Bleeding Edge

Only connect

Connecting to others as human beings is all this Life’s all about…

Yet we fail to realize it and live up to it.

We are generally barricaded behind walls of electronic communications, messaging, emails, and stand off relationships at arms length.

This causes a general isolation.

The rise of isolation, difficult socialization, and addiction is a generalized symptom of a deeper sickness in our advanced societies.

I make friends easily and yet these new found friends are always evaluating the benefits of the relationship as if it has only a business value as opposed to human value and often times under the weight of addiction to Googling the Reality in front of them instead of trusting their eyes.

And some of them, act like rabid dogs if things don’t manifest the way they imagined…

They transport the flaming experience of the net into the personal space of relationships at their own peril…

It appears that their addictions are part of the transference and reaction formation projected onto me. Sad…

It is evidenced by the way we live — always on, waiting, waiting … and then hastily responding to the next message arriving at the tone of the beep, that we are deeply conditioned to behave like stupid Automatons without Moral Compass or Logical Reasoning.

We are always on social media, email, and on our cellphones — yet we fail to be human even for a moment of much needed clarity for correct decisions.

Our social network connections number in the Thousands but our real friendships are nowhere near the number of our hands.

We are lonely and feeling increasingly disconnected and alienated at the same time that we are far more “connected” than ever before and yet other “real humans” are nowhere to be found.

We can create a meme and send it out to span the globe in twenty seconds, but if we need physical help we might never find it in real life.

Our digital live are marvels of involvement and cultural connections but we avoid intimacy at any cost.

When was the last time you got a hug from another person?

Our smartphones are getting increasingly smarter while we are getting increasingly dumber.

We use FB, Tinder, and Match, to connect and to go dating, but we are afraid to respond and carry a conversation if anyone speaks to us in the supermarket.

Our telephones are full of contacts yet we are playing games on them and sexting, instead of talking with each other.

Our houses are full of junk but our hearts are empty.

Our consumer habits are constantly growing and we are always directing our gaze towards the next shiny object we should buy, rather than the human beings all around us.

Consumption has become an addiction because our life has become so meaningless and soulless.

It is relevant to all of us, because it forces us to think differently about ourselves. Human beings are bonding animals. We are communal breeders. We are Social animals as aristotle strove to remind us.

We need to connect and love.

The wisest sentence of the twentieth century was E.M. Forster’s — “only connect.”

But we have created an environment and a culture that cuts us off from connection, or offers only a parody for it as that found on the Internet and today’s Antisocial Media and ultra-antisocial Networks.

The writer George Monbiot has called this “the age of loneliness.” We have created human societies where it is easier for people to become cut off from all human connections than ever before.

Bruce Alexander — the creator of Rat Park — says that for far too long, we have talked exclusively about individual recovery from the various forms of addiction bedevilling our lives.

We need now to have a public conversation and talk about social recovery — how we all recover, together, from the sickness of isolation that is falling upon us like a thick fog.

But this new evidence isn’t just a challenge to us personally, but a politically charged issue that encompasses our economic choices and our political alliances.

It’s an issue that is so powerful and toxic that doesn’t just force us to change our minds, but it causes a rethink of the foundations of our consumerist culture.

And mentally we understand it and we have our mind to account for it — but that’s not enough.

Yours,

Pano

PS:

It’s an issue so powerful and elemental, that it forces us to change our hearts.

So I follow the Axiom of E.M.Forster “only connect” and allow the chips to fall where they may.

You know the Good Ones will self select and declare themselves.

As for the Losers….