I’m no expert in the US Constitution but the latest chatter about the second amendment has led me to do some thinking. Here is what the second amendment says: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”
The first bit of history is to note the amendment was ratified in 1791. At that time the States had no professional, trained army and so it fell to citizens to form the militia and of course they needed to be armed to carry out what would be an expectation of protection (‘...as necessary to the security of a free state’) . Today the United States has fully functioning armed forces which is armed and trained. This begs the question why the citizenry needs to be armed and why the second amendment in intent needs to exist. There is no obligation on any of the States to follow the amendment as it is not included in any other amendments which mandate a State follow it. It is questionable whether my right to own a gun has much to do with the security of a free state.
James Holmes in Colorado and his hideous, murderous assault could be seen as personifying what the NRA and its ilk support. He was exercising what they say is his unalienable right to bear arms. He was sure as hell bearing arms to the max. One might wonder why no one else in the cinema was bearing arms but one might in many ways be thankful they weren’t or at least chose to bear arms but not use them.
I am always at a loss to understand why Americans believe they need to bear arms, own guns, protect themselves with firearms etc while most other countries get by without it. I am further at a loss to understand why Americans see no correlation between their belief and the breathtaking number of gun related deaths/crimes/murders/assaults each year. 8775 murders in 2010 were caused by firearms – that’s 24 a day (Britain 600 for the same period or 1.6 a day, Australia 250 –one death every second day, 1% considered suicide).
NRA spokesman David Britt suggests “None of us in the free world would have what we have if it were not for guns. It’s about freedom, it's not about violence." He also suggests that gun control is a threat to liberty. Well when someone puts a bullet through my brains I’m just not sure where my freedom and liberty lies. When you feel your home is under threat and you need a gun to protect it when such a threat has not yet occurred I’m not convinced that is exercising freedom, aren’t you in some way entrapping yourself? If you are suspicious of your fellow humans to the extent that your country has more guns than citizens where is the liberty, isn’t liberty about thought and fairness and respect and acceptance as well? Being a slave to paranoia or prejudice or irrationality is not freedom, is not liberty, it is a form of incarceration of thought which is insidious and dangerous.
I am persuaded to the argument that government should serve the people rather than the people be subservient to government but I don’t believe that argument or philosophy is served well by a community of people who believes the first response, the best response is to shoot and kill. When the argument is reduced to ‘guns don’t kill, people do’ (ridiculous) or fascist sloganeering ‘out of my cold dead hand’ or even dick waving ‘The war is coming to the streets of America and if you are not keeping and bearing and practicing with your arms then you will be helpless and you will be the victim of evil.’ (Ted Nugent), it’s hard to take seriously but you still cringe.
By the way isn’t Mitt Romney a member of the NRA?
To Mr Holmes himself; he is being described as evil and I wonder if this is not an overused reflexive term. I can see what he did can validly be called an evil act but I’m not sure the person themselves can be called evil, what is the criteria? Repulsive because it repulses me, revolting because I am revolted by it, heinous because it is an atrocity and mystifying because we don’t know why. Evil has its own context and its own uniqueness. I suspect it makes us cope better if we use a darker term and assign a label more suggestive of something demonic or satanic than the act of a (possible, yet to be proved) disturbed young man. We have no doubt James Holmes committed this awful crime but we don’t know why. We can judge him and we can ponder as that seems appropriate. BUT unless and until we find that out the nature of the crime is very much up for debate.
Just sayin...
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Sorry Fakebook, We Can't Be Friends Anymore
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” -Anais Nin
Friendship is a funny thing isn’t it? I value it strongly and sometimes find it hard to imagine my life without my true friends. Sadly, at the same time as I ponder on that thought someone comes along and surprises me in the worst possible way, let’s me down, causes me to feel hurt or just drops me cold and I am left to wonder ‘why’.
Why Facebook chose to use the word ‘friend’ instead of ‘follower’ or ‘hanger on’ ‘circle ‘or ‘another number to my list’ is not a great mystery. It’s a touchy feely term that is very human and generates an emotional response – therefore more likely to be attractive. Also it was used in College face-books so carried over to the online concept originally. My added theory is Mark Zuckerberg had very few friends at College so why not create an ‘ideal world’ and call them friends – a bit like our make believe friend as kids. However is a friend in this case just an audience? Is a Facebook friend just an extra notch on the board? Do we check our friendships on Facebook in the same way we do in ‘real life’ – would I want to be my friend? It’s even now considered a verb ‘to friend someone’ or ‘friend me’.
I despair at the diminution in value of this precious word and it is why I refer to this social medium as Fakebook.
