Targeted Thoughts

The word 'targeted' is an interesting word as it works in both directions, sort of like tracer rounds during a military engagement, the tracer rounds reveal both the source and the destination. In the last few days the United States of America (USA) introduced a new department into the Department Homeland Security (DHS) to manage both misinformation and disinformation. Speech is an expression of thought, and so the reader is asked to imagine which way are the tracer rounds flying.

While the USA is most noticeable due to the foot print the USA has in what is known as the Western World; and yet Canada is not free from similar scrutiny in the consideration of Bill-C11 the Online Streaming Act, which will allow the Canadian Radio and Television Commission to 'control' content on the Internet. 

For this author, the UK too should be of concern seeing as it has hate speech laws and yet no-one seems to define or even know what hate speech is. In the UK a man was arrested for a joke with a pug, where no-one complained, and there was a decade of child molestation across their counties  because everyone doing the investigating was overly worried they might be called 'hateful'. Just look up ‘Rotherham scandal’ on Google. 

Once again, the reader is asked to imagine which way are the tracer rounds flying at this point?

Coming in from the other side of the barrel, as it were, in considering the commentary from the plebeians in opposition to the ideas provided by the governments previously mentioned is now being squashed. There seems to a very strong effort to ensure that any public commentary against the governments' orthodoxy is being isolated, caged or memory-holed with the help of the Main Stream Media (MSM). 

One of the recent brain pretzels has been articles and commentary that COVID-19 vaccination recipients are at an increased danger of catching COVID-19 from un-vaccinated people. How is it if the vaccines worked, that anyone who has gone through the medical regime that 'followed the science' can be at risk? A reasonable reasoning person might question the validity and veracity of the label 'vaccine' when the post injection people are still at risk of getting the virus. Yet again, this situation is not being questioned by the MSM, the majority of reports on this noted topic were focused on spreading the fear of infection yet again. 

Carrying on, what happened to the public support for feminism? Caitlyn Marie Jenner shortly after the sex change was named woman of the year. Recently a person who identifies as a female, though they were not born as one, has been dominating the swimming pools in girls sport. Previously, a person who identifies as a female, though they were NOT born as one, had cracked the skull of a female fighter, who WAS born that way, in a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight. There is at the time of this writing an on going social debate/battle on the allowing those who 'transition to a woman' participating in women only sports. The spearhead of the argument is transgender rights without questioning were is the concern over the women's rights to a pseudo fair competition? The ability to transgender seems to be like overnight delivery, no needed until it was available. Perhaps now people will understand that the term 'rights' has been over extended.

The 'pillory of social justice' has reached witch-hunt levels. For those who do not know, a pillory was used as a form of punishment for minor crimes such as: cursing in public, taking the Lord's name in vain, public drunkenness and other minor irritations to the community. With that in mind, the offender was still tried before a judge before being put on public display with their hands and head put in the holes provided. Social justice on the other hand bypasses the implied impartiality of the courts by going after revenue sources, friends, family and by DOXing their target. DOXing is the searching for and publishing of private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent. When a word is prefixed with a descriptor it modifies the original word's meaning; social justice is not just justice, racial justice is not just justice and gender justice, these things are not just simple Justice. In most of the countries that claim to be based on freedom everyone has the understanding that justice is equally applied to all hence why Lady Justice wears a blindfold; that is unless you are one of the rich in which case there is a little peeking around the blindfold.

A recent email, received by this author, raised some additional talking points which had many talking points or statements that caused some extra moments of pondering thus resulting in a few additional paragraphs before the conclusion of this article is presented. Dr. Enrico Fermi postulated 'that considering the number of stars and therefore the number of planets along with the age of the Universe as best guessed at in his time, why has mankind not seen extraterrestrial life so far?' Fermi answered his own question by stating that when technical acceleration outpaces emotional and social advancements the society becomes self -immolating. This conversation just discussed was at a party where those who initially designed, did the maths and ending up building the atomic bomb gathered for a pleasant dinner. 

In the totality of the email received, where the big picture points to the Fermi's paradox, there are a number of comments which point to significant problems for any society and these are: A) social division, B) financial insecurity, C) national entanglement and D) ruling by FUD.  For those not in the know, FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. While all four of the items listed above carry different weight under different situations. Item C is the most significant because as international trade may breakdown due to item A causing item B that will result in item D being put forward through ignorance or malice. 

