A culture of “democratic cleansing” – Elders and youngsters versus respect

The generation born between 1930 and 1960 had no choice but to listen to father‘s law and do as we were told.

Father’s will is Law!

When we asked

Why?

We got a very short but very well to understand answer.

Therefore!

Now those generations from before the 1960s have become the “oldies”.

We live with the thought that we taught some good and interesting things to our kids, but sometimes seem to wonder what they did with what we taught them and what went wrong with the present generation.

What did we do wrong?

For sure, though we did not always agree with our parents, and dared to go on the streets in 1968 to question our way of living and our society, we always still showed respect for our parents and grandparents. In many cases, there were no great-grandparents. Our grandparents, to us, looked already

so old

at an age that we now already survived a few years.

Unlike our parents, we taught our children to dare to question everything and not just accept or consider everything.

John Humphrys in the Daily Telegraph of 26 December 2022 wonders if he perhaps had a ridiculous dream.

Well yes, and a bit of a nightmare too. I can’t think of anything much worse than my kids sitting in respectful silence while I bang on.

At home and at school we learned courtesy rules. But what is left of it? Some of the things we learned, such as keeping the door open for ladies, are not always anymore appreciated but are viewed as a sexist attitude.

Humphrys writes

If I’ve taught them anything at all – pretty unlikely I know – it’s that healthy scepticism beats the pants off reverence. Always has. Always will.

And yet… maybe just the teeniest smattering of respect might not come amiss? Possibly not boys doffing their caps to ladies in the street as my school ordered us do. After all, who wears caps nowadays? (And is ‘ladies’ sexist? What if they’re trans?)

But perhaps an acknowledgement that we oldies just might have picked up some useful stuff during our decades of experience on this planet that could come in useful? That’s tricky in today’s climate. Just that word “experience” is fraught. It has to be a “lived” experience now and I’m not sure I know what that is.

We have also been brought up to check the past and present and to seek the truth each time.

Our parents taught us that if we did not know something, we should go and look it up in the encyclopaedias provided. Those writers were expected to have undergone sufficient schooling and presented well-founded articles under editorial authority to inform the reader and provide further knowledge. We found it great to find such reference works that contained information on all branches of knowledge or that treated a particular branch of knowledge in a comprehensive manner.

For more than 2,000 years encyclopaedias have existed as summaries of extant scholarship in forms comprehensible to their readers. But in the last two decades, we saw several well-known encyclopaedias disappearing from the market.

At our house, the 1968 Encyclopaedia Britannica, as the oldest English-language general encyclopaedia, was just one of the many other encyclopaedias we could use daily.

The researchers and authors and publishers of encyclopaedias had to face technological changes, beginning in the 1980s with the development and spread of personal computers. It really became a world that opened up, making it possible to look up documents from all over the world. The computer business evolved so fast, quickening in the 1990s and 2000s through the Internet and widespread diffusion of broadband access, it radically altered the publishing world generally and the encyclopaedia business in particular.

The 15th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1974), was designed in large part to enhance the role of an encyclopaedia in education and understanding without detracting from its role as a reference book. It represented very much the way we were brought up, finding it necessary to educate and to spread knowledge. Its three parts (Propædia, or Outline of Knowledge; Micropædia, or Ready Reference and Index; and Macropædia, or Knowledge in Depth) represented an effort to design an entire set on the understanding that there is a circle of learning and that an encyclopaedia’s short informational articles on the details of matter within that circle as well as its long articles on general topics must all be planned and prepared in such a way as to reflect their relation to one another and to the whole of knowledge.
For those who wanted to learn more or wished to delve deeper into a particular fact or topic, the Propædia became a great help for self-study. The propaedia was a reader’s version of the circle of learning on which the set had been based and was organised in such a way that a reader might reassemble in meaningful ways material that the accident of alphabetisation had dispersed.

In 1981, under an agreement with Mead Data Central, the first digital version of the Encyclopædia Britannica was created for the LexisNexis service. In the early 1990s Britannica was made available for electronic delivery on a number of CD-ROM-based products, including the Britannica Electronic Index and the Britannica CD (providing text and a dictionary, along with proprietary retrieval software, on a single disc). A two-disc CD was released in 1995, featuring illustrations and photos; multimedia, including videos, animations, and audio, was added in 1997.

John Humphrys seems to find it a waste of money that his parents scrimped to pay a weekly shilling to the Encyclopaedia Britannica door-to-door salesman so that they as kids would always have the world’s knowledge at their fingertips.

He gives the impression that those modern machines and the evolution of artificial intelligence is one of the many reasons why respect between the generations matters.

We do admit that many young people do not understand how the elderly can or cannot handle today’s modern gadgets.

Millennials (born 1981-1996) tend to put the boomers (born post-war) into a category. Specifically, men. Usually “old white men”.

How come that usage is tolerated? Substitute “women” for men and it wouldn’t be. It would be sexist. Substitute “black” for white and it would be racist.

He observes

Those who once wore the badge of old age with a certain pride must now carefully guard their tongues less they cause offence, even when it’s patently obvious that none was intended. Was it necessary to humiliate Lady Susan Hussey when she was seemingly too curious about the origins of a black woman who was wearing a vivid tribal dress? Her offence, it turned out, was being old.

Getting old happens to all of us. How we deal with it is very different. But it is also very different from how outsiders deal with elders.
Especially in recent years, there has been an unpleasant skew there, with many viewing elders as a burden.
Similarly, few can empathise with the world of understanding of those elders who have been brought up with certain ways of thinking, some of which are also sometimes difficult to distance themselves from or continue to think stereotypically.

We all pursue dreams and shall one day be confronted with that older body, becoming aware that there is not only a tendency to forget people’s names, but having more than once looking for the right words, having forgotten (for a moment) certain things. And then in confrontation with the youngsters, they not always understand or want to give some time to get the memory back.