Before you jump on me and say I’m out of the age group Fakebook is designed for anyway did you know a THIRD of Fakebook users are over 50? In the latest Census only 1% of gays said they were in a committed long term relationship and yet we are agitating for them to be ‘heard’ on the subject of marriage so...whatever! I was actually an early adopter of Facebook. I originally had a page in early 2005 after hearing a discussion about it on radio. It started to really take off globally around the same time. I’d get a friend request and I felt good (warning right there surely...I felt valued when I got a friend request? Was it a throwback to feeling part of the gang when I was chosen for a team at school?)
Back then Facebook was a conversational tool, an online forum where people could hang out together. It was cool and it had life but it was just a little, well ‘fake’. I even had a stalker!!!
It didn’t take long before our ‘friendship’ had run its course and I took my leave. The only thing I actually missed was the TV Trivia game which I was sensational at.
Fast forward to autumn 2012 and an idea about how Facebook could be applied to the workplace and to customers was brewing. I decided to renew my acquaintance with the community of 900 million users and do some personal and professional ‘research’.
I was welcomed back warmly and was surprised I was only bereft one ‘friend’ (and sadly one I would also call a ‘real’ friend). There were some snazzy new improvements (relative term) and some baffling changes. It all seemed a bit busy and cluttered but the timeline look was much ‘cleaner’. Were there that many ads before and do I really have to get all those ‘suggested friends’ every bloody time I log in? I don’t have a relationship status so why do I get singles ads? I don’t live in Canberra so why do I get ads for ‘Clicos Cafe and Bar' in Barton? Clearly a marketplace had grown around Fakebook in an alarming way. And if I want to switch those two components off? I’m sure I can but I’m just as sure it’s not simple to find out how.
Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf and Alvin Toffler have all talked (and many years ago) about the dangers of us all being commoditized and the essential spirit that makes us human being seen as secondary to what the marketplace can do ‘with’ us. If you want to know how much of a product you have become you only need to sign up to Facebook. You’ll ‘like’ a page and before you know it suddenly you are getting all sorts of ‘cute’ messages which really just cover the fact that they are advertising their latest sale, product of the month, event or platform and you are the spot that ‘houses’ that ad, you are the delivery mechanism for those who visit your page (and every time they do that the Facebook tracker identifies them as a potential mark), you are a DNA rich, oxygen breathing billboard. Well done you and of course you benefit from doing that for those corporations by how again? Talk about freeloading for profit.
In the five years that I have been absent I hoped the level of debate, conversation or contribution would have been raised above the banal, the pointless or the tedious. In fact it seemed worse than it had before (when arguably it could have been put down to users getting acquainted with the medium). And the language; is there no ‘filth filter’? I know one might expect adults to be able to show their language skills without the need to use the foulest of foul language but apparently all bets are off. Obviously I have no right to be offended or bored. Frankly when you drop the F bomb (or worse) all the time you lose the ability to add nuance when you are angry or outraged and it just becomes tiresome. Why does it have to be so ugly and nasty and freaking annoying?
I had made an assumption that Twitter had taken the place of the short ‘announcements’ such as ‘Catching up for coffee with the lovely Mary’ but apparently not because the majority of status updates are of that type. Frankly why would I care? Frankly why would you post that, is it to show how groovy and sociable you are? Is it to show how interesting you are? Wouldn’t the people you are with be the ones who are the most likely to care about what you are doing? Call me and tell me about it, why post it for the world to see (and privacy settings or not dear reader the world CAN see it). Is it a need to be included, to feel valued (oh that again), to be on show, to ‘announce’ everything? Surely not, that would be relevance deprivation syndrome wouldn’t it? It just smacks of neediness and ‘look at me’.
I’ve talked before about the security issues before but I have concluded most really don’t care and have a kind of ignorant bliss that ‘no one can see what I put on there apart from those I have given access to’...this despite evidence and anecdotes to refute that assumption (not to mention the mind boggling rise in internet based crime). It absolutely astounds me the sort of ‘free kicks’ given to hackers, internet trawlers and ‘phish-mongers’ who make a very healthy (albeit dishonest) living monitoring Facebook and the Internet to pounce on another sucker. Why not just throw your driver’s licence and credit card into the middle of the main street and let it happen? And don’t forget to include the message that you’re off to some occasion NOW so your home is available for plundering too. And the Smart phone interface now even tells the baddies how far from home you are which is handy if they're in a bit of a hurry - nice one.
There have been the good times; I have got to know some lovely people (many of whom I never knew but read about by drilling down through all the levels from a friend’s page – the furthest I got was 35 levels down from just one friend’s link), seen some beautiful sights (maybe even copied a few photos), had my spirits lifted (thanks to Celia’s New York and my gorgeous great nephew) and shared in celebrations.
