Hawkeye's View

I just finished reading Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol.’  It is a typical Brownian read.  By that I mean it’s not complex, structurally speaking, and that I could, if I wanted, immerse my head in the toilet, constantly flush it, continue to read it and not miss anything. (Now, I know the oft quoted phrase of “Easy reading is damned hard writing”, but think of a sweater I once gave to a friend... “See Dick Drink.” “See Dick Drive.” “See Dick Die.” “Don’t Be A Dick!” that is easy reading, and frankly damned easy writing.  Back to Dan Brown’s novels; I concede, wholeheartedly, that he researches the heck out of his novels, but reading the book can be done without having to think about what Mr. Brown writes.  You. Get. It.  The characters aren’t really deep, the plot is simple to grasp.  It’s almost the literary equivalent to watching reality tv, it’s interesting, but you forget it after you’ve turned off the show.

The book did get me thinking, about technology in general and the exponential increase in technological advances the last decade has seen.  The pace of change since 1900 has been substantial as well.  We’ve gone from horses to cars and planes and spacecraft.  In the last 10 years we’ve gone from bulky cell phones and fat laptops to ipod shuffles and phones you can easily hide in your orifices.  There’s seemingly no end in sight.  There’s the internet and the sudden and total devaluation of porn.  (Talk about a bubble bursting).  There’s online banking and selling your own home and writing your own will and etc...

So what?  That’s progress.  Is it?  In a previous post I spoke of participant rewards, where you get a gold star for showing up, and I think this is connected to technology’s number one reward to us people; Instant Gratification.  

What does any advance in technology allow us to do?  In a nutshell technology advancement allows us to do things faster and easier.  Online banking allows us to pay our bills easier.  Smartphones allow us to connect to each other instantly.  F35 jetfighters, engines sold separately, will ultimately allow us to kill faster and easier.

All this quick and easy has clouded our vision.  Our understanding of complex concepts is diminished when everything is handed to us on a silicon platter.  Master Sushi chefs complain when chef wannabes complete sushi training in 8 months, where before it took 5 years before a newbie could even touch rice.  That is extreme, but it is telling.  The newbie who went through the 5 years training appreciates his art all the more.  Every nuance of sushi preparation is steeped in tradition and the chef revels in it.  I imagine he would also revel in tormenting the living shit out of the newbie training under him, but that’s a side benefit.

I see this issue with my daughters, my eldest especially (hating difficult stuff, not tormenting sushi-chefs-in-training).  She’s learning the piano and suddenly gets very frustrated, to the point of tears, when she learns a new tune.  It’s hard she says and doesn’t want to do it.  Same with reading.  If a book is too difficult she just wants to give up.  

If technology makes everything easier then why would anyone want to do anything hard (apart from the desperate porno stars)?  The younger generations instantly expect the high paying jobs or think they know all they need to know to do their job.  They are high on the meth of theory, and can’t see the practical side of things.  If something doesn’t come to them instantly they’re bored.  And will complain about it.  Technology is the death of work ethic.  Remember knowing the value of a dollar?  Perhaps we should be saying, know the value of your energy.

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If I've done something stupid and no one catches me or outs me, then yes I have no shame.  This is because shame is an individual's resultant expression of remorse as dictated by the general population's regard for that individual and his/her actions.  What the hell does that mean?  I don't know, but it looked good on the monitor.  The issue at hand in North America, and indeed most Christian countries, is that the society at large is based on guilt.  You've done something bad and you feel bad about it.  For example, a school boy throws pins into the music teacher's puffy sweater so that when she sits down and leans back she finally gets the prick she otherwise would never have experienced because she is a homely looking wench.  That school boy might feel guilt over causing this minor pain.  For the record, I didn't feel guilt just pride that I didn't get caught.  If I had been caught I would have expressed shame and then redoubled my efforts at avoiding detection the next time.  No lesson learned there.