In conclusion, right now the world seems to present itself much like a frog placed in a pot slowly being brought to a boil. This situation crept up upon most of us and we didn't see it coming. WWI was kicked off by a claim of assassination and WWII was kicked of by a middle European man getting depressed because he couldn't paint faces, this author fears that WWIII will be kicked off because of the ideal of  'I need that'. Here are some paths to resolution; reduce the expectations of people, increase national independence and cause the social media giants to limit the ability of just anyone to comment as this breeds a society rife with divisiveness and discontent. 

At the time of this writing Twitter is being described as the de-facto public square which is absurd when considers that the monthly active user count is about 330 million people. Trafalgar square in London England the original public square holds a fixed number of people and it is safe to assume that number is not 330 million as the UK has a population of about 67.2 million. Perhaps censoring is not the ideal solution as much as considering building Internet villages resembling those in the days of the old when good ideas would have to travel from village to village by humans and not by wires; by capping the ability of those to comment on any one account to 600 thus reducing the total amount of social vitriol. 

Good night and good luck...

Love Is?

Since the inception of the word, Love, has caused chaos, confusion, consternation, and contentment. How is it possible that so few letters aligned into a single word can result in so much alliteration? This article is being presented, under the yoke of high hope, to provide an answer to that question just asked. Seeing  as English is historically a multilingual word salad, the root of the word must be taken note of. It seems that the word 'lufu', from the Germanic, is the best source for the word love. The Italian word 'amore', which typically is translated to mean love, is the root of the English word 'amorous'; trust the British to conflate  ideas of sex and love. Hence the need to sort this out; the dictionary definition seems to include a hyperbolic option to save many people the effort of saying 'really really like'. 

For example, during the winter months there are many people who wander about the City of Toronto wearing the jersey of the Maple Leafs because they love the Maple Leaf hockey team; yet there is a caveat. Once the Maple Leafs stop winning these people move loving onto another team and after that team is forced out those same people pick the next lovable jersey to be pulled from the closet. How can a listener to the phrase, 'I love the Leafs', assume any honesty in such a situation of preferential shifting? The most honest statement in all of the discussions above, is 'I really really like hockey and I will cheer for those whom I feel will win.' People will wear the jersey and cheer on the team of the day so they can be part of the winning team in a game they can't play. 

Now that the over simplification has been dealt with; the next position to be addressed is caring. It is said that caring is an expression of Love. Yet there are many who contribute to charity for people they have never met; where is the chance for Love in such a situation? This portion of this article does not attempt to deny that caring need be exempted from Love in general; it points out that just because someone presents care or an act of caring it, can be done without Love as the driver. Moving on with this point, most of the people who claim love will also exhibit caring. 

Tolerance, forgiveness and redemption are other hallmarks of Love. There must be an emotional investment for some to be on the receiving end of an oops and allow for that oops to be stepped over, accepted, recognized and discussed. This author, through personal experience, learned that finishing other people's sentences creates two side effects. Those sides effects being: a) one cuts off the other person which hurts their feelings and b) a predisposition to the conclusion that sinks in as the other person's idea. Learning to listen provides a form of respect for the other and that too is a portion of Love. 

The Greek god Eros, known to the Romans as Cupid, was the assignment of the sensual/sexual attraction that confused so many people who came before us. This is the one aspect of Love that many people seem to fucking enjoy a lot. Cupid is recognized once a year, on Valentines' day, and the asteroid named Eros comes close the Earth once every 44 years. That being said, the sensual/sexual is not a significant aspect of love and in certain circumstances it is seriously discouraged; elsewhere though it is essential. 

Relevant to a non-genetic relationship, the discouragement of sex has become understood as an lowering indicator of Love or in the least of emotional entanglement. As the years pass and bodily hormones change the longevity of participation takes precedent as 'the presentation' wanes and is superseded by the substance of the invested time. It is noted and understood by this author that there is an opportunity cost experienced by those who wait, and that those eventual costs will always be realized. 

This philosophical exploration/diatribe on Love is now being changed from seeking a destination to understanding a journey. 

Shifting tact now, the original destination of this article was intended to be a search for a finite definition for the emotion known as Love. Love, or being in Love, or having Love for someone can not defined as a steady state of being. Love is an amorphous term with a broad range of understandings, most of which are more flexible than the length of a cubit; Love is more like a river that ebbs and flows depending on the terrain that surrounds it. Sticking with the water ideal; Bruce Lee once said about martial arts - 'You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup.' 

In closing, make Love shapeless and formless and yourself the cup such that you may never thirst for it. Additionally remember, water can always be poured into another cup for the purpose of sharing.