God's Social Media

People get very steamed up about politics, especially on social media. Somehow these two phenomena together make a very explosive cocktail. It's incredible actually. Daily, hourly even, you can see people on social media who claim to care passionately about something being exceedingly vicious and nasty to others who disagree with them, justifying their nastiness with their own agendas (they did XYZ so it's alright for me to.....)
The recent spate of very personal attacks on people in the media are an example. It goes something like this: I care very passionately about XXXX (fill in the blank) and because you do not, or because you have offended me or my beliefs, I have the right to attack and victimize you, possible ruining your career.

I really want to know how can this process, which goes on and on, possibly be of benefit to anyone? It is pure madness, simply substituting one victim for another, an endless dumping on those whom we judge to be worthy of whatever accumulated negativity we have.

Something about social media seems to fuel the mind-ego and its worst characteristics, such as the following:

• I'm always right, even when I'm wrong.
• I have to win or have the last word.
• XXXXXX (fill in the blank) means YYYYYY (fill in the blank)
• How dare they!
• I'm such a good righteous person with my beliefs and I can victimize you because......
• etc

You get the point. Who hasn't got caught up in a row with a stranger at some time on social media? Now, we see  increasingly the new technology, which has great potential for transformational tools and creativity, being hijacked by this ME-right mentality, instant judgement, trial by Twitter, opinion firing squad and so on. One  reason is its cheapness; it's much easier to engage in this kind of thing than write something original, or that has real insight.

Then of course there are the meme-posters, whose comforting tropes punctuate the vitriol and poison of the politicos. 'We are all one' or 'Give me the courage to accept....' etc seem to add a layer of cotton wool between the incisive but nasty stuff about who is to blame for all the world's ills.

Maybe God (or whomever) has given man/womankind social media as a test. Here is this wonderful tool and you could use it to light up the world with your ideas, to heal division and cross bridges, or you could use it to blame each other for what's wrong with your life, your world, deepen the division and destroy each other.

How can you hope to make a better world by being mean and vicious to someone with whom you disagree? I'm sorry, it just doesn't work.