Big Questions Online: The Online State of Nature.
”I have thought a lot about why people get so hostile online, and I have come to believe it is primarily because we live in a society with a hypertrophied sense of justice and an atrophied sense of humility and charity, to put the matter in terms of the classic virtues.” I think we hoped in the early days of blogging that open discussions would inoculate against ignorance. Instead, like-minded individuals seem to congregate in flocks, pushing their beliefs to extreme levels. This can be seen in a beneficial niching of interests and hobbies, but also in the dangerous isolation of belief systems or political philosophies. We humans desire to be right, right without the effort of questioning our basic belief systems, right as if rightness were one of our appendages. It’s easier to seek those who agree, than to look at difficult issues and analyze them. Esp. when introspection runs up against how you were raised, and how you were educated. I see so many teens and 20-somethings on Facebook who profess the philosophy of Captain Morgan over anything substantive or worthwhile. Ignorance is celebrated, education is reviled.
Extending further — we watch television, read books, view movies in which characters come up against crisis, and then undergo a change of character. It’s a basic writer’s technique for any work of fiction — required, even — yet it’s not an accurate representation of what happens in real life. People in reality can change, but they’re slow to do so — if they do so at all. Yet we expect others — friends, business associates, celebrities, our political leaders, our religious leaders — to go through crises and change for the better. How often we’re let down on this point! We need “Seinfeld” back again ... a group of people who *never* progress, who show clearly that we need to change ourselves in order to not be miserable self-centered individuals.
I find it all a funny combo of ignorance and naivete, and the need to shout it all from the rooftops [I’m looking in a mirror as I type this phrase]. We all fall into the abyss from time to time, but the sheer number doing it these days is astonishing.
I recommend writing drafts of posts or comments, and then stepping away from them for a period of time.
As I should have done before writing and posting this.
Comments:
Going a bit off on a tangent: The internet’s dropped the public/private curtain (thinking of how people blather with regards to propriety on FB, Twitter and in blog comments), and we now see that America *is* populated by Archie Bunkers. We knew, at the time, that Archie Bunkers existed - they ranted in their own homes to their captive audiences (their families). There was no method for them to go public. It allowed our culture to slowly change and tamp them down to reasonable, culturally-acceptable levels.
Today, our Archie Bunkers are gathering together via the internet, using weight of numbers to reinforce their belief systems. Direct experience is the only cure for ingrained bigotry, racism, et al ... yet the internet is disconnecting us from *direct* social contact, replacing it with virtual experience.
I see this as a problem - and I have no idea how to cure it.
Next entry: ABC15.com: Have there been beheadings in Arizona desert. >>
The word that comes to mind for me (not about your post but about its subject
is sophistry.
The other thing that does is Marlo’s famous quote from The Wire:
“You want it to be one way. You want it to be one way. But it’s the other way.”
Man, I miss that show. Treme was good but nowhere near as good as that.