ILLUSIONS OF INCLUSION
SOCIAL MEDIA.CON
For the first time in history revolution is reduced into how many people can click like button. They “like” and go back to the system. If enough people click “like” the sky will thunder and something will fall out and save all oppressed people and give them instant cash. The question from scanning the content of Facebook, YouTube and twitter is are we getting dumber or is our dumbness just more on public display with the rise of social media? in a dystopian society full of extremely dumb people. Advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism have run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly stupid society devoid of intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, and coherent notions of justice and human rights.
[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Either you are using social media, or being used by it[/perfectpullquote]
Facebook is an exploitation of our social instinct, that people based bonding so critical for our success as a species on planet Earth. That longing to find validity and comfort in groups. To be seen, to be known. To know. Herd behavior, in a traffic jam when you see everyone turning down a small side road to avoid the block, you follow. There is a trust in mass decision-making. This is in our DNA. We are not as sophisticated and “independent” as Oprah et al make out.
And while people are throwing their powerless power around on Facebook the system is free to run without interruptions. B/c the creators and the pundits had to think, “what happens if pages like consciousness becomes the norm?”– then you would have a social revolution of consciousness. But they know human behavior and they know what gets the mob off.
SELFIE FOOLS – Narcissism
Nothing says utter idiot than going to someone’s page and seeing 2 months worth of daily uploads of their face. And what is up with the selfie in the car shot that so many women like to post? What does it mean? Here is me in my car waiting for the light to turn green? Shallow and stupid.
Narcissism day in day out
THE LIKE REVOLUTION
There is work, but then why do that when we can have the power and build a new Africa just by clicking like?
Who does not like being liked? Who does not like posting something and getting many people agree with them? It is akin to making a record and getting a lot of sales. But then, as in music, after a time you seek the likes and alter what you post to attract the most likes. After that you become “relevant” because you post more selfies (because selfies seem to get more hits), you share less post about good African films and businesses (they do not get the likes). and none of this is accidental. Facebook is a amazing social experiment. And it is second to none at how it understands human stupidity and rewards it. It is a predator preying on the human social desire.
FAKE REVOLUTIONS
Does anyone seriously think yet another Facebook page or paper group is the answer? One-man dis-organizations calling themselves “institutions,” pretending to be a “we.” Why create yet another fork in the struggle? Another page with unqualified, unaccountable people, with zero resources and know how, to discuss what has already been discussed (by professionals). What are you offering us that the real-world organization has not covered? Memes and repost are not use to the African world. What is your track record and link to community to undergo such an undertaking? Have you spent more than the time it took to create the Facebook page looking at what already exist? Then how is it Pan-Africanism?
It takes no commitment, no investment to create yet another Facebook illusionary distraction to compete for people’s time; vying for fans and likes. Leave the “I-ego” out of it and consider joining a pre-existing established real organization, which does real-world work.
To seek solutions needs a viable platform, and so many exist. The strength of the struggle is in quality control and organized thoughts—not everyone rushing off and doing their own thing—without any peer review. And this instant quick revolution betrays a fatal personality flaw, the need for short term egotistical reward over real progressive change. It is easy, and hence attractive to people who can offer nothing more than their fantasies of feeling good for being the leader of an ant hill. Let us learn Pan-Africanism by following before we lead.
THE ILLUSION OF EVERYONE IS DOING FINE
THE BLIND LEAD THE BLINDER
If one tries to navigate unknown waters, one runs the risk of shipwreck. – Ancient Egypt
Smoke sunthin biiiiitch! (206,000 Likes) ~ Lil Wayne (10,000 comments).
Has anyone had a look at Lil Waynes page? What should worry us is not the utter crap and trite self-indulgent nature of it (that is to be expected – it is what it is). What should concern us is how do you get 40 million people to find this acceptable.40 million people who find completeness in this endless publicity cycle of trite emptiness.
But lil wayne gets paid to be stupid– what about you?
POWER TO THE NOBODY
People bring about their own undoing through their tongues. ~ Ancient Egypt
And in all this anarchy the power structure still walks unchallenged. Because it is strange that with all of this social this and that are we any closer to any of our goals free from the oppression of the system. If this facebook page and the pages of the other serious causes represented the majority then the answer to this question is a strong YES. But the problem as we have stated time and time again. Is pages like this are not even 2% of Facebook content. Most are pre-occupied with posting pics from their iphone of them at a party last night. Or some viral photo of a Cat riding a skate board.