For some elderly it is also not evident to have to rely on others. And the children are not so pleased anymore to be a safety net for their parents, as we looked after our parents when they were already starting to reach a reasonable age. Some may be annoyued that those above 65 do not want to retire. It might be those in their 60s whose mind is fooling them in which case they will rely on others around them to let them know that it is time to retire.

How many times do those who passed the 50s have to hear from the youngsters that their ideas are old fashioned or that they are not anymore from these times? Many younger people find it not appropriate that the elderly are still pursuing ideas and aspirations. Is it a form of respect to accepting that they express their feelings as well as their dreams and aspirations?

Most young people don’t sense time as being a high-speed train, because for them it often looks ages, before there is another hour, another day. That makes them also to express their impatience so often. But then again, the fact that some elders become a bit too slow bothers those younger ones, in that it seems that that time is taken up by that elder, who then keeps them from renewing moments. Some younger ones do not mind letting the older ones know that it is time to retreat, or to get silent.

At a certain age, it can be that we feel that there has come a time we need to withdraw from the hurly-burly of the life we once knew. But it does not always feel so nice, when those younger people say it in our face. (We never would have dared to say such a thing to our elderly.)

In his book, The War On The Old, English literature professor John Sutherland wrote about what he called a culture of “democratic cleansing… a state-condoned campaign against the nation’s old”.

He describes an overwhelming sense of blame that younger generations attribute to “the wrinklies” who voted for Brexit, comfortable in the mansions they bought for a pittance. The once-dignified badge of seniority is becoming synonymous with “narrow-minded”, “outdated” and “incipiently senile”.
The elderly are bed-blockers, job-blockers, pension-drainers. {We used to respect our elders – whatever happened to that? by John Humphrys}

Normally, one went from one generation to the next with improvements, but today that no longer holds true. Today’s 30-year-olds have it much harder than their parents did. The age-old argument over which generation has had more advantages has been settled – at least where finances are concerned.

Adult life is harder to afford now than it was 30 years ago and it has forced today’s young to delay big life events, which tend to happen around this milestone age. Today’s generation are buying their first home two years later, having ­children three years later and getting married six to seven years later than they were in 1992. {Six reasons why boomers have it better than millennials by Jessica Beard}

Due to the pressures of the outside world, those in their twenties and thirties may have become a bit “shorter” in their statements, and it is not always easy for them to be patient with those older people who are, as it were, still watching them or ready with criticism.

Dependence on two earners can make taking time off to care for children ­trickier, and to care for older people, even more, trickier or not so wanted. So it should not always be viewed so negatively by the elderly when those young people now show a little less time than their parents who could make more time for their parents and grandparents.

Many today are so engrossed in their work and the expectations of fellow peers that they have little time left outside their work sphere for their own spiritual formation, religious pursuits and many family activities outside their own families.

It can well be that certain actions and reactions of youngsters are sometimes unjustly interpreted as respectless, or not showing enough respect. It must not be disrespectful, but just because of these other times with much more pressure on the youngsters, that the gap between young and old has widened somewhat today compared to previous decades.

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Preceding

A more recent discrimination: Old Age

A Cranky Old Man

Readers, likes and comments

Thought on the birthday of an encyclopaedia

Available information for the youngsters and readers of my websites

Redeeming Our World

The Way You Live Your Life

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang

Mishmash of a legal code but importance of mitzvah or commandments

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Additional reading

1. Ageing and Solidarity between generations
2. Who is considered Old
3. Man in picture, seen from the other planets
4. Subcutaneous power for humanity 1 1940-1960 Influenced by horrors of the century
5. Justififiable anger or just anarchism
6. A trillion words
7. Looking at an era of international “youth culture”
8. Did the picture change for Working dads
9. Living in this world and viewing it
10. Hippies, a president, a damaged ozone layer and knights
11. This Week Twenty-Five Years Ago: The Velvet Revolution Succeeds, December 1989
12. Our brothers in Kyiv’s northwest suburb Irpin
13. Russia not wanting it neighbours countries to cooperate with the West
14. Left behind for economical emigration
15. 2014 Social contacts
16. 2014 Human Rights
17. Time to consider how to care for our common home
18. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #7 Education
19. Martin Luther King’s Dream Today
20. This fighting world, Zionism and Israel #5
21. Another Jewish Voice on Trump’s plan: No peace without equality and mutual respect
22. The truest greatness lies in being kind
23. Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
24. Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians
25. Cleanliness and worrying or not about purity
26. Today’s thought “Teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others” (December 09)
27. Perspectives
28. Hungarian undermining of European freedoms

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Related

1. A reflective Morning
2. Time Hobbles On
3. Beautiful, she said
4. I am old.
5. Learning to be Old–5
6. The effects of just being you… Age.
7. When You Grow Old
8. The Age Old Question…
9. Ageism in the workplace
10. Life is Short
11. Pursuing dreams to stay young in mind
12. What We Need, in Order to, Age Gracefully
13. I Can’t Breath Through It All
14. Thirty Five Years and Old.
15. How to be Old
16. 75 And Counting
17. Age 90+
18. Stillness
19. Dealing with Age Discrimination: Workers’ rights and strategies
20. “The best gift you can give your children, is the love and respect you demonstrate for their mother.”
21. Respect for life…
22. … the taste of respect
23. life will teach you to honor and respect balance.
24. I do respect people’s faith
25. High recognitions . . . Honor and respect them, though you no longer worship them
26. Paris attacks darkning the world
27. Holidays break – Day 7

What 2022 brought to us and looking forward to 2023

Liberation

Lots of people thought 2022 would be the year of liberating us from that terrible virus which got the world in its grip. Though not a liberation became several people on their part, an even more senseless killing ‘disease’ came unto Europe.

The leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who would love to find a renewed Soviet Union, said at the beginning of the year he would bring liberation to the Ukrainians. Instead, his “bloodstained” tyranny plunged Europe into the war on a scale not seen since 1945 as Russian troops advanced on Kyiv on Thursday night, February 24th.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is shocking and disgraceful. It is the latest terrible aggression by the Putin regime and the latest damaging conflict in our world, with so many people being killed or injured, losing loved ones and seeing their homes destroyed.

2022 has been a tough year to navigate, with a series of political and economic crises that continue to shape our world.

One powerful man

Who could have ever imagined that one man, from up north, would single-handedly turn the world upside down? However, he has succeeded very well in not only bringing black snow over several people, and literally turning the landscape blood-red, he has severely disrupted economic life in several countries.

Following two long pandemic years – with many still experiencing the effects – we’ve witnessed the outbreak of war in Ukraine and could feel in our purse how it affects us also in our region. We cannot ignore this war that has affected many citizens. At our new WordPress Site “Some View on the World” we have given a voice to those suffering in the conflict as well as reporting the situation on the ground and providing the expertise needed to understand geopolitics.

Picturing what is happening in the world

As best we can, we try to give a picture of what is happening in the world on the continuation of “Our World“. 2022 was another year of figuring out how we would be able to keep up with bringing political and religious news alongside our other spiritual websites. We hope to find that balance further in 2023.

By nature, I am not an easy person and have dared to clash several times by speaking my mind outright. Even in the articles, I publish here and on my other websites, my thinking is based on my personal opinion. One can agree or disagree with that view. I, therefore, appreciate that people also dare to express their opinions. But in general, there is a little reaction in that area. Still, I hope the articles brought, can make people think. For instance, I was happy to find that my op-eds on Christmas in the Daily Telegraph were able to bring a debate after all.

Hoping to expose wrongdoings

With the news we place at Some View on the World we do hope we also could be able to expose the mistreatment and deaths of migrant workers in Qatar for almost a decade as well as other wrong attitudes towards people as well as animals and plants. At my personal site and this site as well, in particular on “Some View on the World” we continue to bear witness to the climate crisis as it destroys lives, uproots whole communities and changes the course of our shared future. We hope for 2023 to be able to bring regular news about our environment.

The fallout from the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump’s presidency could get our attention, and we hold our hearts for the intentions of Mr Trump, wanting to come back as president of the U.S.A..

Independence of my websites

For all the reporting we do here, and on my other websites, I would like to remind you, readers, that there is no financial support from companies anywhere and that all reporting is based on personal and independent reporting, where I keep searching for this site among texts that appear on the net what could possibly be fascinating for you to read as well, and thus to reblog them here.

2022 could bring lots of blogs on the net of which we presented some selections over here too. At Firefox several could find their way into ‘Pocket’, like: Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, How to Want Less, A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory, Why You Should Really Stop Charging Your Phone Overnight, A Guide to Getting Rid of Almost Everything, a.o. most read.

Uncovering and unravelling

Whether on social, political or religious issues, we are eager to seek the truth and expose false reports. Exposing wariness is not always appreciated, but is very important in our view. To do that, we can count on several investigative journalists and some newspapers to join in the pursuit of that muddle, so that together we can make certain things known to the world while others would rather see them covered up.

At Some View on the World we have maintained round-the-clock coverage from several places, not always bringing nice news, like mass graves of Bucha, Izium and many war crimes.

The war accelerated a global economic slump, sending costs soaring, throttling energy supplies and raising the spectre of blackouts, malnutrition and a winter of discontent across dozens of countries. As global food supplies fluctuated, we reported on the hunger gripping the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan. In 2022, it became impossible to ignore those victims in poorer countries. But sadly, we had to observe how little the public cared about those people living far from their homes. And closer, many did not wish to have refugees, so we could speak of a refugee crisis again this year.

Here in Belgium, the influx of refugees seems completely uncontrollable and many, even with small children, shamefully had to sleep outside several nights through rain and wind. This while in Great Britain, the reception was also not going smoothly and people started looking for a housing solution in Rwanda, and proceeded to deportations.

Condition of mother earth

A lot of people do not want to realise that things are very bad for Mother Earth. To this, in 2022, several scientists again tried to make it clear to the world that we need to think seriously about this and take action. We were confronted with UK’s hottest summer, a very early and long great Summer in Belgium, drought in Europe, and the accompanying fires.

Heating the houses became for many difficult to keep in the household budget. It looked like mother nature felt the pressure on the energy market, as well. Everywhere in Europe, we had extremely high temperatures for the time of year. In Belgium 2022 became the warmest year since measurements.

The climate emergency ran as a constant thread through much of our Some View on the World journalism in 2022.

While many European countries were suffering from a shortage of water, they had it in other countries, like Pakistan, too much. Devastating floods in Pakistan, encountering one of its worst natural catastrophes, Sydney’s wettest year on record, ferocious heatwaves in the US southwest and the costliest Atlantic hurricane for years, could catch our attention.

At Cop27 in Egypt, the Guardian asked the tough questions. Though, we did not give so much attention to the changing tactics of activists, now more likely to throw soup at a painting as they are to glue themselves to a public highway.

Uprising

In my view, many other protests could get our attention earlier, as they were carried out in a more correct way. Coming from a not expected corner, sparked by the death in custody of a young woman, Mahsa Amini.

Once again, we were able to conclude in Afghanistan and Iran that there is no improvement in human rights yet. The Iranian authorities tightly control reporting inside the country, so we counted on the teams of the Guardian to redouble efforts to reach protagonists to tell their stories. Social media remained also important for this, so it was satisfying to see the Guardian Instagram video on why Iranians are risking everything for change reach more than 2 million viewers.