I see Canada and the other Christian countries going from more of a guilt based society to more of a shame based one.  This shift has some repercussions.  I won't say dire repercussions, because countries like Japan are a shame based society.  In Japan, if a principal of a high school takes part in compensated dating (read whoring) and doesn't get caught he faces no repercussions.  This is because in Japan, as a shame society, there is an appropriate time and place for everything, including getting your diggity with a student.  However, if he gets caught he will be shamed to the max and will likely kill himself in an act of contrition (which is a mighty tough act to follow).   This says, to me at least, that the only inappropriate thing is getting caught.

To be fair shaming has been around in Christian societies, but I suspect the church brought in guilt because it could never really monitor all offenses.  So, why not give people the gift of guilt and they can monitor themselves.  Making people feel guilty, a tactic used by churches, councilors and loving parents, doesn't really do justice to an act already committed.  Neither does shame for that matter.  At least with shame the public is aware of the act and the resultant spectacle of that person's reputation being dragged through whatever crap they deserve makes for an interesting lesson for the public at large (if heeded).

So, going back to the principal above who killed himself he is a lesson to other principals;  Don't get caught.  Arnold Schwarzenegger had no issue with boning his maid for years until he got caught.  Representative Weiner had no problems sending photos of his namesake, until he got caught.  Edwards, Clinton, Hart, all did what they did because they felt they could get away with it.  

Interesting aside, apart from Arnold you rarely hear of a GOP candidate getting into trouble like this.  I suspect it's because the typical GOP male is ugly and old, but that may be a fallacy on my part.  Could you imagine the depraved desperation of a woman willing to fool around with Newt Gingrich? Bob Dole? John McCain?  I don't actually have to vomit because I'm thinking about McCain and his Oh-face, but more correctly I want to vomit, violently.  It's the better looking politicians who get the girls or who have girls throw themselves at them.  A friend of mine once lamented that it must be tough to be Tiger Woods.  His wife asked why, he replied 'having all that va-jay-jay thrown at you'  He felt some shame pretty damn quick, I tell you.  

That's another feature of shame, it's only felt or experienced if the crowd who knows about the act feels that the act is immoral or shameful.  If my friend had said that same Tiger Woods line to me, I would have laughed, patted him on the back, agreed with him fully, and promptly denied to my wife the conversation ever took place.  Know your audience.  Wiener didn't know his audience. Let me tell all you aspiring politicians who the audience is in the age of the web; everyone!  The internet, with facebook, twitter, and other lowly social media sites trying to be like facebook and twitter, is the ultimate shaming tool.  

People bemoan the future of the internet due to people placing photos of Vancouver Stanley Cup rioters in an effort to help police.  So what?  I mean, who really cares?  If someone is stupid enough to do something stupid and have it filmed and put on youTube then they deserve what they get.

Does that mean people shouldn't act in moral fashion?  Hell no.  Of course they should.  But now, with the weakening of moral fabric (read decline of church, and, sure, television; all those reality shows are having a huge impact) there is nothing to take its place, except the internet and its ability to shame people.  Facebook launched its facial recognition feature so that helps in outing people who've been photographed doing idiotic acts.  

My mom had some simple advice when she found a cassette my brother and I had made.  It was a fake radio show and the lead in was 'It's time for everyone's favourite show: S.H.I.T!'  The variety of curse words we used and the frequency with which we used them strikes a bit of nostalgia for me.  We felt like adults using those words.  I remember one story we did about a 10 foot tall Texan who used midgets as butt dildos.  Well, my mom heard our brilliant, witty conversation and said simply, 'if you don't want to be caught saying something stupid, don't record it.'  And now, I've shared it with everyone for all eternity.  Yay eternity.  

But that rule applies still today.  If you want to avoid shame don't record yourself doing stupid things!  Or better yet don't do the stupid thing to begin with, because you'll likely get recorded and that video will be posted on the internet.  And folks, the internet never forgets!  Just ask the Star Wars Kid link.

Over and...

Out.

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The death of one man made world headlines.  Of course that man was reviled in the U.S., of course he led a terrorist group that perpetrated the worst terrorist attack ever and on American soil to boot.  Of course he was evil, no question.  Of course he deserved justice, but is that what he got?