Many people are talking, everyone is a scholar, everyone has an organization, everyone has a blog, everyone has an opinion and a solution. The pressures for unity has even less allure, why unite when I can be a diy solo revolutionary? In the new noise created by the clash of social media and human ego the new victim – more than ever before in history – is the work. One may ask, how do we discern who is who? Matthew said “by their fruit”,
What do you use a spoon for? What do you use a circle saw for? Certainly not drilling holes. What about a hammer? Certainly not cutting glass. All these tools are very useful in their own right but you dont try to plant crops with a stable poon. But we must know what each tool is for, and the limits of that tool! And most do not.
They all sign up for this new social experiment. Like wildebeest crossing, a crocodile infested water in the Serengeti, all in mass without a second reflection, negotiating teeth and tides. Once scared people, so nervous they do not own credit cards, believe the system is out to get them. Have all 3 installments of The Matrix, yet voluntary their most scared information to a private company on the US stock exchange market, subject to the laws of USA. Yes, the same USA that has been invading, imposing, colonizing, spread war, famine and death for the length and breadth of its legacy. The same USA that owns every GPS satellite in orbit. It is not a conspiracy theory is a string of factual statements in one sentence. If one believes, they are trustworthy, then read no more, and go on supplying them with your critical information.
Social media raises to serious social concerns, privacy and the ownership of information and second the issue of the new culture of human behavior which is new for our species and untested. People have died in Korea playing video games, people get divorced over facebook. Terrible secrets are revealed, identity information stolen and used. Social media exploits a basic human trait, safety in numbers. If everyone is doing something – then it must be safe. In tiny increments they seduce you and your natural hesitation is allayed as they extract information about you, you didn’t even know about yourself. All stored on a private database.
There is a Western culture of thinking we have a RIGHT to be heard, even though we have nothing to say. OPINIONS? What is that, even a 2 year baby has an opinion. Back it up with some serious arguments or shut up with it. Tell it to the Oprah – write “Dear Oprah I think…” well nobody really cares, no one read, it no one replied– but you feel better. Social con.
“The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov
Its far greater than “The West”, there is no longer “a West” there is power and then no power. I cannot even get into my phone without a Google account, google is owned by USA, Phone owned by Asia. F.B is a wonderful evil. b4 they had to tap your phone to get your POV, they had to terrorise you to give up your details., now we do it for free. Who is your wife? Go to F.B, Where do you work? Go to F.b, What do you think? – Go to f.b, what you ate last night? – go to f.b. Which article on CNN you liked? – Go to F.B, are your friends with…? – Go to f.b. Banks couldn’t do that. even FBI didnt have that much intel.
And we (as a people) are drifting out of Africa and into some multicultural White supremacy soup of noise. I would not even call it European, but maybe modern Eurocentric. Because the false pages which dont care one bit about you, it is just pure marketing, pure selfishness, but people prefer it, cuz you can be you, you can say what you want without fear. and that is more important today than truth, growth and understanding. I have a view, and that is that. Is your view correct? Does it stand up? It is not that subjective when you bring nothing but “I think”.
HAPPY USER
While surfing all the photos and wonderful comments of the Facebook user’s one sees the smiles, the birthdays, the happy holiday photos, the memories and images of self they chose to show the world. As a collection, it gives the impression of a continuous success story of birthday parties, weddings, holidays and great days with friend. What about the in-between reality, the sad days, the days when the electricity got switched off? So Facebook is a mask, a mask the user puts on and shows to the world, a public face for every private citizen. Scanning the lives of old friends there photos always seem to make you feel like you are missing something. Here they are in Barbados; there they are at this film festival, meeting some semi-notable person, at a party laughing. And you ask yourself my life is so dull compared to their constant party. The online state of perpetual bliss.
People post their best pictures or things they believe are positive. Them in Dubai on the beach, at dinner with family, they didn’t post the fist fight they had with their sister later that night, or upload a clip when they lost their job. or make a selfie with their bank balance after wasting their money on weave. So it is an illusion that everyone is doing okay. And when you are not, you look at everyone else living it up. It becomes depressing, well they are depressed to, but they do not share reality, they share their projections of their ideal life.