It is impossible for me to have news sources everywhere, which is why we must also call on professional companies, for which we must also pay. Financial aid is therefore very welcome to cover these expenses. Nevertheless, we try to be as aware as possible of the general events, for which we also make further use of the known news channels and reliable TV channels and newspapers.

United States debacle

In terms of exposure, it was imperative to look at the Trumpists who still claim high and low that the US elections were forged.

The country which was formed on the idea that it could be a free world where everybody could express himself freely and would not be bounded by limitations through a government, in 2022 came to see deep political divisions, caused by a man who as 45th president of the U.S.A. did mutiny on that state and brought democracy in danger. His party made the ongoing climate crisis and racial, economic and health inequalities worsened. It was impossible to ignore the fallout from the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as his willingness to come back as president.

The repeal of Roe v Wade provided a divisive backdrop to the November midterm elections. The conservative, or better said, the extremist Christians in the U.S., made it possible that women lost even the right to their own bodies. They also did not want to give an eye for mother nature nor for all those poor Americans who have no house or anywhere to live except on the streets, where many in the last weeks of the year found their dead by Winter storm Elliott. Buffalo got the worst hit by that bomb cyclone.

Political storms

In 2022 there were more significant elections in America which caught our attention. In Brazil, there were an anxious few weeks as Jair Bolsonaro wanted to do like his friend Trump, saying the votes were falsified. Finally, he suffered a chastening defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who completed a comeback from prison to the presidential palace.

To our annoyance, we in northern Europe had to observe an inverse movement towards South America. The far right in Sweden, Italy and Israel, could get most seats in parliament. Despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. She is clear evidence that go-getters win. In October last year, after Brothers of Italy managed to draw votes away from the Northern League in its northern strongholds in local elections, a secret recording revealed Matteo Salvini hitting out at Meloni, calling her a “pain in the ass”.

In Belgium, too, the newspapers disguised several polls, clearly showing that the right is making a strong rise and where voices can already be heard that NVA will have to make the choice to form a majority coalition with Vlaams Belang.

As for British politics, prime ministers came and went with alarming regularity and the nation buried the pound, Queen Elizabeth and its global standing in quick succession. For 10 days in September, the future of the monarchy dominated the newsroom. The crazy game of the English conservatives who wanted their leader to put his capsones under the benches and to ask the people to stay at home because of Corona and not to have parties seemed to think it normal that their leader could do that and lie about it too. The whole world could laugh at the blunders of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, while the British citizen seemed not to mind. In any case, they did not demand new elections and left it to the Tory members to elect the new prime minister.

In Australia Labour could note a historic federal election victory.

Economical storms

The struggle between Russia and Ukraine is also a struggle between the Putin regime and Western Europe.

The war accelerated a global economic slump, sending costs soaring, throttling energy supplies and raising the spectre of blackouts, malnutrition and a winter of discontent across dozens of countries. But we also noticed that certain companies were abusing the war in Ukraine to raise their prices.

Cereals and gas were not released enough by blockades from the Russians, which caused major food problems, especially in Africa. In Western Europe we felt our energy prices skyrocket due to the pressure on the export and import markets. In Belgium, it took forever for the government to take measures to mitigate the costs of its citizens. After several months of calls by the Labour Party PvdA/PtB to reduce VAT to 6% and by their appeals to the public to put pressure on the government, things finally came to a head.

Health matters

2022 received big leaps forward for Alzheimer’s treatments, bowel cancer prevention and understanding depression.

In several countries there was joy that people could come together again to party and that the elderly should no longer be separated from their children and grandchildren. The lockdown had made it very clear how important personal contact is. It was striking how in 2022 teenagers and twens still had many psychological difficulties, which were not resolved. Bad enough, many could not be admitted in time, causing unnecessarily too many young people to die, while this could have been avoided.

Post-pandemic in Europe in danger

For months Europe tried to combat Covid-19. We started the annual overview with the relaxation of the Corona measures. But at the end of December, they now appear to be endangered because Europe does not want to take strict measures for the Chinese who are now allowed by their government to travel outside China again, which will allow them to spread the increased disease further outside China. With the coming Chinese New Year, they could start a new pandemic as in Belgium, it started in Antwerp.

For much of the world, a sort of post-pandemic normality has resumed – with one striking exception: the country where it all began. Chinese leaders faced a rapid spread of public anger caused by their draconian Covid lockdown policy. Only after some activists could ignite a revolt against the lockdown and more people joined them on the streets, even coming to shout to get rid of the Chinese leader and communist party, the government got seriously afraid and eased the lockdown measures. After they had done that another hell broke down, the virus rapidly spreading and killing so many people the mortuaries could not handle it anymore.

While the Chinese seem to be in the first Corona wave, as it were, the rest of the world has gotten out over time and everyone is now looking forward to a shock-free 2023.

We too look forward to an ending of the war in Ukraine and to a peaceful solution between Kosovo and Serbia.

At Some View of the World and at my other personal Space, we shall try to bring you up-to-date news of the happenings in the world, and here on this website, we hope we shall still be able to offer you and share with you, some worthwhile articles to read in this coming New Year.

 

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A sincere thank you to our readers and supporters – wherever you are in the world,
we wish you a wonderful end to 2022 and an optimistic 2023.

°°°

In case you like our work,
do not forget that we always can use your support.

To help us defray the costs
any gift is welcome at
Bankaccount: Giro: BE37 9730 6618 2528
BIC: ARSPBE22
With mention: support websites

For which we thank you wholeheartedly

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Additional reading

1. G7 agreed to ban or phase out Russian oil and gas imports
2. 2022 the year of fearing some wars

The growth of Wikipedia

Words and data to look for

For some years now, voluntary writers make the effort to provide enough serious information for all people to find for free on the net.

