Our Social System 3 - Nasty anonymously ...

Thursday, August 19, 2010. Today in many countries the possibility to contribute an opinion to the public debate is better than it has ever been. We have freedom of speech, we may write articles or contribute to online news sections by posting our opinion. The social networks usually provide some possibility to say what we think and online blogs add to the daily news.

We can be quite nasty …

In fact, it is interesting to observe how we behave when we can contribute our opinion anonymously. When people feel free, they can be quite nasty or sharp, criticizing others strongly. When we read through today's online news sites, we can observe exactly that. There are many people with strong words towards politicians, managers, teachers, public employees, bankers, etc etc.

Observing the opinions in public areas on the web it is very interesting that here a lot of strong opinions appear which then shape the public debate. You will easily find posting with content like “All European politicians are corrupt” or “Managers are greedy”. Or “Politicians are only interested in filling their own pocket” etc etc. These opinions are also fed by many articles in rather established media. In fact, they are quite nasty towards a whole group of people which contains a wide spectrum of personalities. Why are we so nasty?

How are we really? How are the people? …

Usually, our emotions are controlled by our own public appearance. We might fear negative consequences when we say nasty words with our name appearing there as author. But when we are anonymous, we might choose a strong version of what we think and feel!

How are we really? How are we, the anonymous people, are we as nasty as we appear in the online statements and articles? And how are the people we talk about? Are they as corrupt and bad as we think? It is true that they are all greedy? Are they more greedy than we are or just more successful in getting where we all want to go? Or are we just wrong, not reflecting reality at all? Is the whole media business just a world full of illusions, just stories written to trigger our emotions into one or the other direction to provide entertainment?

I would like to suggest to ask God to show us who we are and who the others are. It is possible to ask for the help of the holy spirit to understand and to see through the surface. God's view might be quite strong as well, but it will also be a view full of mercy and love. In this sense it will be different from nearly any of the online statements, which usually do not reflect a merciful attitude. We are asked to go to him in prayer and continue to search for his view, to see the people through his eyes, to learn from his eternal and wide perspective! ... more texts