Admire or despise and anywhere in between. There exists a whole range, since perception and opinion tend to shift as more data become available.
Like the 12 people. The jury. In the court of public opinion. We, human being, learn to distinguish the poisonous from the perfect, what is toxic and what is nutritious.
We teach our children lessons learned the hard way: don’t touch poison ivy.
Stay away from chemicals, drugs and unexploded ordinance.
Here. Read this. People worthy of our admiration and imitation.
Role models. Teacher and instructor, counselor and coach.
(I have personally found PE coaches the most helpful… they taught me how to swim, to handle stress and stay away from injury.)
We all grow up admiring Pasteur and Marie Curie, Confucius and Christ. Our predecessors. All went through similar struggles, yet emerged triumph. Our performance benchmark.
At the minimum, we are to observe the Law, obey traffic signs and stay away from shady characters.
In short, no longer we’re searchers in high school, looking for a sense of belonging and identity.
That’s puberty.
We’re in a social-media society, powered by chips and AI, motivated by forces unseen. We’re primarily wanted for our eye balls, our purses and our time. There is no need for high intellect and skill-set. Just scan. Just post. Just Like. Just buy. Perhaps you might want to “friend” this unknown person. What’s the point? Metcalfe Law (the network is stronger per each added member – exponential law).
We’re in short, part of the Web, to be manipulated and mass-marketed to.
There is no longer a society in which individual accomplishment counts – at least not as in centuries past. It’s now scaled up, spreaded out and strengthened by numbers.
Quants rule.
Once we were told to go deep, to elevate ourselves beyond mere reptilian existence.
Now, the script changes on us. Just scan, look, comment and post. On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.
Case closed. Now is not the time for the 12 to deliberate. In fact, the whole wide world is the jury.
And at our fingertips, we vote, we decide and we character-assassinate someone from the distance. Cyber-bully them. Anonymously write them off, put them down in one fell swoop.
The power is enormous. Without any responsibilities. Sue me. See me. Feel me. We’re all alone, we’re all alone. Alone again, naturally. When we turn off our devices, we return to the three-dimensional analog reality of aging, of decline and isolation.
Then we long for our selective past, when role models were still alive, nudging us to learn, to emulate persons like Marie Curie and Confucius. Somewhere in time, those people loomed large, lived selflessly and left behind irrefutable legacy.
At times, the gene pool graces us with admirable people, just as it often produces killers and robbers.
The whole Law-Order apparatus exist to sort out and shut out those deemed unwanted and despicable.
That leaves us on our own to seek out that which is honorable, admirable and sustainable. The range, at far end of that spectrum make a lot of noise and garner a lot of attention, dominate news cycle and drain tax payer’s money.
But when devices are off, silence returns. We then hear the still small voice, urging the hero in each of us to rise to the occasion. To nudge others and leave great legacy, just as previously demonstrated by past role models, teacher and instructor, counselor and coach. Love those PE ones. I owe them a bag of gratitude. My still kicking, breathing strong, all thanks to the discipline of working out and healthy habits.
It takes two to tango. An admirable role model and a dedicated follower to lift up the gene pool. Or else. Just let go, let gravity does the work – slip slide in the race to the bottom. That’s reptilian living. Dog eats dog, especially on the Internet, where nobody knows who you are. Perhaps you might want to connect with so and so…nobody knows if it’s a he/she/or it. Be it the later, we might want to skip Metcalfe Law, and jump onto Zeroth Law (robots cannot harm human being).
Thang Nguyen 555 