WILD CARD!!!
March 1, 2009
Recently I had an interesting discussion with someone via email. This person is my cousin and he had sent me (and others), directing me to this website: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/11.08/bilderberg.html. Feel free to check it out. Here was my terribly sarcastic response, which brought somewhat of a heated debate.
“Great idea “History Channel”, what better way to combat unsettled economic times by proposing outrageous claims of secret societies controlling the world and driving us to a “globalized version of Nazi Germany”. Cultivating widespread distrust in the social and economic systems our economy needs is a grand idea.
Its not any news to find out there are a select few people calling most of the shots in the world. I’m glad the people of the “silverbearcafe” have finally caught on to one of the most blatant facts of history, namely that the systems of government are ruled by a few powerful members of society. Brilliant insight.
These people are nuts, interesting in the same nature that a comic book would be; and about as helpful!”
This situation brought about a slightly heated debate between folks about the legitimacy of facts presented by the History Channel. It was particularly pertinent to the recent chapter in Postman’s book. The situation revolved around how our culture innately thinks scientifically. In life I look for hypotheses, theories, and evidences supporting or usurping whichever idea I encounter. I have been taught that objective thought is superior to faith driven thought; I also value my objective thought when it does not discriminate against other thoughts, just when it disproves the ones containing no verifiable evidence. The point (I think) is this: we operate in a scientific world. I recognize not everybody embraces science… or that science is always accurate… but everyone values scientific reason though they may call it by a different name. The point is I inhabit a worldview claiming to be on the crest of superior technology, the pinnacle of human discovery, and the ultimate realization of self-actualization. And all this is supported, in theory, by science.
So many people discussed their thoughts on science and it’s application to that particular website. It was a strange experience because I don’t often have such meaningful conversations; some of these people I didn’t even know. But for a short time there was a lot of email activity surrounding peoples very interesting and meaningful interactions to the website.
The discussion was actually (I think) helped by the medium of the internet because it kept people from interrupting others. If someone was upset they could very easily disengage the conversation (just don’t reply). So for this particular situation I think CMC helped to spur honest conversation which allowed communication to more easily tackle a difficult topic.
In my history class this term we learned that the idea of “fact” began about 500 years ago with the Renaissance. This, I found incredibly interesting. I too rely on facts and scientific reasoning to asses the world. But, given the time humans have been around, the idea of having facts is a relatively new one.
I agree that though it is easy to misunderstand one another using the internet to communicate through, the potential for discussing controversial topics in a less intimidating way opens up a slew of possibilities.
Just checking.
Did you accept my last post???