We have hardback copies and a subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica and provide links to it on our articles so that people also can find more information on subjects. Some of our writers also contribute to articles on the multilingual free online encyclopedia (or encyclopaedia) Wikipedia, started in 2001, to which our readers also can find additional links. It is a fantastic enterprise, that operates under an open-source management style and allows everyone to find sufficient background information on multiple topics.

Nupedia, the beginning of a free online English-language encyclopaedia

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine Nupedia 2003

Homepage of Wikipedia, which runs on MediaWiki, one of the most popular wiki software packages

Perhaps inspired by objectivist “openness,” Jimmy Wales, a successful bond trader, founded a free online English-language encyclopaedia called Nupedia, which sought free contributions from scholars and other experts and subjected them to an intensive peer-review process. Frustrated by the slow progress of this project, Wales and Nupedia’s editor in chief, Larry Sanger, in 2001 turned to a new technology, a type of software called wiki, created by American computer programmer Ward Cunningham, to create Wikipedia, a companion encyclopaedia site that anyone could contribute to and edit.

Wiki software and Wikipedia

As a feature of Nupedia.com Wikipedia entered the world of the internet on January 15, 2001, but, following objections from the advisory board, got relaunched as an independent Web site a few days later. The Wiki engines allowed content to be written using a simplified markup language, sometimes edited with the help of a rich-text editor. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described wiki as

“the simplest online database that could possibly work”

It was incredible to see how many enthusiastic writers from all over the world could bring some 20,000 articles in 18 languages, including French, German, Polish, Dutch, Hebrew, Chinese, and Esperanto its first year. In 2003 Nupedia was terminated and its articles moved into the non-profit effort Wikipedia.

By 2006 the English-language version of Wikipedia had more than one million articles, and by the time of its 10th anniversary in 2011 it had surpassed 3.5 million.

The only regret we have to note is that too many readers insist that Wikipedia tells THE truth and that everything it says would really be so. They don’t realise that over the years certain writers have repeatedly taken advantage of it, to sell disinformation or totally untrue matters as well-founded. Luckily, several writer-readers are willing to invest their time to control the added articles so that individuals who will maliciously attempt to thwart the open-source website Wikipedia by introducing false or misleading content, shall be unmasked and excluded from the system. Rather than worrying about every user’s actions and intentions, proponents of wiki software rely on their community of users to edit and correct what are perceived to be errors or biases. The good thing about having continuous writers make additions and corrections is that the encyclopaedia can be kept very up-to-date. Very quickly, necessary background information can thus be delivered to the inquisitive public. Although such a system is certainly far from foolproof, wikis stand as an example of the origin of an Internet counterculture that has a basic assumption of the goodness of people.

The website’s coverage of the events of the day and controversial topics such as American politics and major events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has received substantial media attention and has exposed weaknesses as the system’s strengths.

Wikipedia pages on female and minority scientists and engineers

It is incredible how many people use Wikipedia and trust it for its information. But one must realise that it is not an all-explanatory work that also does not reflect all information correctly balanced all the time.

Jessica Wade in 2017

Jess Wade a British physicist in the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London, specialising in Raman spectroscopy. noticed she could not find any information on Wikipedia about some very important people.

In 2017 after meeting American climatologist and professor Kim Cobb she wanted to know more about her and went on Wikipedia to be astonished not to find an entry on that very young but also a good professor and publisher with over 100 peer-reviewed publications in major journals.

Having the idea that Wikipedia is “used by pretty much everyone,” Wade realised that

“despite it being this incredibly important resource, it was suffering from a lack of content, particularly about women, but also about people of color.”

Since then, Wade has completed more than 1,750 pages for female and minority scientists and engineers, she often spends her evenings reading journals, scientific papers, archived documents, and social media to find potential subjects. It takes Wade a few hours to write each Wikipedia entry, but she’s not doing it all alone — she also teaches others how to research and put together pages during training workshops. Wade describes herself as a

“tiny fish in a massive sea,”

but she’ll

“keep doing everything I can to make science a more accessible and inclusive place to be.”

It is with people like her that Wikipedia is in a position to grow further into a place where people can easily go and look something up to find further more information about someone or about something.

Martin Heidegger Quotes

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Preceding

Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

Existence in the non-existent and non-existence in the existence

Our existence, the world showing up for us and holding up a mirror

I and Thou

In your own heart or outside of it

Modern Living

There is no human being on earth capable of declaring with certitude who he is.

Quoteliv

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

Everyone is the other and no one is himself.

Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?

The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy.

If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.

Martin Heidegger

Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set…

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One-Liner Wednesday — On Bad Terms

This, That, and the Other

“No one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other.”

Hannah Arendt, political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor

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Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.

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Realisation is earth shattering

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Preceding

Truth is not a Philosophical discussion

BUDDHA IN THE MUD. Practical everyday insight into Dzogchen Buddhism. It's not about feeling good about yourself; it's about feeling good about your self. Your self is your karma and teacher.

Realisation Is Earth Shattering

All that we hope for is an illusion.
All that we fear is an illusion.
We over-estimate how many sane people there are.
😀

Illusion: an instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception of a sensory experience.

If we cannot discern that perception, in the very first instant, is pure consciousness without comment, but instead go straight into judgement, then our perception is biased because it is based on memory – old programming – our dream-world – our normal.

The very moment that we interpret perception, we are in our illusion. Justifying this illusion is delusion.

Delusion: an idiosyncratic belief maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument.

How do we prove that we are sane?
And who are we going to prove this to?
To ourself, or to someone else?

There is no way we can prove we are sane.

From the perspective of pure consciousness,
everyone is both Buddha nature and irrational.
Met anyone normal?
😀

Sane: reasonable…

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Truth is not a Philosophical discussion

For many Truth is something very difficult.

