barking dogs

A wise woman on twitter wrote, "Jones is a dog who barks because he wants attention, not all pastors are dogs and neither are all Americans."


If you have been followings this whole circus, I really reccm'd you go read the threads on twitters about it. It is revealing about, I think, the more majority, worldwide (and American) feeling that this is just the wrong thing to do and totally unsupported.


I was reading on the AP yesterday, an evaluation of how our crises develop. We make a great deal of noise (and I have for one) about the extent of manipulation of the news by the news agencies. What the AP pointed out is that those days are fading fast. The majority of people no longer get their news from established sources, they get it from Internet media such as Twitter.


Where once the major news agency would have, in the name of keeping everyone's sh*t together, chosen to ignore people like Revvie Terry (and for one, several major newspapers refused to give it coverage until Petraeus) and thus contained a very small fire; the immediacy of the Internet allows a story to spread and gain momemtum with awe inspiring speed.


Granted...again...we are behind the times. And I say "we" as mainstream America because all of this, about his plan, hit back in June and Muslim oriented countries began to protest then. Not until Petraeus said it loud enough to get our attention did we tune in.


Interestingly enough, and rightly I believe, the AP also points out that few Muslim nations are involved in the brouhaha over the Islamic Community Center in NYC. Their evaluation of why, eve though it has been as fraught with protest and insult as bonfire annies's ploy, is that the subject is also open to more subtlety. While nastiness is done, there is an examination on all parties - pro and con - about the depth of the issues involved.


The bonfire is too simple. Too pure a hate and an affront.


But, the AP goes on, we no longer have the kind of safeguards that existed when we trusted and believed in the media as a source of news for our communal, social well being. Now, we rely on ourselves and that can get twisted quite a bit when the race is on to see who can accumulate the most stats the fastest. Doesn't matter if the facts are right or not, just be the first to say it.


And then, to show you are in good graces (or in hopes of getting in good graces) with the adult version of the popular table in the cafeteria, we retweet. Repost. Again, without taking the five seconds it would take to check what the reality of something is.


Exposure grants its own special form of validity.


Its like...from a writer's area of life, the fact that being put in print is taken as a measure of the writing's worth then an acknowledgement of the trends and fashions of taste. If you doubt that, look back over the history of our major influential writers and see just how many of them were well published in their lifetime or 100 years after.


It takes a while to recognize a true thing because truth allows you to investigate it, poke at it, it does not dissemble immediately into a maze of rationalizations (who knew Revvie Terry was so concerned about construction, I mean all that evil and suddenly its ok if it is just down the street a bit).


Truth and true things permit you to question them, challenge them, form an understanding of them - in parts or in whole, as you are capable of at that moment in time.


Untrue things require speed, unquestioning obediance, acceptance of explanations, rationalizations and a true discouragemet of any one taking notes and then reviewing them for logic later.


I had...

wild grapes today...

I came home and installed a 6x4 whiteboard as part of my wall so I can really begin to work on the structure of the city.


Life is good.

albeit...getting a little chilly...


2010. Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.