Seeing pictures and video of Americans in a blood-lust frenzy over the death of Osama bin Laden reminded me of videos showing the end of World War II.  In no way can the two be compared other than the partying people outside the White-house.  On the one hand Americans celebrated the end of the worst conflict in world history which toppled one of the worst regimes in world history.  On the other they celebrated the death of a single individual who was vilified.  They celebrated as if his death meant an end to terrorism.
  
America views this killing of bin Laden as justice, as a requirement of their anger and pain.  It was not justice.  It was a revenge killing pure and simple.  There was no apparent attempt to capture and subdue him.  There will be no trial, no evidence in clear terms, no jury, and no judgment.  Only a bullet to the head.
When the American government speaks of Justice is that the kind of justice they would have enforced on their own by outside governments?  Likely not.  They would speak of brutality and perversions of justice.  And now that they un-ceremonially dumped bin Laden’s body into the ocean what does that say?  

Now that bin Laden is dead what will his legacy be?  Americans are right that their country is the most powerful nation on earth, but it is still reeling from 9/11.  With the Patriot Act civil liberties have been curtailed.  As examples look at the boarding of any airplane on American soil which now requires all passengers to have full body searches.  Ample red tape has been cut so that the government and law enforcement can more easily wire tap, track and monitor Americans.  This is bin Laden’s legacy.

With two wars draining government coffers by trillions of dollars the American government has less cash on hand to deal with the financial woes it currently faces.  S&P’s recent downgrading of U.S. finances is but a reflection of American government fiscal imbalance.  Imagine if the U.S. didn’t go to Afghanistan and Iraq?  Imagine if those thousands of American military lives, and military pensions and death benefits to the spouses of those lost lives, did not have to be paid?  America’s hampered ability to right its financial course is due, partly, to 9/11 and American government response to that event.  This is bin Laden’s legacy.

Now that bin Laden was summarily executed, much like western hostages by Islamic extremists, except there was no video footage (that we know of), bin Laden is now a martyr.  Like Che Guevara before him, bin Laden’s image may be used as a recruitment banner for other extremist organizations within Islam.  This is bin Laden’s legacy.

Bin Laden’s goal was likely not to attempt to utterly and completely destroy the U.S.  It was to erode American freedom and attack its economic strength.  Bin Laden likely knew full well how the U.S. would respond to an event like 9/11.  He counted on it.

Where does America and the world go from here?  Who knows, but if the past is any indication, there will be more terrorist attacks, not less.  There will be more financial problems, not less.  There will be more freedoms lost, not less.  These too, will be bin Laden’s legacy.

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When did news become so filled with meaningless drivel?  When did it change from something useful to a chorus of talking heads trying to get you to pay them the most attention? As if news anchors are little children vying desperately for a parent’s attention and are willing to say anything at any speed to get it.  I’m not complaining about the commercialization or even sensationalization (I think I just coined a new word) of news, because that has always been there.  From the early part of the 20th century news paper boys would scream out the latest headlines until their vocal cords burst into flames in attempt to get passersby to buy the paper.  News, after all, is a business and I understand and appreciate that.  It’s their news model to which I take exception.

The idea of the scoop has now given away to something more radical; the instant update.  Granted, on major news stories that affect millions the instant update is useful for events such as the Japanese earthquake or the recent events in Muslim countries, but rarely does technological innovation remain the bastion of solid news dissemination.  Now for example, we get instant, to the split-bloody-second, updates of celebrity “news” from websites and those special “news” programs on TV.  A celebrity was in an accident and before the police even arrived at the scene a bystander took a cell phone photo of the person lying on the concrete, bleeding, and sent it to TMZ, which then immediately put the picture on their site.  “Can someone call me a doctor, please?” “Just hold still, my first seven photos of you are blurry.  People have to know it’s you and not some no-name loser that looks like you.”  Imagine the headlines they could have used?  ‘Guess Who’s Bleeding Right Now?’ or ‘If You’re on the Expressway and Have a Band-aid You Can Touch A Star.’