DEATH OF PRIVACY
Living life via Sharing
While surfing all the photos and wonderful comments of the Facebook user’s one sees the smiles, the birthdays, the happy holiday photos, the memories and images of self they chose to show the world. As a collection, it gives the impression of a continuous success story of birthday parties, weddings, holidays and great days with friend. What about the in-between reality, the sad days, the days when the electricity got switched off? So Facebook is a mask, a mask the user puts on and shows to the world, a public face for every private citizen. Scanning the lives of old
STRAW MAN
I have not read any of your articles, or ever will, but here is my comment, you might recognize it, it is the same opinion unchanged, unaltered, devoid of nuance from the 60’s. In addition, I will assume the argument you are making and then argue against what I think/hope you said. – Facebook Fan
B/C our world is so polarized and predictable.
Some people save themselves the effort of reading and assume you fall into box a or box b. They have a defense for box b, so they just apply it irrespective of anything actually written. It is a very sad day when we assume, skim the surface and then post a conclusion.
“Some of your solutions are limited” is not of any use to anyone, as anyone can almost say that for everything ever written and not be tied into anything meaningful argument to why the solutions are limited. What solution? How are they limited? Do you even understand them? Have you really read them? This is the first thing we need to fix, to end jumping before we look. And Facebook rewards empty critique. You can almost copy and paste this sentence to every and any single post and come off as semi-intellectual.
REVOLUTION IS PAINFUL
You dont petition the SYSTEM to release you from its shackles, that is just God Damn stupid simplistic and childish. You identify and understand law and act to lobby amendments. But our people call that boring, they rather the spectacle of marching and throwing eggs at police cars. Or creating facebook pages which they think on their own can be used to really educate and mobilize people. I am sure they can but not if you dont know what you are doing. You cannot throw stones at the moon and hope to hit it, likewise you do not take down imperialism with a page on Facebook which has a net value of $100 billion and is one of the biggest and most successful big brother product. So you would have to really start by starting a basic course in “how the world works” before trying anything drastic.
Lets face it most of us love being AFRIKAN (with a ‘K’ on Facebook) we dont go to work with that Love. You tell them why not give your baby an African name. They go coy. When you coming to Africa? “When I learn to speak Afrikan” — Let the real revolutionaries stand up!
YouTube and Facebook do not give out Degrees. Even books (which are critical) cannot give you life experience. You can read a book on running an economy, starting a company, making a film, running the www.africanholocaust.info website. You know when you realize when you go the minerals or not? When you actually go and do it, and succeed, when you celebrate your 1st decade of actually doing work. This is why hierarchy have to exist. Why we have elders, learned people, scholars as a classification to say “this person has earned their stripes– show some respect” thats really what it means.
We were given a tour of a new media centre in a township. 22 New Mac computers. Brand new, high speed internet. We were “WOW” this is revolution. We went back one year later and went in to use the internet. You know 100% of the students were in there on youtube and facebook, downloading and watching videos, listen to music. not one said let me really work on my C.V. I will never deny Youth culture’s attitude to these things which is beyond race, but at the same time even when Given we have this natural habit of disrespecting and wasting, from a people who cannot afford to be like this.
CAUSES AND ONLINE PETITIONS
When you actually go and do it, and succeed, when you celebrate your 1st decade of actually doing work. This is why hierarchy have to exist. Why we have elders, learned people, scholars as a classification to say “this person has earned their stripes– show some respect” thats really what
ONLY IN OUR DREAMS
The kind of Pan-Africanism we got going on in the world is the kind of the Pan-Africanism that lives on Facebook and Youtube, it has zero power to even change a light bulb in Africa. Zero lobby action, zero real on the ground networks, media houses, assets, trade deals, yet we fool ourselves into thinking Pan-Africanism is some powerful force. With 180 time more Africans than Jews we have no AIPAC or lobby power in the Western World.
the challenge outstanding is what steps are being taken to realize these things right this second? Not everyone has money to invest, but they might have time to write a letter, but how many people do anything to change our African world. I mean as an African Diaspora person there is almost NO country in Africa you can go to on the bases of your African identity. You and the White man with a similar passport standing behind you in the Visa line have the same rights.
