Communication Today

In the days before telephones, people sent notes to each other.  The note usually had some kind salutation and some kind of polite sign-off. When they met in person, there was probably at least a handshake. And when they departed, they said goodbye which like so many languages had the word God in it. Good refers to God. Adios. Adieu, etc. Not that it matters to me. But it was just a polite expression. Letters written always had greetings and some form of well wishes. And then came the telephone and the tradition persisted to some degree: Hello? Good bye, Take care, see you soon and so on. There was ham radio with sign-ons and sign-offs. And then arose the digital age. E-mail still allows for such greetings and in fact I will still use some kind of greetings to friends, but treating it as a kind of informal letter writing communication. But now we have social media, where we have "friends, followers or following." There are rarely ever greetings. Just statements, contradictions, smart aleck retorts, smiley or weeping faces, emojis that are supposed to express among other things emotional feelings. There's a lot of one upmanship going on, so much so it seems like an endless competition. Yet these are our "friends."

We wonder or at least some wonder why the fabric of society is fraying. Whereas the digital age has done so much to move humanity, who could acquire such tools, forward by leaps and bounds, quantum leaps, so to speak. But at what cost? Civility? Politeness? True human social behavior? To my mind these small social conventions slowly disappearing are the equivalent to the kinds of social behavior, social animals require, grooming among primates is a good example. Without that kind of social behavior the clan (not Klan) or troop falls apart. Friends? Social adhesion? Now robotic behavior because a good portion of social media are robots and the humans can't tell the difference any more.

Winners and Losers

When there are winners there are always losers, so I have noted most of my life. 

However, let's take our country for example. Wars of our own making which we alone have started, we have not done so well in. Vietnam, for example, is a such a case. We lost. That war lasted unofficially from about 1954 when we inherited the situation from the French till 1975 when the last American left. I won't assault you with the numbers except for two: Democrats and Republicans. It started in a Republican administration, then a Democratic administration, another Democrat, a Republican and then one more Republican. Winners and Losers. Clearly we know who the winners are.

The 21st Century has Gulf War II which is in another part of the world and is another case in point. It included Afghanistan, Iraq and other Mideast countries by proxy, and  rages on in Syria and points west and is now almost 16 years old with no finale in sight. Don't ask me to explain why but it probably was precipitated by Gulf War I, which was fielded in a Republican administration but carried on through a Democratic one. Again I come up with two numbers, Democrats and Republicans. Gulf War II commenced in a full two term Republican Administration, then a full two term Democratic administration and now continues under a Republican Administration. So far not much has been won by anyone.We have plenty of losers.

Now Korea which is on everyone's lips again is an unusual case and in the proximity of Vietnam. The U.S. reacted to a North Korean invasion of South Korea which we were occupying at the time. And when the U.S. beat back the attack across the 38th parallel, we couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to push on into North Korea causing China to participate against us. The Korean War, though hostilities stopped early on but with no peace treaty, has lasted through 12 Presidential administrations and once again the important number is two: Democrats and Republicans. Not one has figured it out how to make peace. Will there be any winners and losers in the future in this spooky endeavor?  Nope just losers irradiating.

So out of my 3 examples no way I can say 2 out of 3 ain't bad. All I can say is that it's all bad and we're all losers. And with one exception there is a winner but at a horrific cost. But those two numbers Democrats and Republicans keep on rolling along and like Bart Simpson they all say "I didn't do it" while pointing fingers at each other and both act like they're winners. And like I said at the outset, when there are winners, there are losers even when the winners are imaginary.