I posted this photo on my Facebook page and it made quite a splash. Yes, I was being funny and, yes, I could see a political point being made by this shot. I am not naive. However, I got a response I would never have expected, a response that upset me.
Firstly, I discovered that in Facebook your posts can be seen by all sorts of people, people I do not even know. Secondly, I saw my friends who do not know each other connecting with each other but in ways I would prefer not to encourage. So what happened?
I had one I do not know coming in and expressing with great vitirol how the media is biased and how Trump is achieving. Another came in with equal vitirol opposing this person. I had one friend being insulted by another friend of mine (neither know each other) just becasue she signalled a dislike for Trump. My little Facebook world was becoming a battleground.
A friend being insulted through my posting really did upset me as the two are strangers and what was originally expressed was quite innocent. My friend who expressed an anti-Trump stance did not deserve the response she got from the other friend as it was just insulting. Why attack a stranger just because they express an opinion? What purpose do aggression and rudeness serve? What is to be achieved?
So this week, I am seeing in my small corner how divided and aggressive the west is becoming or has become, and I do not like it. This is the new norm I am hearing about. I have to say that it worries me as it is leading to a more divided world. It is an emerging reality in the west but what good will come out of it? People disagree and can do so robustly but there is no need to get aggressive and insulting. That is so counterproductive.
I have struck this behaviour before. It was when I was a parish priest. Some people in the parish did not like what I was doing. I was only doing my job and doing it as I judged best to do it but the opposing, conservative side in the parish came in with aggressive, personal attacks. There was no need for that and was totally unproductive, only creating more division and upset.
We live in a global village? What good is it serving if we abuse the opportunities it offers us for good? This I must ask after my Facebook experience of this past week. People are able to communicate with others all over the world and what do we do? We can use it for good or we can be destructive and hurl abuse at others who do not agree with us. Abuse happens where people come into a social medium to make political mileage by simply hitting others they disagree with over the head. They may not even know each other and probably never will. In a world that allows for greater connectedness, more people seem to use today's tools for communication to be more disconnected. These people do not want to engage anyone in dialogue but just make their point in anti-social ways in an anonymous environment where no one has to take responsibility for what they say. This is upsetting and achieves nothing but more harm in a world that needs more coming together. How sad and how unnecessary and what a waste of an opportunity!
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