Good morning Del,
CHristine has been trying to keep life in balance and I'm delighted for her. She has learned to recognize the signs that tell her it's time to be with family and get out of here. I've been posting a lot less over the last couple of months for the same reasons. My post total is embarrassingly low! The way I stay sane is by seldom getting involved in deep discussions of substance or anything that gets my blood pressure up. CGB loves the discussions, but they are very taxing and emotional sometimes.
More importantly, you mentioned the abuse heaped on her. She is not the only one who has been subjected to attacks; most of us who have been here a while have endured some. During the past year, SI has changed.
For a long time, people wrote with the same restraint and consideration they would use in regular discourse with others; there was an openness and innocence that was at times childlike in our discovering the freedom of this medium. But as people began to realize they could say anything, express themselves openly regardless of whom they might offend or hurt, many discarded the niceties. A glaring lack of common courtesy, some full blown neuroses, and even a few psychotic outpourings have made this no longer an adult's version of the playground, a cocktail hour, but a darker, more destructive environment. It troubles, even alarms me, to see us so willing to try to destroy others with words, prove our own superiority at the expense of others' feelings, and behave in ways that put our position at the top of the animal kingdom in question.
Putting people behind the keyboard, providing anonymity, reminds me of the 90 pound weakling getting behind the wheel of a car and finding himself suddenly possessing the power to intimidate and assert himself for the first time. What a shame! The incredible technology that has allowed us to exchange ideas with people all over the world has instead become a weapon employed for such trivial and often mean purposes.
It seems a sad indictment of us all, doesn't it? That technically and intellectually we move to Olympian heights while emotionally and spiritually we still wallow in the mud?
O! It is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
Shakespeare |
