How far...

So I was thinking the other day, as I do most days, about the human condition. Is the human race actually a greedy , cut-throat, selfish, violent, cancerous tumor? I would like to say no, but when I watch the news each night I am compelled to believe that people for the most part are inherently violent and destructive. Yes, people are capable of the most amazing and beautiful things such as love, art, music, compassion and empathy. Qualities which each person posses at birth. So why are those who seek political power and the ability to govern usually void of such amicable personal traits?

Every day in the news there is a new scandal, a new gangland murder, embezzlement, corruption and lies. Then at the end of the news presentation there is a "humanity" story which runs for the final 30 seconds of a 30 minute news programme. As if to say that the little kitten which was rescued from up a tree is meant to invoke the more noble qualities in its viewers!

In the news today, life is shit, everyone is dying or killing each other, but the little kitten from suburbia was saved from a tree - so everything is OOOOOKAAAAYYY!"

Everything is not okay. The youth of today seem more violent and delinquent. People lock their front doors and have bars on every window. Without knowing it we have turned into a fascist state, prisoners in our own homes but by our own consent! Security is no longer something which is sought for when you're away from home, but something to keep you safe IN your home.

I look at the amount of money being spent each year for the purposes of "defence" and think how much good that could do if it were diverted to humanitarian needs or even domestic education, health, roads, etc.

For the 2009 fiscal year, the base budget rose to $515.4 billion. Adding emergency discretionary spending and supplemental spending brings the sum to $651.2 billion. This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance and production (about $9.3 billion, which is in the Department of Energy budget), Veterans Affairs (about $33.2 billion), interest on debt incurred in past wars, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which are largely funded through extra-budgetary supplements, about $170 billion in 2007). As of 2009, the United States government is spending about $1 trillion annually on defense-related purposes. (Taken from Wiki)

Now I'm not a stupid idealist that thinks that America should stop all that spending immediately - I know they must maintain their military as long as every other nation maintains their military. However this is a circular argument, because as long as anyone has a military force, then everyone will have a military force. A stalemate has occurred of which no one can get out of. Its a big game of chess but only the Kings are left.

As I said I don't think there is any way any country could divert or change their spending habits, but something has to change. Every day we hear that $2 a week can feed a child in a third world country. Can you just imagine what $1 trillion a year could do? If the USA were to spend that money on "Homeland Infrastructure" instead of "Homeland Security" I dare say the rest of the world would soon stop thinking of the average American as an uneducated stupid git.

Today's blog is full of questions which can't be answered but need to be raised. I don't think enough people actually stop to think about whats going on as we're typically too busy living our lives to care. Think about the hard questions, think about what you can do in your part of the world to ensure you, your friends and most importantly your children don't fall into this trap. Make people aware of these issues so that when the questions aren't addressed by our politicians we know that they HAVEN'T DONE ENOUGH!!

Don't become overburdened with the negative aspects of our world either. As human beings we have the ability to create the world around us that we want to live in. Create your world around you and NEVER let hate or anger rule it.

The title of this entry is "How far", and I think you can apply that question to this blog entry any way you like.

How far...
... would we be if the money spent on wars/defence were to be spent on innovation, infrastructure and humanitarian issues?
... will we have to go before more people realise there is something wrong?
... into the future will the human race last if we keep killing each other?

There is something wrong with all of us... and the longer we keep ignoring these hard and difficult questions the more difficult it will be to rectify the situation, even if it is just in our own homes.

Procrastudy... and the Messy Breakup.

Procrastudy is the act of performing other learning based activities which have NOTHING to do with the task at hand... Blogging is NOT procrastudy, blogging is just pure unadulterated procrastination.

I just wanted to clarify that I'm under no illusions as to what my time spent blogging means; and in doing so thought it would be useful to highlight a word which I invented (or at least lay a large claim to its use) - procrastudy - I enjoy listening to lectures on literature and grammar, reading "teach yourself Latin" books and listening to Latin poetry. This is what I call procrastudy. Not that learning for the sake of learning is to be avoided... it just should be avoided when there is much more pressing work at hand.

The Messy Breakup...

Today it came to my attention that facebook is stalking me like a psychotic ex-girlfriend. When I mentioned that I was no longer a user of facebook to a friend, at first there was disbelief that ANYONE would get rid of their account... Then he asked how will we stay in touch while he is travelling? This is one person in a long line of people who have asked the same question - "How will we stay in touch?"

This little dilemma of an inability to communicate made me come to the realisation about a new way of marking time... No more BC(E)/AD crap! No no no... the coming of Christ is insignificant when compared to the way that facebook has changed our lives. We need Before Facebook (BF) and After Facebook (AF) as people now believe that life can not function without it, so it must not have functioned before it. The revese is in fact true!

So back to keeping in contact with people - I find the same dilemma has encroached on the business world already with the implementation of the "Crackberry" (aka. Blackberry). When the email function doesn't work on Blackberry, professionals (regardless of how old they are) tend to go into a frenzied panic as to how they will be able to contact people. I suppose they forgot that Blackberry's also have a PHONE FUNCTION! Now the same frantic worry has moved from the yuppies of the world to the rest of society using this manipulative website as its medium. Sneaky sneaky.

