Posted December 8th, 2004 by shane_dublincentre(#9620)
Hi all,
First, I believe some anniversary congratulations are in order.....
Occasionally, when I have a bit of time on my hands I punch in an
arbitrary number into the box in the top right hand corner to see what
twists and turns this group has taken over the past two years; the
constant newness of ideas and topics reminds me of the waves speeding
into the shore - one topic wells up and is carried along by its own
inspirational momentum for a while before subsiding quietly as another
posting sparks off another foaming wave....
I think Jan definitely touched on one of the shibboleths of Western
society in his posting - this intellectual requirement to assimilate
all kinds of negativity because 'that's what goes on in the world' and
'we can't understand if we dont know every little detail'. Every piece
of information is somehow considered an expansion of one's
understanding, and no attention is paid whatsoever to peoples limited
capacity to assimilate this information in a detached manner. And when
taking in this information, there's no acknowledgement of the negative
distortion built in (consciously and unconsciously) by the media, in
the instinctive knowledge that negativity hits people more immediately
and hence it sells more.
We definitely have to know what's going on around us, but we also have
to know how much we can take and still remain detached. I think a very
good example in this regard has been set by our Assistant Moderator -
he clearly gets exposed to quite a lot of hassle from these people
(and fairly recent hassle too, I suspect), and in his email he tries
to give us an idea of what kind of world these people inhabit and so
dispel any illusions we might have that it's all Shangri-La out there
(well, this is the only news group I belong to, so I would be well
tempted to believe it) but at the same time he selects his examples
wisely and doesnt go into all the gory details.
Hi all,
First, I believe some anniversary congratulations are in order.....
Occasionally, when I have a bit of time on my hands I punch in an
arbitrary number into the box in the top right hand corner to see what
twists and turns this group has taken over the past two years; the
constant newness of ideas and topics reminds me of the waves speeding
into the shore - one topic wells up and is carried along by its own
inspirational momentum for a while before subsiding quietly as another
posting sparks off another foaming wave....
I think Jan definitely touched on one of the shibboleths of Western
society in his posting - this intellectual requirement to assimilate
all kinds of negativity because 'that's what goes on in the world' and
'we can't understand if we dont know every little detail'. Every piece
of information is somehow considered an expansion of one's
understanding, and no attention is paid whatsoever to peoples limited
capacity to assimilate this information in a detached manner. And when
taking in this information, there's no acknowledgement of the negative
distortion built in (consciously and unconsciously) by the media, in
the instinctive knowledge that negativity hits people more immediately
and hence it sells more.
We definitely have to know what's going on around us, but we also have
to know how much we can take and still remain detached. I think a very
good example in this regard has been set by our Assistant Moderator -
he clearly gets exposed to quite a lot of hassle from these people
(and fairly recent hassle too, I suspect), and in his email he tries
to give us an idea of what kind of world these people inhabit and so
dispel any illusions we might have that it's all Shangri-La out there
(well, this is the only news group I belong to, so I would be well
tempted to believe it) but at the same time he selects his examples
wisely and doesnt go into all the gory details.
Shane