Love and Hate On The Internet

Edition #125 — Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Two Worlds

In the last two weeks I've had lots of fun surfing the internet. Most memorable was viewing ancient video clips of some of my favorite bands. I also gained some practical insight, being able to fix a howling toilet after searching online for only two minutes. There's so much joy and learning potential in this globe-spanning information medium. And yet, I've also recently experienced the internet's sinister potential. The threat isn't controversial websites that we can easily ignore, but in the email chain letters that incite hatred toward a certain group of people in our world.

Recently I was offended when a Christian woman I know sent me an electronic chain letter that pointed an angry, accusing finger at Muslims for wanting to murder us all. She did not write the content of that email by merely read it and was manipulated by its words and images to feel as its author had intended. She was angry and afraid. And so she began passing this email around to others like me, in the hope of warning us of this great threat to our existence.

We all have to suspend our belief at times and trust that certain information is true, otherwise we also wouldn't take medicine or vote for politicians. Yet what I was reading in that email was not based upon this woman's first hand experience but the accusations of a complete stranger. She was merely redistributing thoughts that were the emotional equivalent of the Swine Flu virus. Furthermore, I didn't understand why she, a religious person, would want to promote fear, hatred and separation in our world. That is just plain hypocrisy.

We are already bombarded by the media's own purveyors of mindless gossip, corporate propaganda and "invented" news that guides our opinions through negative emotions toward some social agenda or world view. We do not need more of the same on the internet. But as long as we're talking...

Rumor Versus My Own Experience

I have worked and played within a melting pot of world cultures throughout my life. My first band at age thirteen included seven members from seven diverse cultures, including Germany, Japan, Italy and Denmark. In my early twenties I worked at a bank in Toronto with three tremendous people including my boss, a dark skinned Christian from Cairo, an Indian Muslim, and one endlessly jolly Caucasian man who later became a church minister. I never noticed their religion because they did not promote it to me. What I did notice was what wonderful human beings each of them were; all were kind, gentle, helpful and truly friendly towards me in no mere superficial way. We were all shamelessly being ourselves. Looking back, I realize that there was a lot of love in that environment, corporate as it was. And yet, according to that mass-marketed email campaign, I should have been fearful and wary of at least some of these people for apparently their only goal in life is to destroy me for not being exactly like them.

My point is this: should I rely upon my own personal life experiences to judge how the world works, or should I trust second, third or tenth hand information passed along by people who may have no experience with the subject matter? My impression is that such people do not wish to enlighten and inform, but merely incite the same destructive hatred that they accuse others of.

Now that we are so close to Christmas, let us remember that it is not religion that makes us who we are but our character. We can find weakness of character in any race, culture or belief system, just as we can find hatred and selfishness there as well. What we need more of in our world, and on the internet, are messages from one group of people praising the accomplishments of another, thereby promoting the goodness of others. Funny thing is, this rarely happens. And so I will continue to delete all fear-promoting emails while making a mental note to write something useful and enlightening about it so that perhaps it can undo some of its damage.

Let us remember, we are all on someone else's "sh*t list" for having been born the way we are. And for those who define themselves by who they fear or hate, I will not become their broadcaster.

In the meantime, check out these beauties:


May you all have a joyful Winter Solstice.



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