Increasingly, news channels, and I mean all of them, are relying more on instant news gathering processes.  Think of it as the instant gratification of the news channel.  This has landed them in trouble before, namely the 2000 American presidential elections where they couldn’t determine a winner early enough and just decided to wing it and launch the American electoral system into a dismal circus act in front of the supreme court… well, maybe I exaggerate.

The news channels are all relying on common everyday people to send them videos, pictures, emails, strip-a-grams relaying information on news.  I don’t have a problem with news collection in this manner, but news agencies are no longer sifting through this information with critical eye.  Instead, they look at it with the sole purpose of getting a leg up on each other, (which is disgusting when you think of it in terms of news orgies) rather than that tired concept of being correct.  No longer do they seem to critique the source of the news for any bias or prejudice. News agencies I think have a new news gathering motto; Gaze on It Momentarily, Post Immediately or GIMPI.

The point, and I do have one, is that news agencies have moved away from journalism in large part and toward mere reporting.  We the public are so bombarded with trivial little facts that it just becomes white noise, or more like the universal background radiation; always there, always on.  

I fear Ray Bradbury had it right in Fahrenheit 451, wherein he prognosticated that sound-bites will be the dominant mode for transmitting information.  Things like Twitter and Facebook updates are increasingly shrinking the amount of news.  140 characters sounds more like a Dickens novel than a news post!  I’m not immune to this process.  I do have a twitter account, but I try to impart some information or direct people to where they can read more information on a particular subject.

What I want going forward is more in depth discussion of issues that I deem important and that is where the internet can help.  But, like any double edged sword, the internet as a news source is wonderful, but at the same time very hard to perceive bias in authors.  (FYI; My bias, by the way, is me.  No need to guess).  Perhaps the Internet news providers are the one biggest reason TV news agencies are sensationalizing ho-hum news.  

Like the other day I wanted to hear the latest about the nuclear reactor in Japan, because not only did I live in Japan, but the situation could conceivably AFFECT HOW THE WORLD LOOKS AT NUCLEAR POWER or AFFECT FOOD IN JAPAN FOR DECADES!  But, I only heard a brief two sentence report on the reactors and then the radio station proceeded to discuss, in depth, a different pressing world epidemic that has dire consequences for the entire human race: North American Pets are more obese than ever before!  What… The… Hell??!?  I’m sure Weight-watchers will have a program for fat, sausage-like, puffs of cat called Pet-Peepers. The amount of money people spend on pets is…. Well, that’s a diatribe for a later post.

Radio and TV news agencies realize more and more people are going to alternative sources for their news diet.  And, like butchered potatoes deep fried in pig lard, smothered with chicken fat gravy, topped with a bovine salt lick, I view TV and radio news agencies as being increasingly bad for your health or junk food for the eyes and ears.  Garbage in garbage out.

Governments need to address News and how it is gathered and released.  In exchange for existing, TV stations were obliged by the government to report the news.  They no longer do that.  There are thousands of invisible strings that connect money, corporations, and politicians to TV and radio stations.  There really aren’t any independent TV or radio stations any more.  All TV and radio stations pay heed to the corporate parent.  That means if Poisonous Cookie Corp. owns Joke News Network and there’s a news story that 20,000 people died eating Poisonous Cookie Corp.’s newest cookie, The Esophageal Closer, you can bet your hairy ______ (put your favourite or least favourite body part here, I like to use elbow) that JNN will have nothing to say about it.  So Grandma, who usually only watches JNN because she thinks the lead anchor may or may not be gay as reported by another channel, doesn’t get that info and she hustles out to get her grand-kids the latest cookie… Well, we’ll see the kids choking, live on TV.  Ain’t technology grand?

Out.