Many prefer to wallow in human wishful thinking or imaginings. The biblical truth frightens most people, especially that there is an elusive invisible God who knows everything and is able to do everything. With that, many prefer to take on other gods whereby the Nazarene may claim to have the most worshippers among the false gods. Many who call themselves Christians do not want to accept his words or those of his heavenly Father that he is the son of man and the beloved son of the one true God. Lots of people have made him into their god and live by the many false teachings of human beings instead by living according to the Biblical Truth.

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Next

Realisation is earth shattering

BUDDHA IN THE MUD. Practical everyday insight into Dzogchen Buddhism. It's not about feeling good about yourself; it's about feeling good about your self. Your self is your karma and teacher.

TRUTH IS NOT A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION

Truth is not a philosophical discussion. Philosophy is for those who don’t know or don’t want to know, as knowing means our view of life will totally change. In discovering absolute truth, we realise what is important and what isn’t, and we can’t go back to being carried away with whatever others do or say. Speculation creates doubt.

When we verify absolute truth, we can no longer cause harm to others. The cause of terror in the world starts with an subtle idea, as in Animal Farm – “Two legs bad, four legs good”, and then, “Four legs good, two legs better”.

Truth is direct experience, before words or feelings are used to describe it. It is the spontaneous cool/raw experience of consciousness. Pure consciousness is our starting point; it’s the moment when a surgeon opens up a body to see what’s going on…

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Your Life: Habit or Freedom?

 

VeritasCurat.net

For audio/video of this article, please visit the Veritas Curat YouTube Channel, or scroll to the bottom of this page.

A friend once asked me, “With all the years you’ve studied the mind and its functions, why have you not written a book? Especially since you love to write?”

I could have given him a dozen different answers, but what instantly issued from my mouth was, “You’re supposed to write what you know. All I’ve focused on has been stuff like truth and wisdom. I see no point in writing about it, since greater minds than mine have already said it before.”

Without missing a beat, my friend quipped, “That’s okay. People weren’t reading about truth and wisdom before either.”

Whether considering the Stoics, Buddhists, or any other countless philosophies or religions over the centuries, I’ve discovered two common themes.

First, have unconditional love for all of humanity.

And…

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Your Ego Is Not Your Enemy

 

Truth is the daughter of time

Architect Daniel Libeskind, who was born in Lodz, Poland after World War II,
in a recent interview with arts editor Diane M. Bolz about an exhibition
he designed marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, said

“You can try to manipulate truth. You can try to suppress it,
but, in the long run, truth always comes out.”

Dutch version / Nederlandse vertaling: Waarheid is de dochter van de tijd

Window 190 – The door to our truth, can only be opened from within

A Window Of Wisdom

“When we are unable to face the truth of our own feelings, we will vent our emotional pain upon anyone that goes against what we are trying to control, due to the exhaustion of representing our self as the truth, we wish we could be.”

 True freedom can only be felt when we stop concealing our thoughts, desires, and beliefs, and stop pretending to be someone we are not, or pleasing others out of fear; for when our truth is spoken, our spirit emerges, and our fear becomes void, to which freedom of our true self takes flight.

~ WOW ~

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Trouble in my brain

Who does not want to be loved? Who is not longing for attention, recognition, acknowledgement and for being recognised as a human being, to be seen and heard and why not for receiving a hug?

E.T.'s blog

I’m so confused.
There’s a big mess in my head.
I don’t know where to start and where to end.
There’s no problem in my life.
The only problems are made by me.
I’ve got no big threats against my life.
Then why is my brain fried?
Problems are problems, if you give them the space to be problems.
Because the only one recognizing those problems, is you.
It’s your brain telling you there’s a problem, but when is it really one?
My brain is fried with problems.
Or aren’t they such things?
Are they just thoughts, which pass my mind too many at the same time, so that I can’t see which one is which anymore?
I can’t differentiate between them.
I want things but do I have the right to?
I’m aware of my past and my failures.
I try to stop myself from doing weird things.
But…

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The written, the spoken, and the audible a part of the soul and a blessing to humanity but also the trigger to those who love Crusades and the Inquisition

Bill Ziegler who started studying the Geography of the Middle East in 1965, two-years before the Six-Day War, completed his M.A. at Kansas State. Having got a translation eduction and Master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati, he followed a year of post-graduate studies at Justus Liebig Universitãt in Giessen, West Germany. Getting Around in German at Tristate German-American School for 22 years 1989 – 2013, now lives in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where he specialises in

Manufacturing	Business/Commerce (general)
IT (Information Technology)	Construction / Civil Engineering
Telecom(munications)	Materials (Plastics, Ceramics, etc.)

 

As a Certified Teacher of German Language: State of Ohio Department of Education he also is a member of the American Production and Inventory Contro, TriState German-American School. He is presently teaching German language and culture to students ranging from Kindergarten to adults: beginners to advanced levels at the TriState German-American School and integrated techniques practised at Cincinnati Waldorf School to dramatically involve each student’s learning with a wide range of teaching methods.

He is aware that

The culture where I live does not seem particularly interested in learning foreign languages. But the written, the spoken, and the audible become a part of the soul and a blessing to humanity when civilized thought can gain a foothold. {Thinking about Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Gießen and Savak}

Bill Ziegler writes

Main building of the research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

My interest in German language led to an opportunity for study in Giessen, at that time West Germany, from 1971 to 1973. Upon arriving at Justus Liebig Universität I learned German as a second language with fellow students from Iran, Japan, Egypt among others. German was the tongue we shared, so that we could talk to the brain. Then we could join the citIzenry and talk to the heart. {Thinking about Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Gießen and Savak}

For him

Learning a second or 3rd or 4th language is like escaping the gravity of your native land. You probe about in another way of being, of thinking, of observing. Better still — if you’ve the inclination — learn another tongue via a second or third language. Meet the stranger in a place foreign to each.  {Languages, Escape Velocity and Bigly Lies}

He reminds us of a fact we may never forget

Propaganda relies upon endlessly repeated mistranslations, designed to obfuscate. Weaponized language to serve hidden agendas, to move geopolitical stakes through sabotage, bigotry, racism, straw men, false flags, pacification, liquidation; in other words, chicanery of any convenient kind. Whatever works. No questions asked.  {Languages, Escape Velocity and Bigly Lies}

In this world we can find lots of people who tell a lot of lies and nonsense bout other people or about other organisations. They are eager to make use of the knowledge that people can not check certain things because they do not know the language of the others. In many countries we find the presidents or leaders of that country telling lies about “the others”.