FACEBOOK ORDER AND CHAOS
Just to clarify n this limited space. The traditions of classical Europe do not favor the rants of uninformed idiots. Neither does Africa (at any point) see the Griots. So that is why we cannot just call it Eurocentric. It is modern chaos. the voice of the fool who studied nothing. The voice of the raving uninformed. I can speak so I speak. I cant think, but I still speak, and speak LOUD. Thank Q facebook. PhD from Facebook will be next.
The camera has created a culture of celebrity; the computer is creating a culture of connectivity. As the two technologies converge —broadband tipping the Web from text to image; social-networking sites spreading the mesh of interconnection ever wider—the two cultures betray a common impulse. Celebrity and connectivity are both ways of becoming known. This is what the contemporary self wants. It wants to be recognized, wants to be connected: It wants to be visible. If not to the millions, on Survivor or Oprah, then to the hundreds, on Twitter or Facebook. This is the quality that validates us, this is how we become real to ourselves—by being seen by others.– Chris Hedges
Without clear structure and protocols revolution can descend into chaos. We see the rise of all types of social media but has it really assisted the liberation of African people, or has it added another vacuous distraction for vampiring their time? The trend shows more voices online, more opinions, more egos, more random YouTube post, more repetitive mantra, more rhetoric, but where is the unity that builds schools, creates Pan-African lobbying, makes films, organizes unions, creates wealth and jobs? 100% people are doing these things but most of the time you have to look through a lot of hay to find one needle. If every 5 minutes uninformed people have the power to go from getting out of bed to creating a space on facebook and attracting 1000 fans just so they can repost a Youtube link or quote from Malcolm X then what is that page offering you that the next one didn’t. If it is offering nothing then what is it’s purpose? To add clutter and chaos to the burgeoning trend of “causes” and “virtual organizations.” It took no track record to create, it took no study, no permission and ultimately no responsibility.
So one guy wakes up and feels the urge to demand reparations, he creates a facebook cause, has he contacted N’cobra? Has he contact Parcole in the UK? Has he researched the issues around reparations, its ideological arguments? But without doing any of the aforementioned things he is prepared to solicit 2000 feel gooders to sign a pointless, badly written, empty, hollow and ultimately counter-productive poorly argued petition for reparations under tha banner of “Doing something is better than nothing” When challenged, what format should the reparations be paid, and to who… silence. What is the legal argument for reparations… “We deserve it” —
CHOICE
The illusion of personal power over a world that dictates so much about our lives yet allows us to believe we have some type of freedom. I agree we have the “right” but 120,000 years of human history says we dont. because as social animals we behave in a very very predictable. way. How else did so many people voluntarily give up such personal information about themselves on some unknown systems called Facebook? I just clicked on your name and learnt all kinds of things about you. So despite us having “choice” we generally choose to behave per the systems instructions. So this illusion of choice turns out to be not that great a choice after all.
So how did a cautious populous go from being guarded and private to being so public? From my business is my own to sharing birthday parties with 1 billion people? From private space to public space, where one click and we can see a photo of inside your house, your children, your work place, your mom, your dad, your cousins cousin? With locations and dates!
SILENCE CONSCIOUS
The first attempt at silencing consciousness these days is to a sophisticated appeal to ego, they whisper in your ear “I prefer your pointless fiction and self-glorification work over all of that historical political stuff” or “less of that race stuff you are alienate your audience… speak more human and universal, “talk more about yourself, let the audience connect with you”, appealing to everything in your ego. It is a corruption that doesn’t happen in one day, but a gradual process until you cannot find your way home. Actually you don’t even know you have a home.
So u got 20,000 fans and every day they post shit about themselves “I I and I and I did…, I saw, I went, I am..” you got a famine in Somalia and they would not even put a link to help those people. You go a war in Libya and they would not put a link to direct their fan base to stopping imperialism. You got good work being done by others and you cant say “Support these guys..” They will not use their resources –for risk of losing favor with their superficial fan-base.
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
You see now and then, in every complex society, people will disagree, some disagreements have the potential to split nations apart, causing ill effects for everyone involved and uninvolved. So one of the hallmarks of societies with longevity is conflict resolution. One conflict resolution is to blow up people that disagree with you, but then you run out of people. Hunter gathers solve conflict by moving to new areas–cant work in a complex society because we live on top of one another. So we might as well start making an investment in the science of conflict resolution because it is one discipline we will always need to call on.