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You know, I don’t consider myself to be the world’s greatest father or husband for that matter.  However, I do think I do a good job of both (no asking my wife either).  As a father of three young daughters my house is filled to the brim with estrogen.  A fact that my friends regularly remind me of.  As if, by some mysterious power of the universe, I fail to realize it on a daily… nay hourly, basis.  That’s beside the point, also beside the point how when, in the unfortunately not so distant future, all of them are menstruating it will occur on a great convergence of pms.   For a week. Every month.  I am currently in planning stage to convert our garage into my man cave, complete with tv, fridge and bidet.  I figure having a bidet in my man cave will prompt my progeny to avoid entering said cave and thus give me a brief respite from the witches brew within my home.

I digress.  The point is I am a pretty good dad and husband.  But, I must admit a failing, a complete, total failing at times in trying to determine the motivations of my daughters and wife.  Granted the baby can’t talk so she either demands fluids, solids, has pooped or peed or wants attention or is tired or bored.  I merely go through a best guess each time and one by one eliminate the possibilities.  DONE.  No fuss no muss.

My older daughters are a different story.  The middle child has, when I fail to give in to her demands, threatened to call the police so they can take my pants away.  She apparently believes that I view my pants much the same way she views her precious Rapunzel doll, as if it’s an inextricably intertwined part of me that I would die without.  That I would break down into a shrieking, snot infused, tantrum as she does when we take said doll away.

My eldest child has her own peculiarities in that if she doesn’t get what she wants she will withhold things from me such as hugs, kisses, and the most important thing: aid in cleaning up the house.  Apparently, in her mind she believes she is the maid of the house.  How do I know this?  Not from trying to extrapolate meaning from her rants, but merely having her repeatedly utter ‘I’m not the maid.’  (I do listen… at times.)  Let’s get this little cognitive dissonant issue into the light.  SHE NEVER WILLINGLY CLEANS UP.  But, she may misremember us repeatedly asking her to clean up as her willingness to clean up.

Be that as it may these are my realities.  And really, they are not mine, but their’s.  As such they don’t make much sense to me and I just try and blunder my way through it all.  Take for example yesterday.  I arrived home to be greeted by my middle child.  Though she smiles and hugs me tightly I can't help but notice, she has a fat lip.  The eldest greets me, equally enthusiastically, and she has red marks on her face.  My wife gives me a knowing look as if to say, just ask how my day went, punk.  Just ask.  So, I ask.  And am told to ask my children what special game they played.

“The Punching Game,” they yell and laugh.  Apparently, my daughters have devised toddler fight club.  My wife says to them, to tell me where they punch. On the face, on the back, the kidney areas, on the bum.  Nothing is sacred.  I picture my middle child smiling with a bloody mess of a mouth and my eldest holding a broken hand and giggling.  I try not to laugh, but fail totally.  You see, this is funny.  My wife, frustrated over my lack of seriousness, explained that my dear, sweat, innocent daughters, laughed maniacally as they jammed knuckle sandwiches into their soft pliable cheeks and lips.

“Don’t play that game anymore,” I try to recover, though they see right through that.  We, my wife and I as a wonderful team, then threaten to take their toys away and each daughter responds as outlined above, my pants will be gone and the place will be an affection-less mess.  Great.  Let’s eat. In awkward silence.  With our baby daughter smiling and taking this all in.  Pray for me and often.  I’ll likely need it.

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I remember playing games and the ultimate prestige in a game, was finishing it.  There were no trophies or awards for finishing the first level of ANY game let alone finding two secret things within a single level.  No award for turning on the game and accessing the main menu.  No award for breathing.  Where did this switch to perpetual recognition come from?  Is it a generational thing?  

Well, shit yeah!  I have read some various sites proclaiming that the Y generation is the first to get participation trophies.  Participation trophies?  I don’t remember getting those growing up per say.  At the school Play-days where all the students would compete either you placed in the top three and got awards, or you got nothing other than a severe sunburn and heat stroke and the accompanying shits.  You got a freezie snack, but not as a reward for competing, but as a treat.