Facebook may have replaced your need for email, but the ability to email still exists, as does a phone and text messaging! In years to come people may wonder "How did we ever organise our lives without it (facebook): birthdays, BBQs, parties, or even just saying hello?!" Is facebook the new mobile phone? I hope not, although just look at any iPhone and I'm sure you'll find that there is a facebook application installed... this website has even infiltrated the technology its threatening to take over!

This is the thing about facebook (and the same could have been said about the internet when it was created), it is the most impersonal form of communication. The apparent internet community which you belong to is more segregated and fragmented than the population of Sydney was 20 years ago. You may have hundreds of friends, but how many do you actually choose to see or talk to, and more importantly, how many do you no longer speak to because you can check up on them on your new online community? Anyone can type a hello on facebook but real friends call to see how you're doing. If you're feeling like shit - do you really want the 300 fake friends on facebook to know? Its not an honest attempt at communicating as its a public forum.

When the hand written letter became typed, a visual element of expression dissapeared from non-verbal communication. Then MANY years down the track, email was the way ahead, and no longer did people have to WALK to the mailbox, everything was possible from the comfort of your own home. The same also goes for TXT messaging, of course a phone call could say everything you need to - but I guess a TXT is just another way of not commiting or putting effort in. Facebook is the next step towards (or away from) direct communication. This non-commital comunicaiton is easy, lacks sentiment and is a driving force for segregation.

"Look! Its someones birthday! I'll send them a message!" Yes, we've all recieved "Happy birthday!" messages from people who are "friends" on facebook. But what you don't realise is the long the gap in your friendship, or the more remotely you know the person, the less they actually care that its your birthday and the less sincere the the message. Odds are they just feel and obligation to post this on who ever is celebrating the birthday. I myself had 5 birthdays on facebook this year... each of which were congratulated by REPEAT OFFENDERS! Some of which didn't even realise that it was the 5th time they had wished me happy birthday this year!

Often people will complain there is no sense of community anymore, well with modes of communication that don't encourage sincerity, honesty, and a valid form of EFFECTIVE communication what can we expect. The great divide between human and humanity has been drawn in the ground with a circuit board, and now the internet with the aid of facebook has firmly crossed over.

Some things just never seem permanent enough...

So facebook is now deactivated, but all that's needed is one moment of weakness - a simple sign in and its back up and running. I'm not entirely sure how happy I am about that...

When you flush a toilet you want the poo to go, and remain gone. There's no sentimentality with it - it should just be gone, and every time you go back to the toilet you want to start fresh. You don't want to grab the old poop and just throw it back in the bowl. Facebook didn't give me the flush I was looking for! As quoted from Geoff in Coupling, I have an "unflushable".

Even now in the few minutes after the "deactivation" event occurred, there is a compulsion to go back and reactive just to see if its all the same. Is it nostalgia? Could our generations limited attention spans really mean that sentiment and nostalgia can be linked to the longing for social interaction on a web page designed to exploit our curiosity?

It became habitual, open FireFox and load up facebook. Now I open FireFox and read the news, but even that feels as though there is something missing. Who would have thought that not visiting a website could be likened to stopping smoking. All the more reason to leave.

Well the way forward is hopefully going to mean less meaningless status updates in exchange for real thoughts and opinions, hours of pointless stalking in exchange for what I hope will be hours of reading.

Of course I'm a dreamer and a wanker to think that my thoughts are more significant or have more worth than any status update. Or even to think that enough people would care or be interested enough to subscribe to my blog, but that's just it - I left facebook because it was too immediate in seeking other peoples opinion. I didn't post that I was leaving facebook so people could say "goodbye" or "I'll miss you" - like fuck - you hadn't missed me for the period prior to facebook AND its not like we had physically caught up since it began!? I was doing so in order to stay in touch with those that wanted to.

The only thing facebook has over blogging is the ability to block people. Privacy setting were good - and now the true stalkers can come to the surface.

This time I will not be posting photos of me in the nude.

Something to do...

Started feeling that facebook was passive aggressive. Too many people complaining about too many things in status updates.

"Marc thinks you're an arse!" - Let alone the fact that its teaching people to talk in the third person... Every status update is one step closer to insanity...

Then of course there is posting on peoples walls! Vague threats, empty questions and meaningless promises...
"Hi, Hope you're doing well! We should so catch up!" Of course the ten year absence of me from your life meant nothing. But now we're "friends" on facebook we should definitely go for that coffee... Hell, I don't even think we were friends when we REALLY knew each other!

Quizzes, applications, fan pages! What is everyone trying to say?!
"4 friends have become a fan of AIR". Well I guess I like air... who doesn't... but all facebook makes me want to do is VENT!

Will be glad to be rid of it. Giving those who actually give a shit one week to record my contact details and then its FUCK YOU FACEBOOK and fake friends...

So this is blogging aye? I think I could get used to this... feels like AM radio, but quieter.

Facebook, passive aggressive, really not my way - I think I'll like blogging... its just aggessive, and first person. Fuck.