Islands of Truth

In a post, The End of Work, I promoted the strengthening of bonds between cultures.  My fear was that 3d printing would eventually drive a wedge between cultures as we are less dependent on the financial bonds that have pushed us over the centuries to communicate across so many boundaries.

What do you assume about Porsche owners?

My brother' reply to this was that 'We are already experiencing this because of companies like WalMart and even more so with Amazon.  We don't know who we are buying from, and we no longer care.  We don't need to interact with them.'

Not only was he right, but he hit on the crucial behavioral characteristic of the problem.  We like to interact with those who reinforce our beliefs.  Instead of enabling dialogue, the web has enabled this isolating behavior.  We are becoming a self divided society.  We are slicing our society into segments, and we are becoming intolerant of opposing ideas.

What is happening at Missouri and across the nation is an attack on ideas.  It is so easy to assume we are right and they are wrong.  We have adopted this moral obligation to help others, protect them and the rest of society from the evils of strange thoughts.

The Starbucks Coffee cup is another great example of this.  The cup is red, and the only news I noticed was from a liberal perspective that claimed Christians were inflamed.  Never did I see any actual Christians upset by the cup, but by the claim that they were upset.

On the other side of this crazy world of intolerance a woman refuses to do her job on religious grounds and is made a hero, a martyr even going to jail for the act.  This woman is forever in people's minds as either an idiot or a hero.  How would you like it if your life was summed up into one act?

Ask Monica Lewinsky who was not the first who was destroyed by our modern way of jumping to conclusions.

Driving on the highway my son pointed out a VW Beetle.  I casually mentioned that it was a great car, and it was a point of pride for Adolph Hitler.  My son was aghast.  The idea that Hitler, had done something most people would say is good was certainly Dad pulling his leg.  Moreover I told him of Hitler's involvement in the development of our modern Highway system, and again he was incredulous.  A person as evil as Hitler couldn't do things that helped humanity, it was unthinkable.  Make no mistake, having people killed because you can is evil, but as Mr. Ollivander from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone described Voldemort, "After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Terrible! Yes. But great."

I have no idea the particulars of these events and I don't care to.  What I do want is for people to somehow stop thinking they always have the answers.  I make silly guesses, and I don't presume to be correct.  I do attempt to think things through but my perspective is as narrow as anyone's.

Its going to take talking, working and playing with each other to make this world better.  The next time you see someone who makes you feel uncomfortable, I hope you say Hi, smile and strike up a conversation, it could be very enlightening.