The big problem Fakebook was I always wanted more and you always gave me less.
So it’s time for Fakebook and I to part our ways and move on. There is nothing for me to see there. I can’t keep up, I don’t want to be one of the ‘noticed’ and ‘on show’ (let alone strive to be ‘best in show’), I don’t want to feel ‘better’ because I thought of something to post and I don’t want to feel uncomfortable when I read something that’s just that little bit too personal (or inappropriate) about someone I actually don’t know all that well. I started to worry when I felt a little ‘less’ because I hadn’t updated my status for a day or two – a bit of an 'uh-oh' moment. Even worse was that sinking feeling when I posted something and I didn't get a 'like' (or a visit to my Blog - how could they)...I was almost beoming co-dependent with myself.
I just want to have conversations with people who matter in my life, people who sustain me, nourish me with their ideas and their love, sooth me with their voice, not to ‘act as a friend’ but be one. I’ll dine with them, I’ll talk to them (hopefully in person but a phone will do), I’ll be invited to their weddings, I’ll watch their children grow, we’ll swap books or jokes or (shock) opinions, I will be able to speak frankly and honestly and while they’ll not always agree they won’t judge and they’ll be there when I need them...
Not on line but on hand.
Friendship is a funny thing isn’t it? I value it strongly and sometimes find it hard to imagine my life without my true friends. Sadly, at the same time as I ponder on that thought someone comes along and surprises me in the worst possible way, let’s me down, causes me to feel hurt or just drops me cold and I am left to wonder ‘why’.
Why Facebook chose to use the word ‘friend’ instead of ‘follower’ or ‘hanger on’ ‘circle ‘or ‘another number to my list’ is not a great mystery. It’s a touchy feely term that is very human and generates an emotional response – therefore more likely to be attractive. Also it was used in College face-books so carried over to the online concept originally. My added theory is Mark Zuckerberg had very few friends at College so why not create an ‘ideal world’ and call them friends – a bit like our make believe friend as kids. However is a friend in this case just an audience? Is a Facebook friend just an extra notch on the board? Do we check our friendships on Facebook in the same way we do in ‘real life’ – would I want to be my friend? It’s even now considered a verb ‘to friend someone’ or ‘friend me’.
I despair at the diminution in value of this precious word and it is why I refer to this social medium as Fakebook.
Before you jump on me and say I’m out of the age group Fakebook is designed for anyway did you know a THIRD of Fakebook users are over 50? In the latest Census only 1% of gays said they were in a committed long term relationship and yet we are agitating for them to be ‘heard’ on the subject of marriage so...whatever! I was actually an early adopter of Facebook. I originally had a page in early 2005 after hearing a discussion about it on radio. It started to really take off globally around the same time. I’d get a friend request and I felt good (warning right there surely...I felt valued when I got a friend request? Was it a throwback to feeling part of the gang when I was chosen for a team at school?)
Back then Facebook was a conversational tool, an online forum where people could hang out together. It was cool and it had life but it was just a little, well ‘fake’. I even had a stalker!!!
It didn’t take long before our ‘friendship’ had run its course and I took my leave. The only thing I actually missed was the TV Trivia game which I was sensational at.
Fast forward to autumn 2012 and an idea about how Facebook could be applied to the workplace and to customers was brewing. I decided to renew my acquaintance with the community of 900 million users and do some personal and professional ‘research’.
I was welcomed back warmly and was surprised I was only bereft one ‘friend’ (and sadly one I would also call a ‘real’ friend). There were some snazzy new improvements (relative term) and some baffling changes. It all seemed a bit busy and cluttered but the timeline look was much ‘cleaner’. Were there that many ads before and do I really have to get all those ‘suggested friends’ every bloody time I log in? I don’t have a relationship status so why do I get singles ads? I don’t live in Canberra so why do I get ads for ‘Clicos Cafe and Bar' in Barton? Clearly a marketplace had grown around Fakebook in an alarming way. And if I want to switch those two components off? I’m sure I can but I’m just as sure it’s not simple to find out how.
Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf and Alvin Toffler have all talked (and many years ago) about the dangers of us all being commoditized and the essential spirit that makes us human being seen as secondary to what the marketplace can do ‘with’ us. If you want to know how much of a product you have become you only need to sign up to Facebook. You’ll ‘like’ a page and before you know it suddenly you are getting all sorts of ‘cute’ messages which really just cover the fact that they are advertising their latest sale, product of the month, event or platform and you are the spot that ‘houses’ that ad, you are the delivery mechanism for those who visit your page (and every time they do that the Facebook tracker identifies them as a potential mark), you are a DNA rich, oxygen breathing billboard. Well done you and of course you benefit from doing that for those corporations by how again? Talk about freeloading for profit.