Mark Chmiel wonders about certain moments in history

Were the Democratic and Republican presidents who consistently lied to the American people merely making slips of the tongue? … or  …. Were U.S. war crimes merely bumbled into, over and over, month after month for years, an oddly uncorrectable error? {Mistake}

A lot of misunderstandings do come from not having or not grasping the essence of what is being said and meant. Everywhere can be found pepole who hate our world, our way of life, the free spirited, the one who thinks differently than some one else, the one who has an other faith than the main stream religions. Some want to have everything in control or want to dictate their own rules and ways of life. Non-Trinitarians and others who preach pacifism and a life where everybody can accept the differences between each other, are by many considered a danger for society, and as such have to be attacked and must be eradicated. This is not new and has happened more than once. Such an extermination of a certain people or a certain faith group has taken place more than once in history.

All dictatorships are sexually repressive and anti-life. All affirmations of life are diametrically opposed to dogmatic regimes. It was logical for Fidel Castro to persecute us, not to let us fuck, and to try to suppress any public display of the life force.
-— Reinaldo Arenas {Our Only Salvation Lies in Words: On Arenas’s Before Night Falls}

Religious groups have always been the target of those who did not like the free thought of others. To silence those who thought differently the most used weapon was and still is disinformation and telling lots of lies, not giving the other the opportunity to defend himself publicly. (One good example for today is how a certain Dave Norris writes lots of articles about several denominations, but has his readers to believe all the nonsense he writes about those groups. Cfr. his loads of articles on the Belgian Bible Students like “The Watchtower Belgian Biblestudents” using a name for an organisation which even does not exists.) Some love to make crusades against others and would love to see the inquisition re-installed.

The Crusades and the Inquisition (The Church Militant) were not good ideas. Spreading lies like Joseph Goebbels lends not a single grain of truth. Truth went into exile from 1933 to 1945. No literature or art of any value springs forth under Fascism. Nothing good comes of Fascism. “When I hear the word ‘culture’…”

Islamophobia (from the xeno family of racism) will not lead to a better gentler world.
~ Arabic is a tapestry

 

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7. the inherent bias of language
8. Are There Limits to Self-Identity Language?
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10. The Matter of a Conversation  We probably talk to an average of 10 people a day. Whether it be a family member, a coworker, a client, a friend, a grocery store clerk, a restaurant server, etc. did your conversation leave a lasting impression? Conversation is good, but …
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19. The Best of Me today
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21. George Carlin – Bourgeois Reactionary
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27. Unmasking the Hidden Agenda of the Citizens Emergency Council for the Protection of the Republic of Korea
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Fake News Goes Back to the Garden of Eden says Pope Francis I

On this day of “News and communication” we can’t escape to ponder on the last two years where we got bombarded with continuous streams of fake news and attacks on people and organisations.

All people who write on the internet should be aware of their social function and be conscious of their responsibility and impact on others. The last few months social media also showed its bad and dangerous side in being a weapon of opponents and misleader of the people. When you look at the fake news that could be spread  in one week it should really alarm us.

Today the Roman Catholic Church Father Francis I looked at what is going on in this world and said

Made in the image and likeness of our Creator, we are able to express and share all that is true, good, and beautiful. We are able to describe our own experiences and the world around us, and thus to create historical memory and the understanding of events.

He is also aware and tells about what happened very early in the history of man, what too many have forgotten. We should remember that there was the inner thought of the mannin or first woman who doubted the sincerity and honesty of her Creator. Pope Francis has denounced fake news as evil, comparing it to the snake in the Garden of Eden, and urged journalists to make it their mission to search for the truth.

In his annual social communications message, Francis said fake news played on stereotypes and prejudices, and praised efforts to make social media users aware of false reports. Question hereby can bye how we ourselves want to see the world around us and how we want to be honest to others. Lots of our way of reaction against others has to do with our background, attitude of life and our pride.

The pope opened his sermon today with a warning.

But when we yield to our own pride and selfishness, we can also distort the way we use our ability to communicate. This can be seen from the earliest times, in the biblical stories of Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 4:4-16; 11:1-9). The capacity to twist the truth is symptomatic of our condition, both as individuals and communities. On the other hand, when we are faithful to God’s plan, communication becomes an effective expression of our responsible search for truth and our pursuit of goodness.

In 1972 Pope Paul VI already for the World Communications Day had its theme: “Social Communications at the Service of Truth”. The present pope want also to contribute to our shared commitment to stemming the spread of fake news and to rediscovering the dignity of journalism and the personal responsibility of journalists to communicate the truth. for this pope it is not the first time he has scolded those who spread false news reports. He called it a “very serious sin” that not only hurts those who have been slandered but also hurts journalism itself.

We have come into a time when it looks like a sport or competition to bring the most deceiving and manipulating messages to the reader. Clearly the spreading of fake news can serve to advance specific goals, influence political decisions, and serve economic interests, and is as such used.

