The Internet, the Devil and Society in Flux

As most of you have figured out, we have entered a challenging period in history, in the United States and around the world. America is extremely and painfully divided right now, much like it was in the 1960s. We have two Americas: Left and Right. As a result, friendships, relationships and families have been torn apart. Holidays have become contentious, book clubs broken up and marriages ending in divorce!

Numerous external threats also face our country, mainly from North Korea, Russia, China and ISIS. In North Korea, Kim Jong-Un is a murderous psychopath who keeps us all awake at night! Vladimir Putin, like Joseph Stalin, is very much the evil genius adept at geopolitics. China is striving to replace the United States as the world's superpower. An agent of pure madness, ISIS is the vilest terror group on the face of the earth! The results of these internal and external threats are negative emotions and paranoia that we all feel, threatening to tear our nation apart. 

 

People's lives are being disrupted and the resulting psychological problems are further eroding our institutions and our society at large. 2016 in America was a terrifying psycho-drama! Everyone is yelling and screaming at each other, making life unbearable. Adults even have trouble conducting themselves in public. We've had a troublesome history, are experiencing a rough present, but will eventually reach a positive, harmonious future. We've gone through difficult periods before in this country, and have come out the other side. I'm confident that we will be able to do it again.

Today, there are fault lines of social and political division. Race is tearing much of this nation apart. Various regions are at odds with each other. Each region could really become its own country and individuals from one region don't even want to visit some other regions. I, for one, wouldn't want to visit Alabama right now, with Roy Moore headed for the U.S. Senate from that state. Since 2000, the gulf between Red States and Blue States has only widened and deepened, as the Florida recounts now seem like a kumbaya moment!

There is also an urban/rural divide that is a mile wide and cannot be crossed. A 10-minute drive will transport you to a whole new world. For this reason, there are sometimes culture clashes in both urban and suburban areas. As examples, bikers sometimes visit hippie novelty shops and left-wing activists visit suburban mega-churches.

Small-town America contrasts with diverse, cosmopolitan cities. It includes the divide between country music and punk rock. I'm an anomaly in that I consider myself a bohemian, but also like a country song from time to time, especially if it's Johnny Cash! In suburban battlegrounds, the past battles the future for domination of the present. The solution is to learn from the past, while formulating a pragmatic plan for the future.

Worst of all, political ideology exploits these divisions with emotional intensity. This is the San Andreas Fault of social division! Politics is the key to one’s identity, because politics is about people and the issues that matter to them. That is why politics is such a difficult topic, the third rail of public conversation. In today’s world, politics is a catalyst that pits groups of people against each other. Politics has become a blood sport worthy of the Roman gladiators.

We in this country now behave like Israelis and Palestinians. Republicans and Democrats don’t want to talk to each other, or even to see each other. This creates awkward situations in public places, such as sidewalks, coffee shops, bars and libraries. Our daily lives have become stressful and intolerable.

Hateful ideologies make unity and cooperation impossible, especially in the near term. Hatred and intolerance cannot be tolerated, due to the threat that they pose, so both sides need to remain separated, often by a buffer zone. This is most unfortunate, though. This is why street protests descend into chaos!

The national mood is one of decadence and decay, creating fear and anger. Many people today are afraid, fearing others and events that may take place in the future. Fear always causes people to overreact, and often paralyzes them, preventing them from going about their day-to-day lives. Others are angry, causing distress in their emotional lives. People are lashing out, getting irritated and showing very little patience. Hate is gaining ground, so people are looking for excuses to lash out at others.

Hatred is the most destructive emotion of all, especially when directed toward groups of innocent people. Hatred always leads to violence and misery; that is why it is to be avoided at all costs! Hatred had been festering beneath the surface for decades, was enhanced and exposed by the 2016 presidential election, and is now making civil society impossible.

Also, this is an era of extreme self-indulgence, with the individual winning out over the community. Self-indulgence, in its essence, is generally good thing, as long as it's not too destructive. We can enjoy the pleasures of life without destroying other people. For this reason and others, I do not believe that Hugh Hefner is burning in hell!

These shared feelings have their cultural fruits, for good or ill. Fear has led many people to own and carry firearms. Anger has led to aggressive driving, putting us all in peril. You never feel safe crossing the street, even in a crosswalk! I’ve almost been run over a number of times, and I know several people who have been hit by cars - always victims of hit-and-run situations. Many drivers today have the attitude that they'll run over any pedestrian that gets in their way, and then take off before police arrive!