In the five years that I have been absent I hoped the level of debate, conversation or contribution would have been raised above the banal, the pointless or the tedious. In fact it seemed worse than it had before (when arguably it could have been put down to users getting acquainted with the medium). And the language; is there no ‘filth filter’? I know one might expect adults to be able to show their language skills without the need to use the foulest of foul language but apparently all bets are off. Obviously I have no right to be offended or bored. Frankly when you drop the F bomb (or worse) all the time you lose the ability to add nuance when you are angry or outraged and it just becomes tiresome. Why does it have to be so ugly and nasty and freaking annoying?
I had made an assumption that Twitter had taken the place of the short ‘announcements’ such as ‘Catching up for coffee with the lovely Mary’ but apparently not because the majority of status updates are of that type. Frankly why would I care? Frankly why would you post that, is it to show how groovy and sociable you are? Is it to show how interesting you are? Wouldn’t the people you are with be the ones who are the most likely to care about what you are doing? Call me and tell me about it, why post it for the world to see (and privacy settings or not dear reader the world CAN see it). Is it a need to be included, to feel valued (oh that again), to be on show, to ‘announce’ everything? Surely not, that would be relevance deprivation syndrome wouldn’t it? It just smacks of neediness and ‘look at me’.
I’ve talked before about the security issues before but I have concluded most really don’t care and have a kind of ignorant bliss that ‘no one can see what I put on there apart from those I have given access to’...this despite evidence and anecdotes to refute that assumption (not to mention the mind boggling rise in internet based crime). It absolutely astounds me the sort of ‘free kicks’ given to hackers, internet trawlers and ‘phish-mongers’ who make a very healthy (albeit dishonest) living monitoring Facebook and the Internet to pounce on another sucker. Why not just throw your driver’s licence and credit card into the middle of the main street and let it happen? And don’t forget to include the message that you’re off to some occasion NOW so your home is available for plundering too. And the Smart phone interface now even tells the baddies how far from home you are which is handy if they're in a bit of a hurry - nice one.
There have been the good times; I have got to know some lovely people (many of whom I never knew but read about by drilling down through all the levels from a friend’s page – the furthest I got was 35 levels down from just one friend’s link), seen some beautiful sights (maybe even copied a few photos), had my spirits lifted (thanks to Celia’s New York and my gorgeous great nephew) and shared in celebrations.
The big problem Fakebook was I always wanted more and you always gave me less.
So it’s time for Fakebook and I to part our ways and move on. There is nothing for me to see there. I can’t keep up, I don’t want to be one of the ‘noticed’ and ‘on show’ (let alone strive to be ‘best in show’), I don’t want to feel ‘better’ because I thought of something to post and I don’t want to feel uncomfortable when I read something that’s just that little bit too personal (or inappropriate) about someone I actually don’t know all that well. I started to worry when I felt a little ‘less’ because I hadn’t updated my status for a day or two – a bit of an 'uh-oh' moment. Even worse was that sinking feeling when I posted something and I didn't get a 'like' (or a visit to my Blog - how could they)...I was almost beoming co-dependent with myself.
I just want to have conversations with people who matter in my life, people who sustain me, nourish me with their ideas and their love, sooth me with their voice, not to ‘act as a friend’ but be one. I’ll dine with them, I’ll talk to them (hopefully in person but a phone will do), I’ll be invited to their weddings, I’ll watch their children grow, we’ll swap books or jokes or (shock) opinions, I will be able to speak frankly and honestly and while they’ll not always agree they won’t judge and they’ll be there when I need them...
Not on line but on hand.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The Rocky Road to Ruin
The scenario is familiar. The first night you get a hurried phone call just as you’ve popped the veggies on. The questions are preceded by the promise that ‘this is not a marketing call and I’m not trying to sell you anything. I give them my age, ‘rough’ salary range whether I have a mortgage and what industry I work in. All pretty innocuous and an efficient goodbye with the teaser that I ‘might’ be contacted to hear about the latest Government tax arrangements. Oh well.
Two nights later the fish is coming along nicely under the grill just as the phone rings. Remember two nights ago you answered a few questions about your salary and the industry you worked for? Of course, I may not remember to buy milk on the way home but I do remember that call. Well guess what? I am one of a handful of people who has been ‘selected’ to attend a personalised session to discuss how to reduce my income tax.
Gulp
Crickets chirp
What do I think about that?
Well frankly I’m appalled. Why would I be interested in reducing my income tax? Well no-one wants to pay income tax apparently so they are sure I’d want to know ways to reduce mine.
