A Community of Clickers.
Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:04 am
Johannesburg - Any earthling who has passed beyond puberty is most probably aware
that life has its ups and downs. On any given day we could be on top of our game, ecstatically happy and the next day our world could come crashing down around our ears. At times like this we often tend to sink into the depths of despair, certain in our minds that we will never ever be happy again.
Although we live and interact on a physical, plane that is here on earth, a great deal of our life is spent on a non-physical plane namely in thought. We are unique in this respect as this capacity to feel and experience more than hunger, fear and pain is one of the reasons why we are in our own opinion, far superior to the birds, bees and animals.
When we are hurt either physically or mentally, our first reaction is often the desire to inflict the same thing on the person or persons we hold responsible. Some of us are prepared to “forgive those who trespass against us” while only a small proportion will ever completely forget the hurt.
Because we have the capacity to think, albeit often irrationally, we can and often do gain an entirely erroneous impression of others. There are various ways that this can happen, not least of all through what some refer to as a “misunderstood” or a misunderstanding.
Often this can be caused by another person whom we greatly respect or look up to such as a parent, best friend or senior co-worker and we will condemn another simply because this person who “should know” bad mouths them.
Of course part of the problem is that nowadays we seldom take the time to really get to know anyone. Our lives are spent in the fast lane where we have become a society of flashing fingers, a community of clickers where everything happens at top speed.
Who needs real flesh and blood people around them? All our friends live in our computer.
And so we go through life, though today it’s anything but that. Doesn’t life imply being alive or live?
So we sit in front of a monitor secure in the knowledge that we’ll never have to look anyone in the eye, never have to see their tears or hear their sobs often caused by the hurtful words, phrases and sentences we wouldn’t dare utter to their face.
And one day when our world really does come crashing down around our ears, will we have someone to give us a hug and hold us close?
I hope so.
that life has its ups and downs. On any given day we could be on top of our game, ecstatically happy and the next day our world could come crashing down around our ears. At times like this we often tend to sink into the depths of despair, certain in our minds that we will never ever be happy again.
Although we live and interact on a physical, plane that is here on earth, a great deal of our life is spent on a non-physical plane namely in thought. We are unique in this respect as this capacity to feel and experience more than hunger, fear and pain is one of the reasons why we are in our own opinion, far superior to the birds, bees and animals.
When we are hurt either physically or mentally, our first reaction is often the desire to inflict the same thing on the person or persons we hold responsible. Some of us are prepared to “forgive those who trespass against us” while only a small proportion will ever completely forget the hurt.
Because we have the capacity to think, albeit often irrationally, we can and often do gain an entirely erroneous impression of others. There are various ways that this can happen, not least of all through what some refer to as a “misunderstood” or a misunderstanding.
Often this can be caused by another person whom we greatly respect or look up to such as a parent, best friend or senior co-worker and we will condemn another simply because this person who “should know” bad mouths them.
Of course part of the problem is that nowadays we seldom take the time to really get to know anyone. Our lives are spent in the fast lane where we have become a society of flashing fingers, a community of clickers where everything happens at top speed.
Who needs real flesh and blood people around them? All our friends live in our computer.
And so we go through life, though today it’s anything but that. Doesn’t life imply being alive or live?
So we sit in front of a monitor secure in the knowledge that we’ll never have to look anyone in the eye, never have to see their tears or hear their sobs often caused by the hurtful words, phrases and sentences we wouldn’t dare utter to their face.
And one day when our world really does come crashing down around our ears, will we have someone to give us a hug and hold us close?
I hope so.