Hatred has led to a rise in violent crime, including a greater number of hate crimes. We now have a rash of mass shootings, terrorist attacks and individuals terrorizing racial and religious minorities, through "trolling" on the Internet and in person. This a very real problem with neo-Nazis and white supremacists attacking people across the country. This has been spawned by the hateful rhetoric of individuals like Richard B. Spencer, David Duke and Matt Heimbach.

 Finally, unlimited self-indulgence has created America's crisis of personal debt. In America, we have an epidemic of credit card debt, families buying cars and houses that are too expensive and gargantuan student loans. It is an attitude of "buy now and spend later." It’s really a lack of personal responsibility.

In our world, the Internet is acting as a catalyst for change. Romantic love has changed as people look for sex and relationships online. The "hookup generation" has become the "adultery generation!" Marriage is becoming obsolete, replaced by a serious of supremely satisfying sexual liaisons. There is something positive to these changes, though, because we as a people can finally overcome the repressive Puritanical sexual mores of our past. That is why it is good that individuals such as Dr. Alfred Kinsey and Hugh Hefner have challenged America's Puritan excesses. Sex is not evil, it is natural!

Another effect of the Internet is that our private lives have been made public. Many people no longer have their dark secrets, but share all their vices and prejudices with the entire world! If you talk to a person for 5 minutes, and then add them on Facebook, you get to learn their political leanings, see vacation pictures of them, learn about their stool samples, get to know who all their friends are and see what their children look like. This reality does facilitate social interaction and create new friendships and relationships. It also, however, gives Big Brother the tools to keep tabs on each citizen. Luckily, social media also gives us the tools to criticize the government and influence public opinion.

Due to the prominence of the Internet, local trends and fads spread very rapidly through the global population. These include sayings, goofy memes, and things such as "twerking." Miley Cyrus popularized twerking and, soon, everyone was doing this on social media! There are varieties of human behavior and the Internet accelerates these differences to a fever pitch. This confuses people, overwhelms them and sometimes leads them to withdraw from meaningful social interactions. Either they withdraw or they act out inappropriately, reverting to the lowest common denominator of human behavior.

 

Mankind has two natures: its aggressive nature and its social nature. Man's basic human nature always reigns supreme, no matter what era or society we are talking about. There are only so many variations on animal human behavior. In our era, however, we may be returning to a "state of nature," a more primitive form of existence that is worthy of prehistoric man. Our aggressive nature is based upon our drive for survival and reproduction.

Aggression has a major, necessary evolutionary role in human society, though it's excesses cause all of us problems, whether it be verbal or physical aggression. This excess of physical aggression is manifest by fistfights and shoving in public places, along with the threat of violence or physical confrontation. The sex drive is part of our aggressive nature and unfortunately can be tied in with acts of both verbal and physical aggression.

Our social nature also preserves the human race, as well as our daily lives. It ensures our survival as a group, especially when facing an uncertain and dangerous world. Our social nature also makes life worth living and separates us from the other animals. It was this that held prehistoric tribes together in a time of constant danger.

Both of these natures conflict with each other. We can't let either nature win, or we will all be unhappy. We face the extremes of either letting other people walk all over us, or of completely disregarding everything that is good and beautiful in life. The wisest people steer the middle course, sticking to the double yellow line of moderation. This conflict creates confusion in our daily lives, as our ids are constantly in battle with our egos and superegos. In this way, I am a Freudian!

Despite the fear and despair some of us feel - and the other factors coming together to change society, there are difficult solutions we can find to create a hopeful future for our world. Vices are not as dangerous as the threat posed by unbridled aggression. Vices are fun and necessary, but unbridled aggression will end mankind's existence on this planet. I'd rather deal with a man who drinks and womanizes than one who is chaste and sober, but nasty, violent and bigoted! We can solve the world's problems by creating a new social contract, thus preserving all of our human societies.

In this way, I side with Thomas Hobbes, writer of the Leviathan, in the hope that life won't become "short, brutish and nasty." The old social contract is breaking down, so we need a new one in order to survive as a society. I'm sure that we will be able to do this, so our shared future will improve over the next 10 to 20 years, or so.