Foreigners and Social Media

 

During the Covid era I spent much time in Costa's, finding it therapeutic. With Kindle in hand I felt free to make posts on a Forum site, the subject whatever came to mind given the latest news. Here are a couple of my posts, the first made in response to reports that the UK Government was determined to reduce, or even halt entirely, the number of asylum seekers reaching our shores.  Such reports included various ideas being considered, such as giant wave machines designed to waft the dinghies of the refugees back to the French shore, or the use of giant nets. Well, whatever the truth of such ideas, I made the following post on the Forum:-

Irrespective of the claims of many (the "I'm not a racist but" brigade) it was the subject of immigration that won the EU Referendum in the UK. The "we beat 'em twice in the war (i.e. Germany) and STILL they tell us what to do" argument that resonates with the Brexit faithful.

We are all immigrants: it simply depends how far back you go. As any who know our history are aware, Britain has "absorbed foreign genes since it was first discovered by continental wanderers." And to the advantage of all - this beyond dispute.

When it suits the cry goes up "we are a Christian nation" but exactly what does that mean? That we welcome the stranger as Christians are instructed to do in the book none of them read? Well, no. More "Charity begins at home"......now THAT'S more like it!

Alas, I feel more and more alienated in my own country.

Reading recently........"It is strangely easy to forget that immigrants are often, and by definition, entrepreneurial risk-takers and rule-flouters, with a keen sense of individual liberty. The big idea of globalisation, for instance, is that the world should uproot the barriers to the free flow of trade. Yet few of the world’s richest countries are happy to extend this freedom to the free flow of labour. Goods, services, capital – these must be allowed to run free. But people must be shackled at all costs."

So, shackle the people. Let the money flow free.

A second post was made regarding some words by another that was concerned about the bias creeping into the Social Media sites. Sitting in Costa's I was in slightly frivolous mood and had no real idea exactly where my post would take me. But here it is:-

Safely (well, as safe as can be these days, as my local lockdown level switches from Tier 1 to Tier 2) sitting in Costa's I can give vent to yet another load of drivel as I sip my extra-hot cappuccino. (I must say, standards are slipping even here. Often I would get a nice heart shaped dose of chocolate sprinkles, or maybe - my favorite - a frog. Now its just a blob, possible some sort of Rorschach test, who knows?) Anyway, where was I?

Good luck with sorting out our Social Media, deciding exactly where the bias is to be found and who is initiating it. It seems that early on certain groups sought to use its potential for spreading their own various versions of "truth". Then the Social Media giants sought to counter the misuse. Now they, in seeking to do this, are themselves accused of their very own bias. So it goes on. 

As I see it, our own bias will determine much of how we decipher the current situation. We are all complicit in the various modes of distortion of the world around us. First as innocents, new born, then taking our very own modes of conditioning, unquestioned, draping them on the world around us - with the cry of "it stands to reason", "it's simple common sense", or "it speaks for itself". Well, it doesn't actually but no worries.

Here is where I seek to add gravitas to this waffle by a bit of name dropping. Immanuel Kant made the observation that humans are beings who ask themselves questions that they are ultimately unable to answer. Heidegger that "we are the beings who interpret"......this in the sense of who we ARE not simply as what we do on occasion.

The world is not a given that "stands to reason". Facts are there to be interpreted. There are no guarantees. Another philosopher, Wittgenstein, asserted that "meaning" as such was not so much "found", more we have to show it, this by our lives, our actions, our words.

It is a tough task. Instead of basking in our very own indubitable "truth" that "stands to reason" and is "self evident", we must risk error, be vulnerable, and more, listen to the voice of the "other" who have their own truth.

Easy perhaps to cop out. To look to a "world to come" where The Truth will be awarded to the "chosen ones", this world, here, now, discarded. But if we choose to value this world, and if we choose to insist that all are chosen, then our life can take on infinite meaning, infinite potential.

Well, that is how I see it. Maybe it is the coffee talking.

That is it. Two posts. Perhaps not worth salvaging. But I enjoy expressing myself.