Heatless fire: the catalyst of control
Are we outraged more as a society than we used to be? Is the catalyst required that ignites outrage less? I think so but I am unsure. The feeling I tend to get is that over the last 25 years I have been watching quite closely, I think that we as a society are taking less and less to get worked up and our reactions are increasingly strong.
It likely has many factors but, the internet plays a heavy roll as we are exposed to more and more information which is getting sensationalized at a higher rate than ever to attract our attention, to get eyes and earn a few more advertising dollars. We get polarized but, we are progressively feeling that our voice matters, that we do have some power and the internet provides many platforms. The push for individualism further magnifies this.
I also think that our ability to process, critical think and handle our emotions are decreasing. For the last several decades we have been brainwashed into getting in touch with our emotions and t express them but, not told to consider the dangers of attaching ourselves to them or the harm we can cause through our expression. We feel entitled to voice our displeasure and feel marginalized if our rants go unheard. We demand an audience, no matter how damaging our words.
On top of this, we are then conditioned to respond to bells and whistles that then trigger our emotions and heighten our senses rapidly. We mount our horse and charge without fully considering the circumstances nor the manipulations laid out in front of us. It is aim and fire but, we aren't necessarily the ones doing the aiming.
I wonder if we realize just how much kindling has been packed in around us to light the fires but, how futile most of our actions are. We sit behind our keyboards talking ideals and change, feeling that we are making inroads and progress, feeling we are fighting the good fight but, is this the case. How much is burning and, how much is the illusion of fire?
Can you feel the heat?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
When 8-10% of the population within a polity revolt against their masters, the polity enters the dangerous zone of "revolution." In a world of near-instant communications, how can states prevent their ill-educated, over-emotional rabble from storming the parliment with pitch-forks? How can we maintain social stability in a reality of constantly shifting technology and economic activities? How can the nervous energy of the discontented rabble to channeled away from their overlords?
In the past, a foreign boogieman served the purposes of distracting the ignorant, but the in current world, distant, abstract, external foes are no longer effective. Especially in an era of nuclear power, miscalculation may result in too high a cost. Thus, we devised social media shaming and internet trolling as a method for social stability. As long as the fools believe their "hashtags" and internet comments are "making a difference," our employers no longer need worry concerning civil revolt or disobedience. The fools can be easily distracted and directed towards "issues" to bicker on the virtual world, while our employers govern the real world. Those who rule understand that the virtual world has little to no impact upon reality, and those "revolutionaries" are effectively and efficiently neutered from accomplishing any thing of real value, typing away maddly on their keyboards and purchasing digital phantoms to "undermine" the "banking cartel."
Yep. Can't add much more.
Interesting viewpoint.🤔 you may have something there.
I hear what you are saying and I do believe it is by design, If not by design, then by taking advantage of a system in which our society works. We can see this with things like, where choices are required to be made and only two options to choose from. I would use the last US elections to show that. That either of the main characters making it to position the end result is the same, the choice given is which method to use. A vote does not seem to matter. Our education does not stop when schooling starts and it is the same for the same in society. Groups are made to fight for equality of a specific thing creating a divide even within the want for equality.
For the internet, I think it creates a distance comfortable for some and a distance too far for others, It can be used as a means to reach out to others and share your views. It can also be the opposite where it is like talking to a machine and there is no personal connection. There is all the different combination and variation between those two. The Social conscious needs to change is some important ways.
We react to certain situations as we are not taught in schooling to think the things through, we are fact receivers and what we hear has to be the truth. When we hear things initially we have a line of thought that follows. The same thoughts if looked at later can be sen in a different manner. We need to begin to teach our young to think and to think about the future actions they have options to choose from. The first reaction is not always the only one.
Exactly. Everyone wants what is fair for their group, no matter the harm to others.
It does and unfortunately I think that it is going to be through some very hard lessons.
And it is rarely the correct one if there are strong emotions involved.
I like your thinking. I am ambitious with my goals on this platform and when I find myself growing to a success. Which I am positive I can do. I want to use that success in the physical world to create change in the above-mentioned areas and more. It is a long journey, But I take a step daily.
Word.
This is what the worst excesses of the social justice movement are all about.
