Disclaimer: Although it's April 1, this is not a joke.
I used to look at the net and see nothing but blue sky. Now my eyes look around and all I see is muck!
I suppose I get listened to more than most people, but I still feel unheard. Like life is futile. I have good ideas, but the world ignores them. It's hard to find a way to contribute that suits my talents.
The times in my life when I've been happiest is when I've been surrounded by friends doing interesting things, growing, accomplishing stuff, while I was doing the same. However, it's been a long time since I've experienced that.
Why mention this today? Because of this crazy stuff happening in Indiana and elsewhere in the US, where they're trying to figure out how they can be who they are, express themselves, when no one cares what they think. So they grab at options that make no sense. "We're not discriminating" they say. But they can't be so ignorant to see that that's exactly what they're doing. They don't like us and we don't like them, but I think we're suffering from the same malaise.
Why do people shame other people on the net? Because (I theorize) it's one of the few forms of power left to them. One of the few ways their ideas are considered valid. It's a channel for expressiveness, a gesture that might seem to have meaning.
Why do people troll on comments? Speak silly talking points they got from Fox News or MSNBC? This is one area where there is equivalence, the "left" and "right" both do this. Seek out each other for a permanent argument. My guess is they do it because it gives them a simulated nutrient-free sort of relevance.
Why do people line up to buy Apple devices that will give them joy for almost no time (that's my experience). Why do I buy stuff from Amazon, when the arrival of the thing brings me no happiness?
It's the same thing. Our lives lack meaning. We all have certain struggles to overcome. It's funny how when we have those struggles, we forget our unhappiness, or dissatisfaction with our existence. It's only in boredom and idleness, something we're sure to have a lot more of in the future, that we feel this empty frustration, of pushing against nothing. No achievement possible.
Yesterday I asked Facebook to put Markdown in their CMS, sooner rather than later. They almost certainly won't do it. But for a moment I felt relevant. Almost as soon as I clicked Post I felt stupid.
Even Jeremy Lin can't rise out of it! If only the Knicks had kept D'Antoni and said goodbye to Melo. Even the heroes that might give us hope can't rise out of the muck.
I do know the answer, btw. Stop going it alone. Work with others. Instead of reproducing what someone else did, include it. Even if it's harder. We are a social species. We need to collaborate to give our lives meaning. We forgot that somewhere along the line.
And for crying out loud stop picking on gay people. Geez.