Fragments

Our human nature is what?

To hate, despise, be greedy, to be ‘righteously’ correct, ignorant, selfish, irrational, fanatical and pessimistic.

It is also to love, respect, learn, cooperate, help, listen, rational, be accepting and optimistic.

Which appears to be easier?

At this time, observation leads to the former being easier. The spread of vitriol in online media, the rise of hate groups and supremacists over recent years affirms this fact. Trolls used to be the stuff of Fantasy stories. Now? A norm of expectation. Offer a comment that is well reasoned and what comes back? Just hate. Look to the Climate change debate. A Scientist presents more confirmation of our dire situation and unrelenting attacks occur. Not attacks that challenge what is stated, but are vicious personal attacks ideologically driven. No rational process, but hate.

Look to the increasing lone wolf style terror attacks. A knife wielding crazy person screaming Allah Akbar in London stabbing people repeatedly, a self declared white supremacist paranoid about those not like him, taking blazing guns of terror to NZ Mosques and killing many as if he is doing us Christian based white folk a favour and all the while live streamed on his helmet camera. Whether it is London or Christchurch, both of these terror acts attracted support online from supporters and practitioners from both hate groups. Plainly both acts go well beyond the norm of any form of moral acceptance.

Look to the USA and the great divide over D Trump’s presidency. I make the proviso that my politics are left of the Conservative ultra right. In the past, while sometimes fiery, debate would be rational, points made, agree to disagree, truth was rarely manipulated even when opposing arguments were presented.

In the USA, the Birther movement was created by those with malicious intent to attack Barrack Obama who according to them is not US born and is a Muslim terrorist. It is plainly not true. They worked on the insecurities of those that have rarely traveled to other States let alone Countries or mixed with people outside of their existence. Their ignorance was manipulated for the selfish gains of politicians, business of the right and the powerful self-righteous, even though the truth is otherwise.

Donald Trump hitched his pony to this manipulation of the ignorant and harnessed a vote bank that had all but been forgotten or dismissed especially by the left of politics.

They love him because he noticed them. Without question he enabled a core of rusted on supporters. Right or wrong, they defend and believe anything that is spouted by him. Irrationality or questions of truth in his comments does not matter. Labeling as fake, any news that casts him in a more circumspect light is standard and believed. Anyone else has become a satanic lover, pedophile (Q Anon), terrorist, fascist, communist, hater, general lowlife, scum, thief of personal freedoms and the list is almost unending.

They brandish their guns and bibles, re-brand the history of American slavery, call Covid 19 a Democrat plot, hate and dismiss any and all that disagree.

There is never reasoned counter argument, most probably because they cannot. Just abuse and threats of unreasonable violence. Accepted dictionary definitions of democracy, socialism, communism and fascism have been turned upside down. It is extremely difficult not to become irrational like them and return vitriol eye for an eye.

Compassion for these manipulated masses is what is needed. Despair and frustration of their manipulation I feel. The far right of Industry, Politics and religion with their unfathomable resources are the great manipulators. They have these people right where they want them.

They have become their new generation soldiers and jihadists of the digital revolution to push and scream the supremacist far right selfish and seriously unhealthy agenda from now and well into the future. This has unfortunately spread throughout the World. Elements of this have linked up. The NZ Mosque shooter had links to far right hate groups and individuals around the World. All connected by a computer click. It has got to the stage where I seriously cannot tell the difference between a Jihadist terrorist and the right wing sowers of hate.

They both 100% believe in what has been prescribed as being the only truth. They both usually reference religion to solidify the basis of this ideology. Once religion is incorporated, it is as if they become untouchable, not to be criticised or challenged. It is as if by doing so we are offending God itself! Did God create us with minds that think and reason or were our minds created to be compliant and prescribed to?

Our minds are there to think and reason, look to the new and question the old, go outside of traditional boxes of thoughts and actions, to evolve and adapt, to drink in knowledge, absorb the best information that this brings and think and act accordingly. We are not here to shut down the search of knowledge, discussion or descend to I am right and you are wrong petty argument.

Why are we now sliding over the precipice of fear driven ignorance into a dark new World where vaccines kill you, Bill Gates is impregnating us all with micro-chips, human induced global warming does not exist and the Earth has miraculously become flat again. Yet again plainly not truth, but it does not matter to the manipulators that these anti truth and anti science ideologies gain traction.

Our human ecosystem is just like any other ecosystem. Its health depends on a level of cooperation for its robustness. We don’t cooperate? Our fabric destructs and we become isolationists. Chaos ensues. A new ecosystem of humans has been created that is harsh and selfish. One that has cut itself off from real and well researched facts. It is a dangerous ecosystem that threatens our fabric of existence.