Actually I don’t mind paying income tax, I think it’s my responsibility as a wage earner and citizen to contribute.
They aren’t suggesting I pay NO tax just reduce my income tax.
You know what; I’m actually philosophically opposed to the idea that everyone ‘should’ find ways to reduce their income tax. If they are paying what the government has determined is the correct rate then that’s as it ought to be. Imagine if everyone took the stance of paying less than they were supposed to. Aren’t government programs worked out on what they expect to reap from income tax by the amount we’re expected to pay?
Apparently no one else they have spoken to has had an objection, in fact quite the opposite. Well that’s the problem isn’t it? Won’t they be the ones who’ll complain when they are on an even longer waiting list to have an operation or have to travel great distances in dodgy public transport on crappy roads to take their kids to school because the local ones are full or closed? I want to receive a full pension when I retire but I won’t if the funds aren’t there and I want my medications to continue to be subsidised and not just mine but the ones that cancer sufferers need but would not be able to afford if they were a couple of thousand of dollars per pack.
Pretty soon he ran out of steam, told me he appreciated my concern and approach. Just before we parted company though he wondered if I might then rather have a chat with someone about investing in property to maximise my savings (not sure if I buy something how that increases my saving, however...)?
I suggested it was difficult to imagine I would have any business relationship with a company whose basic operating model was formulated on a philosophy I found offensive.
Now you might be better able to understand why reducing income tax would be a good thing but it really got up my nose. I think there is a lot of mismanagement in government BUT that is different to why we ought to feel that paying our fair share of tax is a good thing. I would rather not have any of my tax pay for military offence (I am okay with defence of our borders), I am not convinced of the need for funding for the arts and I would rather our money was spent processing refugees in Indonesia and Malaysia then flying them here than encouraging people to get on rickety boats risking their lives to get where they will end up anyway. BUT still no reasons for paying less than my fair share.
I’m not sure if this was all a scam, an unwise ‘sell’ or an opportunist grab for business from the greedy and irresponsible.
I am sure it annoyed me.
Two nights later the fish is coming along nicely under the grill just as the phone rings. Remember two nights ago you answered a few questions about your salary and the industry you worked for? Of course, I may not remember to buy milk on the way home but I do remember that call. Well guess what? I am one of a handful of people who has been ‘selected’ to attend a personalised session to discuss how to reduce my income tax.
Gulp
Crickets chirp
What do I think about that?
Well frankly I’m appalled. Why would I be interested in reducing my income tax? Well no-one wants to pay income tax apparently so they are sure I’d want to know ways to reduce mine.
Actually I don’t mind paying income tax, I think it’s my responsibility as a wage earner and citizen to contribute.
They aren’t suggesting I pay NO tax just reduce my income tax.
You know what; I’m actually philosophically opposed to the idea that everyone ‘should’ find ways to reduce their income tax. If they are paying what the government has determined is the correct rate then that’s as it ought to be. Imagine if everyone took the stance of paying less than they were supposed to. Aren’t government programs worked out on what they expect to reap from income tax by the amount we’re expected to pay?
Apparently no one else they have spoken to has had an objection, in fact quite the opposite. Well that’s the problem isn’t it? Won’t they be the ones who’ll complain when they are on an even longer waiting list to have an operation or have to travel great distances in dodgy public transport on crappy roads to take their kids to school because the local ones are full or closed? I want to receive a full pension when I retire but I won’t if the funds aren’t there and I want my medications to continue to be subsidised and not just mine but the ones that cancer sufferers need but would not be able to afford if they were a couple of thousand of dollars per pack.
Pretty soon he ran out of steam, told me he appreciated my concern and approach. Just before we parted company though he wondered if I might then rather have a chat with someone about investing in property to maximise my savings (not sure if I buy something how that increases my saving, however...)?
I suggested it was difficult to imagine I would have any business relationship with a company whose basic operating model was formulated on a philosophy I found offensive.
Now you might be better able to understand why reducing income tax would be a good thing but it really got up my nose. I think there is a lot of mismanagement in government BUT that is different to why we ought to feel that paying our fair share of tax is a good thing. I would rather not have any of my tax pay for military offence (I am okay with defence of our borders), I am not convinced of the need for funding for the arts and I would rather our money was spent processing refugees in Indonesia and Malaysia then flying them here than encouraging people to get on rickety boats risking their lives to get where they will end up anyway. BUT still no reasons for paying less than my fair share.
I’m not sure if this was all a scam, an unwise ‘sell’ or an opportunist grab for business from the greedy and irresponsible.
I am sure it annoyed me.
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