Bullying
I remember when bullying was something I would see occasionally on the playground growing up. It was usually done by bigger nastier (well you know bully types) to those who had no friends and were smaller weaker.
The very worst thing the internet has given us is the false sense of security we get from seeing only what we want to see and being able with the tools of the internet to construct our own little reality. Any opinions contrary to that reality are mocked and made fun of (yes bullied) into submission. Facts in this scenario as with any bullying become irrelevant.
Might Makes Right. Back into the primordial ooze we go.
I think it fair to say that we are in the midst of a “Dark Age” of the internet where “Might again Makes Right”. This is also far away from the way our Founding Fathers pictured the interplay of rights and responsibilities they envisioned when forming the government of the United States of America.
They saw what effect the tyranny of the masses had upon the creativeness of the individual. They tried to protect that freedom from the beheadings they saw in France which had a more pure democratic system of the proletariat.
Now the internet has given us total freedom with no accountability. Great right? Anarchists of all stripes both left and right have been fighting against those responsibilities entrusted to the people by the Constitution to insure their own rights. They have been fighting all the apparatuses set up that protects those responsibilities and makes our rights possible. No I didn’t write that backwards. By protecting and owning our responsibilities our rights become possible and are best protected.
Our civilization fought its way out of the primordial swamp in fits and starts. Two steps forward, two steps back. Every once and a while we would learn from our past and make 3 steps forward and only 2 back.
Struggle is key in this respect. Struggle allows us to focus on our #1 genetic coding sequence. Survival. Survival may seem base and crude to some but when asked, or when you ask yourself; why am I here? What is my purpose? Survival is about the best answer. In times of struggle we are at our best. Ironically, that is when we come up with some of our greatest leaps of faith. That is also when our worst side comes out too.
When we lack struggle those who reach the top impose their own struggle upon themselves. From Jesus’s fasting in the Desert, to you name it. The walk about all civilizations put on their kids to force them to grow up on their own. Training 24/7 by top sport figures when they have already achieved the highest awards. Personally, my beating myself up on line to force myself into action that I would normally say I have neither the time nor money to do.
It is from our own struggle and the struggle of others that we have learned the need to control to some extent that very thing that creates such greatness and beauty in our world - individual freedom.
Our zenith of civilization so far can be glimpsed in science, technology, industry, the arts and individual freedoms. Great things have been accomplished through setting up minimal apparatus to ensure individuals their freedom to struggle to achieve greatness.
The forces against freedom are of as many forms as those fighting for it. One thing to keep in mind is that they will always give lip service to the idea that they are fighting the restraints of individual freedom. But like my mama used to say, the proof is in the pudding. Look to what they propose in its stead to see the real color of their plans. Usually it is more and more constraints on our freedom in order they say to protect it.
The main apparatus we have set up to insure individual freedom can be found in a government based upon the rule of law based upon the idea that all people are created equally not physically but in their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The age of reason here is apparent in our right to defend ourselves in front of our peers. How many cases now actually make it to a trial of our peers?
The rule of law is the bedrock upon which Free Enterprise and its counterpart money rests. It insures a level jousting field upon which our efforts will be judged by the buying public. Minimal restraint upon that freedom are needed to be sure our ideas/products aren’t stolen or “Bullied away” from us by those more powerful. Or worse yet confiscated for the dreaded “Common Good”.
As I’ve stated we live by struggle, our struggle is to always fight for what will insure our individual freedom from those who want to live off of our creativeness and individual energies. When I saw the bullying going on in the media during the election of the Trump supporters I was outraged and found an outlet and means of struggle by supporting Trump supporters wherever I found them. I/we fought hard and we won.
I thought it was a done deal. Now there is talk of impeachment and Trump isn’t even our President yet. The media is going absolutely nuts. Protesters across the country are gearing up for massive disruptions of our election process and the peaceful transition of power. They threaten the very concepts that our nation is based upon. What are my responsibilities in this?
Jennifer Holliday and opera star Andrea Bocelli were bullied out of performing at Trump’s inaugural ball. They were taunted with death threats and boycotts of their works. They backed down to the bullies. Please note that these threats were made anonymously. Yet the fear they caused was real, more real for they know not who to stand up too in person.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/arts/music/jennifer-holliday-trump-inauguration-performance.html
About a week ago Jennifer in a NY Times article said this about her reasoning for not backing down. “Ms. Holliday said she had been startled and disheartened on Friday by the venom that greeted the news of her participation.” “It brought a lot of threats from people already saying I’ll never work again,” she said. “If that’s what America has come to, where we all hate and bully people, there’s no more freedom of speech.”
She added, “I know everybody hates me now, but that shows we are all just hateful people now — we don’t even want to work together.”
Less than 2 days later she backed out in total surrender to the LGTBT. For the full letter to the LGBT community see the first printing of it in the WRAP.
http://www.thewrap.com/jennifer-holliday-trump-inauguration-lgbt/
When the shoe is on the other foot they like to say freedom of speech. I remember in 2015 Bill Maher was protested in a speech he gave at UC Berkley. He was protested for saying something disparaging of the Muslim religion. He said it in humor about Muslim’s crying about freedom of speech when they cut off the heads of non-believers. Ironically shortly thereafter some Muslim’s did just that. At least Maher hasn’t backed down yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pntZQN-rLw
From both of these examples we see that they believe in freedom of speech and are willing to stand up for it at least a little. Too bad they never seem to follow through. Take the ones who said they’d leave the country if Trump won.
Still waiting on that one to happen. When ya all leaving? Ruth Bader, Streisand, Miley Cyrus, Whoopi and Al Sharpton to name a few?
But I digress. What am I to do? I saw in the Oceana Herald Journal something about some women from Oceana County to attend the protest of the Trump Inauguration. I didn’t see any names other than someone to contact. Anonymity anyone. Neither did I see any article about people from Oceana going to celebrate Trump’s Presidency. I think it time I write some letters to the editor about some people going pro Trump or some of the celebrations here happening in the Pro Trump vein. I know of a small gathering already in Hesperia. Time to do some digging.
If you know of anything along this vein please let me know and I’ll try to do something with it.
Thanks and Regards,
Bob Carr,
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455
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