The big ticket items aimed at ensuring human existence become sidelined – climate change, clean water resource and food security are clear examples. Who takes advantage of this chaos? The great truth manipulators described previously. They are not stupid. It makes good business sense to them. Unity of purpose does not exist to fight them as we have become fragmented into cliques and cults spending our time in click-bait wars on the internet.

They have successfully distracted us all, deflecting from their real purpose to profit above all else. The World can descend into Hell in a Hand basket as long as their profits roll in before our day of reckoning happens. They are reckless with humanity. We are mere pawns in their global domination quest. This is reading like yet another in a very long line of conspiracy theories. This is more than just theory. Those with eyes wide open and and free thinking minds see this every day.

We are being boxed further by computer algorithms. Ideological platforms utilise these to great advantage. One small online query and a flood of like minded information (true or false) comes flooding through. Any advertiser will tell you that traditionally, if you have enough money, the scatter-gun approach to product promotion and acceptance is far and away the most successful. Just blitz all media as often as possible over a sustained period and the item weaves its way into our must have subconscious.

“Going Viral” is our digital version of this tradition. The modern ‘Viral acceptance of products and information has seen some wonderful outcomes for humans who otherwise would have still had their products or ideas left in obscurity. Unfortunately, it has also opened a darker side in us where ideas and ideologies are deliberately viralled, spreading like wildfire. An old saying – “If a lie is stated often enough, then it becomes the truth“. The great Manipulators understand this very well and have embraced the digital world to their selfish ends.

Recommendations for groups, new friends, products and feeds is tightening the personal, group and cluster boxes of our existence. Online communities grow of the like minded, not to be exposed verbally or physically to the not so like minded. The not so like minded become invisible until their alternative view is disseminated via the binary code.

Why do we accept this status quo? We are now well boxed, our societal fragmentation almost complete. How to break out? Maybe a better question – Is there any will left to break out? Conditioned we have become with a ‘like minded life’. All the similarities and familiarity of life that we are comfortable with are served daily on our plate. We are experts within our box being able to form like minded opinions within and never to be challenged in this ‘safe’ environment. If something uncomfortable happens that disturbs the like minded life, it has become so easy to retreat further into the comfort box. Never to be really exposed to the uncomfortable or challenging event, never learning how to work or deal with it.

Breaking down and fragmenting we are. No matter the subject matter, arguments we are having. Misinformation takes a hold due to a herd mentality of wanting to be confident and right at any cost to truth or independent observation. We have lost sense of the natural human ability to be curious, to research, to verify. We just want to belong and believe. Our boxed comforting existence stops us from finding out ourselves. We much rather believe from within the group, even if the information is questionable.

I believe the Earth is a sphere in Space of our galaxy as part of the Universe. The flat earth of folklore existed well before Science (Galilao) hypothesised and then proved we are a big ball. The 21st century see the rise of Flat Earthers who are adamant that they are right and somehow established Science has manipulated the truth. I can point out the proven science of this, but the response will be it is all a conspiracy by those nasty Scientists bent on world domination. It is so painful to the inquisitive mind that such established facts are derided and attacked. So all our schooling must be a hoax as well going on the lack of logic being applied by the deniers.

It is this digital disaster that has fragmented us in ways that could never have been imagined as little as twenty years ago.

I could cry looking at Millie’s picture. Her joy of being alive with that look of complete cheekiness as to what can I have fun with next is sadly tempered by what has been written before. Sadness and pessimism washes over me like multiple set waves of a big surfing day, only to gulp down the merest of breaths before being pushed under water again by the next relentless wave of ill-intention and ill-informed vitriol from those in the developing selfish fragmented human ecosystem.

Joy is difficult. Glimpsing a future of love, respect and kindness is almost impossible. To respect someone even if their ideology is different can be no more. Their insistence on the righteousness of their ideology is too much. “The facts state……..” That is where discussion stops. Mention the word facts and they come back with fake. It is beyond my educated comprehension that we have fragmented into a World of contrived ignorance after 1000’s of years of knowledge evolution only to see it all being washed away.

Compassion has dissipated and respect is no more. The gloves are off and fight I must, for me, my father, my sister, my wife, her sister, brother, their husband and wife, their children, my step children, my 3 children, 4 grand children, long term friends and colleagues that exist with open hearts and minds. The threads of optimism still exist.There are still many of us, the majority I believe. But for how long? Forever it must be. Otherwise our time on Planet Earth will come to an abrupt halt much sooner than needed.

We must find a common ground to knit our fragmented ecology back again. Maybe this can never happen.At this time I cannot think of any solutions apart from just keep on presenting the facts. Maybe the manipulated will wither away like a defunct branch of the human evolutionary tree, or is that my branch withering?

Try I must!