don’t give it to them. Instead, see them for what they are and simply move on. Their words can’t hurt you and they have nothing but hurtful words to throw at you.

Trolls are people who have accomplished nothing and so look for ways to undermine the accomplishments of others. They have no values so they look for ways to undermine the values of others. Don’t allow it. They are lower than spammers and scammers, they are the Internet’s bottom feeders sharing more in common with pedophiles and racists than any other group who uses social media.

Soon enough, just as it was when we grew up and fairy tales lost their magic, the Internet too will mature and grow up and trolls will fade away into the sewers from which they came. It can’t come soon enough for most of us but regardless of how long it takes, it is coming.

Until then, just remember that trolls are sleazy little imaginary creatures not worth concerning yourself over.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

You're Awesome!

I’ve been told that I’m awesome more often since joining Twitter ten months ago than throughout out all of my prior life and almost exclusively by people who have never met me, don’t know me and who seem to think that because I can click the follow button I’m - well - simply amazing!

I don’t let it go to my head because I've also been called a 'capitalist lickspittle', a 'right-wing neo-fascist' and a 'left-wing socialist jerk-off'. I also have lots of people in my real life who know me quite well and who regularly assure me that I am merely just ok.

Then too, there is something about trusting the sincerity of an automated direct message telling you that you're awesome that tends to get in the way of believing it.

Apple And Foxconn - A Fabricated Scandal

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." -Winston Churchill


I stumbled across an interesting little sidebar tale shortly after posting my last article about the release of the latest Apple iPad. Someone on Twitter sent me a note that they were boycotting Apple products because of the Foxconn situation. Having never heard of Foxconn, my first thought was that Apple must be advertising on Fox News and the person who messaged me was opposed to that but I decided I should probably do some quick research just to confirm that and so I did.

The Apple iPad - More Pointless Hype

I dropped Maggie off at work this morning and was listening to the news on the way back to the ranch. Guess what the top news story was. If you guessed the robo call election scandal, the trial of an accused child murderer currently under way or even the ongoing election coverage in the United States, you’d be wrong.

My Days On Twitter

And so it’s just another day on Twitter….

It starts with the usual slew of Direct Messages from people thrilled that I am now following them, so thrilled in fact, that they can't wait for me to also visit their website, buy their new self-published novel or contact them immediately if I have any questions at all about Internet marketing, social media, want lots more followers or am in need of personal development.

Most of the messages start the same way. “Thank you so much for following. Check out my….”. I often wonder at the expertise of these online marketing experts who think that the best way to develop a new client is to whack them over the head with the sales pitch while they’re still shaking your hand during the introduction.

SOPA & Bill C-30 - The Bizarre Fear Of Our Own Governments

There are days when I become so confused by the confused logic employed by so many that I sometimes wish my head actually would explode.

The ongoing hysteria over proposed government legislation on the Internet is one of those illogical knee-jerk reactions that I can’t reconcile with reality. I try, honestly I do, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t make the facts fit the assertions being made by the righteous defenders of liberty and democracy feverishly screaming across social media networks. I've even been accused of fear mongering for pointing out general issues about cyber crime.

If Not SOPA, What?

I just bought a new computer and have been busy going about the business of setting it up. One of the first things I did, as most of us do, was install anti-spyware, anti-malware and anti-tracking software. There is just so much malevolence out there that without this software, your computer is like a bank vault left open all night.

My father used to say that a lock only keeps out an honest man and he was right.

Consider hackers like Anonymous who break into systems and computers to disrupt and steal data. Sometimes that data is highly sensitive, sometimes it’s financial. Sometimes, hackers break-in just to damage your system.

The Adverse Reality Of Virtual Reality

Recently some folks at an NHL hockey game booed the Premier of Alberta when she was introduced. They were, no doubt, displeased with her positions on certain issues and wanted her to know about it. This would be the same premier who was elected with a significant majority just a few months ago.

Canadians like to think that we’re a tad more civil than our American and European counterparts but clearly we’re not and the lack of civility and respect for the offices of government has eroded into mob reaction.

We saw it at a NASCAR event where Michelle Obama and Joe Biden’s wife were booed by the crowd as if, somehow, these two women were singularly responsible for the things the crowd was displeased with.

I call it mob courage because there weren’t too many in either of those crowds who would have behaved with the same lack of common courtesy if they were alone and face-to-face with the person the crowd booed.

The Intolerant Democracy of the Great Cloud

The Internet and social networking sites in particular, are the ultimate democracy. It is the ongoing embodiment of what I understand about Occupy’s concept of democracy.  Perhaps that’s a subconscious driver for my lack of comfort with Occupy. For all it’s democratic opportunity, I don’t find social media all that social.

Updataing to Upgrade

I still remember the first real computer I bought. It was an IBM clone with two 5 1/4 paper disks; one to power the thing and the other on which to save data. I thought I had died and gone to heaven even though I couldn't do much with it. It had less than 1MB of total memory and all of that memory was on paper floppy disks (for those of you born not so long ago, the original floppy disks were actually flimsy things encased in paper which is why they were called floppy disks) I learned to use it for simple word processing and spread sheets but other than that, it was pretty much a big desk ornament.