We are not Jellyfish - a Public Service Announcement
Long ago, those who tried to be of sober mind and sound judgement might begin sounding their opinions, thoughts and ideas off of those closest to them. Verbally.
If not dissuaded, they might share their views in a bigger circle or a small group socially or professionally. The more outspoken or extroverted of us would of course be louder, maybe more cutting in our tone or choice of words.
At some point we might feel a call to action. We might feel so strongly in our views, especially about things most precious to us in life, we’d take our now strongly held beliefs to school board meetings, peaceful protests, to the voting polls, to our church groups. We might form like minded groups, who knows what kind of change we could invoke.
Those days are gone. The days of respectful speech even when in earnest. The days of taking a grievance one step at a time to a deliberate end.
When I read Facebook posts I see two things that I find wholeheartedly disturbing.
One, I see a distinct lack of individual thought. I see band wagon jumpers re-posting another’s thoughts as their own, never really taking the time to form their own stance, swept away with a tide of what they believe to be justice and rightness.
The other thing I see which is perhaps the most sickening is vehement interactions with each other with no deliberate end.
To what end do we argue and pit ourselves against one another?
What does achieving our goal in these conversations look like if there are any?
How many, except the most divisive among us, know exactly the intended effect of our post or tweet or share?
It is a cruel machine based literally in a virtual reality and we are all so emotionally invested we behave as if in battle, blinded to life’s real evils, the real troubling truths, the real needed change, the real reality, we are up against.
It’s a machine fueled on emotions with little or no footing in reality.
Our culture cares only for feelings and is propelled, skyrocketed into situations that cause so much damage but could have easily been prevented by time and thoughtfulness.
As a country, we have lost touch with what is real and what is not as if reality was somehow up to one’s own perception.
I’m most recently disturbed by the amount of inaccurate data shared by individuals to further their cause. A cause which they copied and pasted from someone else’s cause and so on. As a society we place no value on truth.
That, I think, is the most disturbing thing about our time.
So much truth is up to our own perceptions and the ways in which we share those perceptions, social media, text, sensational broadcast journalism, is by design dysfunctional skewed.
We have an easy, immediate platform on which to not only vent our frustrations but call, with a feral, angered voice, calling to action anyone who’s emotions are stirred.
We will always be a people varied in opinions and beliefs. But we are more substantial than mere bodies of emotion.
We are struggles over adversity. We are the physical untying of knots and jumping of hurdles.
We are not jellyfish tossed about by the waves without purpose.
If we bend to every emotion, we are wholly weakened. If, in our anger, we have no restraint, we are lost.
The Bible teaches us a lot about this. I see fewer and fewer believing those biblical truths to be the foundation for their choices or their lives. In my life I have to make deliberate choices, on after another to firmly hold fast to those truths.
We’ve lost what it is to have a firm foundation of truth, right and wrong and what is worth a fight and what isn’t. We’ve lost the knowledge of who’s fight we should even be in.
Y’all, let’s get off our phones, off social media and fellowship.
We’re not going to agree on everything. That’s part of what makes the world an interesting place.
But, if we’re constantly shouting vitriol through our newsfeeds, nothing good will come of it. There will only be more vitriol.
If we want change, let’s put our feet back on the ground. the REAL ground. Let’s talk to each other. Let’s clearly visualize the effects of our language and interaction before opening our mouths or typing out a Facebook political recourse.
Let’s be real again.
© 2015 - 2022 Www.feetonhigherground.com - All Rights Reserved.
Last Updated : 06/03/2022 15:45:16