Is it as crazy in Australia as it is in North America? I've seen something like it in the Facebook behavior of some of the people that are FB friends of FB friends but Finnish universities seem to be largely free of the kind of nonsense rampant on American university campuses.
I think it is growing there too. These days culture of a country means little as in time, all are exposed to the same media, the same brainwashing.
I agree that the fact that we consume many of the same syndicated media outlets has an effect but there still are cultural differences. Much of what originates in American universities feels superimposed and alien here and not only because of English being a foreign language and a lot of things being lost in translation. There is a marked difference between Sweden and Finland in this regard, too. Sweden is very PC and, for example, nationalist populist parties have extremely difficult time there despite their increasing popularity and no other party wants anything to do with them. In Finland, Perussuomalaiset (I don't like their official English language name) was met with an endless barrage of accusations of racism from the mostly liberal media ever since their popularity started rising from the 2% or so in the early 2000's, which actually helped their cause. PS was included in the cabinet in 2015. Such a party that had Jussi Halla-aho as the leader of a prominent faction could never have been able to form a cabinet with any other party in Sweden. Denmark is similar to Finland this way and radically different from Sweden. The Danes actually tend to feel a little contemptuous of Swedish political correctness because, in Denmark, people value freedom of speech to a much greater degree even if it hurt other people's feelings.
I see it as moving toward the same way as the US. I predicted PS and their path as it started similarly (and continued on the same trajectory) as One Nation in Australia which began in the mid 90s. The US universities and their misguided SJW syndromes are spreading rapidly, even in Finland. Here, people are beginning to fight for things they know nothing about too.
The difference between Finland and Sweden is partly explained by the fact that Sweden somewhat more urbanized. The legacy of the Centre Party is such that sheer economic forces are in the process of bringing about a swift and brutal urbanization to the extent it is lagging behind our western neighbour. That means a larger voter base for the Green Party that is rife with the sort of PC copied from America. I have had a few discussions on Facebook with typical voters of the Greens and even with a couple of Green local politicians living in Helsinki. One of them struck me as hypersensitive, totally lacking a thick skin and incapable of handling differences in opinion. I'm not the only one suggesting that the Greens are not a party at all but a motley crew of whinging "individualists" competing for who is fighting for the most obscure cause of them all. :)
Yes, I have met a few and they are often well read with paper experience and a nice suit. I am not very political but, I do hear things from time to time and I think that Finland is in for some rough times.
Hmmmmm what a post. Yeah you’re right about internet. The evolution of man can not be told without the internet and the evolution of men isn’t complete without the internet
Our creativity is limited to the internet now and I can see how much ideas are burning away. I sure do feel the heat
This is so with the world now... People get angry when they feel their Rant isn't giving what they feel it should get..... However, true pleasure comes when you know opinion isn't all in all.
There's room for others to launch theirs.. The social media isn't helping...
But in all thsese..our composure is valuable in what so ever situation we are faced....
Fear has killed alot of dreams, the worry about what people would say, how they would react has killed alot of fires and also stop lots of fires from being lit
I agree with you on this.
Getting worked and angry with a keyboard is easy. In the past if you wanted to express anger and resentment towards someone or something you had to take a risk and potentially find yourself in a Gulag. Today, everyone can bitch and be quick to react aggressively thousands of kilometres away without any danger.
Now, the uprisings like the Arab spring, really due occur faster and require less because of technology but sadly it's exactly like you said the result are futile most of the time. It will be truly interesting to see how all this evolves in tje future.
This is a part of the problem here too as here are no consequences for poor behaviour.
Can't just get enough of this line. Sometimes we just go with our emotions and allow it control us. Emotions arennatural but the choices we make is what defines us. So if we let our emotions rule then we get defined by it and gradually lose control of ourselves and that's when you see people say and do things without meaning and reason yeilding little or no results.
You're on track. Choices made when emotion is the pilot on the plane you're on, do not end well.
perhaps the heat has not reached the top of the head, but if we see what human beings are experiencing on earth today, we can easily predict what the world will have to come to the fore. Doing positive and leaving negative is a solution for all of us how to feel cool even in that fire.
Very good thinking @tarazkp.. god bless for you!!