So, when generation Y wants constant pats on the back and constant recognition for the most trivial things how does this affect society at large?  I’ll tell you how.  From my perspective it lessens the value of everything.  Remember when kids… oh dear… actually failed at something and were held back another year?  Ah the good old days.  Now we have graduation ceremonies from Kindergarten for gosh sakes.  When I passed into grade one I got a slap across the face and was told to go to bed (perhaps not exactly, I did have a few self induced concussions so I could be mis-remembering there).  

I recall a graduation from Junior High, High School and University.  Those were substantial achievements because they involved a transition from one school to another not from one classroom to another.  I didn’t expect exultations with majestic choir orchestrations for taking a dump in the toilet, but suddenly that’s what parents are expected to do to their children.  “Keep the shit log floating in the toilet so they can admire their efforts..”  What the goddam hell?

Now video games have tapped into, what I call, micro-applauding.  A micro-applause is getting a ridiculous amount, and degree, of congratulations over a relatively minor thing.  In case you don’t know what I mean I’ll further elaborate.  Playing anything for 15 minutes… Bang trophy.  Imagine these kinds of micro-applauses elsewhere?  Getting a ribbon in a baseball tournament for being alive… Bang gold medallion.  Not getting a concussion in hockey…  Boo-YEA baby new car!  

This trend is spreading to everything.  My point is my father tried to bribe me with candy bars and dollar bills, back when such a beast existed, to go to church.  In this regard my father was a trailblazer!  But, suddenly, the going to church was not worth just going anymore I needed/required a reward for falling asleep in the pew.  (That’s not mentioning the fact that I no longer believed in the pompous diatribes being spat at us from a minister who felt prostitution was the original sin, and for which we needed weekly reminders).

This all is not to say you can’t thank people for a good job or being polite.  You can and should.  But, for appropriate things.  Someone finishes a big project or report on time, that deserves a congratulation.  Finishing the title page? Hells no.  They should get a punch to the neck and told to get their shit in gear.  Getting married? Congratulations.  Getting a promise ring to promise to get an engagement ring?  That gets a swift cuff across the bridge of the nose so that the tears will wash away the emotional muck that has clouded their vision.

Bottom line micro-applause or whatever you want to call it demeans true accomplishment.  People do learn best by failure.  WD40 was the 40th version of that product.  The first 39 were failures.  Imagine if the inventor got an award for merely thinking of producing it?  We wouldn’t be able to fix squeaky wheels.. though perhaps some wheels need to squeak a little longer to truly understand how good it is to be well oiled.

Out.

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I’ve wondered what the appeal is for people to have ink permanently infused with their skin or having their body pierced in uncommon areas.  Looking around the internet we see a variety of reasons, tattoos of family members, military service, some personal meaning, prison affiliation, just for fun, or a drunken escapade which ends up with a lifelong regret.  I can well understand tattoos, which commemorate some significant event in the person’s life, as being, at least to that particular person, important.  But, I believe getting a tattoo all boils down to one thing; Having a tattoo aid’s a person’s belief in their own uniqueness.  That somehow, with a tattoo or unique piercing they are unlike everyone else on the face of the earth.

A former co-worker got a tattoo on her ankle some twenty years ago because no one else did.  She bemoaned the fact that everyone else is doing it now.  Suddenly, the valuation that she placed upon that object dwindled quicker than Bear Stearns.  She showed me, with some residual pride, her green tattoo of some symbol I couldn’t make out.  Over the years the tattoo had changed, making it look less of a symbol and more like a chunk of dried snot.  From the ‘now normal’ to the ridiculous, prisoners in American jails are getting the whites of their eyes tattooed, because… “I can guarantee no one else looks like me…”

Where could this obsession to appear different/unique/special come from?  A drive to be unique is not new, though in ages past it was likelier easier.  Historically in any small town everyone was unique in their own way because they lived in amongst such a small sample of human variation.  And because travel was so difficult the chances that a person would find someone eerily similar was close to nil.  (For the purpose of this essay I’d like to omit areas of extreme inbreeding because they obviously don’t care about how they look or else they’d have tried to bring in new genes).   Even names could be unique.  At least first names (the Old Order Mennonites only have one last name; Martin).   Imagine then the stark difference someone in a small town would make if they had a tattoo of a dead skunk on their face.
  
Tattoos are old.  From the Maori to the Inuit tattoos served an important purpose.  Rites of passage and rituals often accompanied the tattooing process to the point where it could be linked to religious experiences.  For the Maori it was a time consuming and painful process.  Due to the tools (primitive in nature) and the taboos surrounding a tattoo getting a tattoo was a far more involved and meaningful event for ancient Maoris than their modern day equivalent.

Looking around Kitchener Ontario’s downtown core we see quite a few tattoo shops.  In fact, along Kitchener’s King Street in a mere three kilometer corridor there are no less than nine tattoo shops.  Nine!  Kitchener has a population of 200,000 and can somehow support these nine shops.  In Waterloo there are 5, 3 basically on the same block! One merely books an appointment; half hour later walks out with a tattoo… Just in time to get that starbucks coffee before everyone else.

Proliferation of tattoo shops is just another symptom of our desire to be unique.  In this regard having tattoos is akin to owning various toys from the latest cutting edge electronics to the most stylish clothing.  Affluence equals special; Tattoo equals special.

So where did this obsession with body art come from?  Indirectly from the rise of social media.  Never before have we humans been more connected to each other (for the sake of this argument I will imply that social media does connect humans to each other more than before, but I will not comment on the long term feasibility of said social media connections).  With Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and the myriad of other sites I can now get information to the second of when my friends have bowel movements and where exactly they are having them (if we extrapolate to the point of idiocy people alerting others of when they are having a coffee to important bodily functions).

Surfing the web, to use an antiquated phrase, I can, in an instant, see that my name is not unique.  There are quite a few others with my first and last name combo.  Going further one can see that his/her thoughts are not unique at all.  I thought to use the term Vampirate, thinking I had come up with a unique term.  There’s an actual series of books/comics with that as the title.  How vampirates could survive traveling the oceans while having to hide below decks during the day escapes me.  Unless they are sparkling modern day vampirates.

With the vast amount of information in the oceans of the internet can spark a sobering thought, if one only takes enough time to think between the constant friend updates.   That thought is, in my thoughts, in my name, in my actions I am not unique.  There are others who think, look, act as I do.  There are others who drive, play, read, or use the same thing or things I do.  There are others who are likely writing diatribes similar to the one you are reading right now.  (Though to be fair those essays likely will not have the sentence - Rumpleforeskin monsters eat banana’d  rock cows).

Sensory overload muddles our thoughts.  We now have constant stream of information and, for the sake of not missing anything important, we review it all. We see others whom we feel are unique and therefore force us to act, to make a mark on this world.  I wish I could say I am immune to this process, but I am not.
The superficiality of social media with everyones’ likes displayed so prominently makes social media connections disingenuous.  Seeing that a friend likes a certain band means nothing, because thousands of others also like said band.  And, one has barely registered that like before one has already gone on to the next like update.  In a face to face moment, of actual spatial and temporal proximity, we can ask our friend why they like that band.  The like becomes real, becomes meaningful, becomes something to which we can relate.

But, all that means nothing because it is the appearance of uniqueness that is important.  Hence, the flourishing of tattoo shops in Kitchener Ontario, hence the consumer mentality.  Because people are spending more time in front of the computer and television, not less, superficial attitudes begin to overwrite and rewrite our social brains.  The explosion of reality tv with mock drama bears this out.  It is meaningless, but yet we watch it, hoping not to miss it.  It is easy to become lost, adrift in the sea of content.

And therein lies the rub, because we are unique.  I can guarantee that if I listed my name and my ten closest friends (Ok 2 closest friends, I’m not that popular) there would likely not be anyone that could match it.  If I take my wife and children’s names, ages, personalities there would be no one else to match it… My experiences, my interests, my duties as a friend, employee, mentor (I know I’m stretching it there) husband, father all make me gloriously, most post-modernly, unique.  I need no tattoo to prove it, I need no mansion to guarantee it.  I am.

Out.

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