The effectiveness of fake news is primarily due to its ability to mimic real news, to seem plausible. Secondly, this false but believable news is “captious”, inasmuch as it grasps people’s attention by appealing to stereotypes and common social prejudices, and exploiting instantaneous emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration. The ability to spread such fake news often relies on a manipulative use of the social networks and the way they function. Untrue stories can spread so quickly that even authoritative denials fail to contain the damage.

In Christendom we can see that lots of people are so caught by the arrangement between the clergy and the Roman emperor Constantine. Their agreement to equal the Roman gods with the Christian figures (or better the other way around) made that the Trinity was born and fostered.

The difficulty of unmasking and eliminating fake news is due also to the fact that many people interact in homogeneous digital environments impervious to differing perspectives and opinions. Disinformation thus thrives on the absence of healthy confrontation with other sources of information that could effectively challenge prejudices and generate constructive dialogue; instead, it risks turning people into unwilling accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas. The tragedy of disinformation is that it discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict. Fake news is a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes, and leads only to the spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.

In Facebook Groups lots of people go very hard against people who have an other opinion than they or than mainstream groups. Many want others to believe as them and when they do not do that they come to abuse them and call them names.

It is not an easy task to get people to see what really happened and to get rid of the false information Awful is it when such false news is to blacken people or organisations. Since disinformation is often based on deliberately evasive and subtly misleading rhetoric and at times the use of sophisticated psychological mechanisms, plus when it gets multiplied or shared via social media it starts running its own life and often turns up a few years later when people have forgotten about the matter and do not recollect that it was classified as fake news.

The Pope finds it good that

praiseworthy efforts are being made to create educational programmes aimed at helping people to interpret and assess information provided by the media, and teaching them to take an active part in unmasking falsehoods, rather than unwittingly contributing to the spread of disinformation. Praiseworthy too are those institutional and legal initiatives aimed at developing regulations for curbing the phenomenon, to say nothing of the work being done by tech and media companies in coming up with new criteria for verifying the personal identities concealed behind millions of digital profiles.

Yet preventing and identifying the way disinformation works also calls for a profound and careful process of discernment. We need to unmask what could be called the “snake-tactics” used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place. This was the strategy employed by the “crafty serpent” in the Book of Genesis, who, at the dawn of humanity, created the first fake news (cf. Gen 3:1-15), which began the tragic history of human sin, beginning with the first fratricide (cf. Gen 4) and issuing in the countless other evils committed against God, neighbour, society and creation. The strategy of this skilled “Father of Lies” (Jn 8:44) is precisely mimicry, that sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments.

The world is taken by its greed. So many people do want it all for themselves. Politicians do whatever they can to degrade their opponents and to let themselves look the better one.

What is at stake is our greed. Fake news often goes viral, spreading so fast that it is hard to stop, not because of the sense of sharing that inspires the social media, but because it appeals to the insatiable greed so easily aroused in human beings. The economic and manipulative aims that feed disinformation are rooted in a thirst for power, a desire to possess and enjoy, which ultimately makes us victims of something much more tragic: the deceptive power of evil that moves from one lie to another in order to rob us of our interior freedom. That is why education for truth means teaching people how to discern, evaluate and understand our deepest desires and inclinations, lest we lose sight of what is good and yield to every temptation.

At Facebook Groups we often find people, claiming to be Christian, using words unworthy for a lover of God and for a follower of Christ, calling those who are not in line with their thinking all sorts of names. By bringing all sorts of false ‘news’ they also try to bring others in discredit. In many of those groups we can see a constant contamination by deceptive language which can end up darkening our interior life.

Dostoevsky’s observation is illuminating:

“People who lie to themselves and listen to their own lie come to such a pass that they cannot distinguish the truth within them, or around them, and so lose all respect for themselves and for others. And having no respect, they cease to love, and in order to occupy and distract themselves without love they give way to passions and to coarse pleasures, and sink to bestiality in their vices, all from continual lying to others and to themselves.” (The Brothers Karamazov, II, 2).

Many people are thrown form one side to the other and become so confused, not able to see what is true , half-true and what is false. Lots of false messages look so engrossing that one can not resit the excitement and love to share it on social media which makes the ball rolling.

So how do we defend ourselves?

The most radical antidote to the virus of falsehood is purification by the truth.

In Christianity, truth is not just a conceptual reality that regards how we judge things, defining them as true or false. The truth is not just bringing to light things that are concealed, “revealing reality”, as the ancient Greek term aletheia (from a-lethès, “not hidden”) might lead us to believe. Truth involves our whole life. In the Bible, it carries with it the sense of support, solidity, and trust, as implied by the root ‘aman, the source of our liturgical expression Amen.

Those who call themselves Christian should have the aim in them to purify their body and spirit and to share the love of Christ with others, not wanting to hurt them by false sayings or awful words. they should work on their character, trying to become like Christ. By their daily meditations and reading of the Word of God they should discover and rediscover the truth when they experience it within themselves in the loyalty and trustworthiness of the One who loves them.

every person should know that the truth will set them free (Jn 8:32).

Freedom from falsehood and the search for relationship: these two ingredients cannot be lacking if our words and gestures are to be true, authentic, and trustworthy. To discern the truth, we need to discern everything that encourages communion and promotes goodness from whatever instead tends to isolate, divide, and oppose. Truth, therefore, is not really grasped when it is imposed from without as something impersonal, but only when it flows from free relationships between persons, from listening to one another. Nor can we ever stop seeking the truth, because falsehood can always creep in, even when we state things that are true. An impeccable argument can indeed rest on undeniable facts, but if it is used to hurt another and to discredit that person in the eyes of others, however correct it may appear, it is not truthful. We can recognize the truth of statements from their fruits: whether they provoke quarrels, foment division, encourage resignation; or, on the other hand, they promote informed and mature reflection leading to constructive dialogue and fruitful results.

When looking at news channels, social media (tweets and Facebook messages) we always should use our common sense and examine the truth as well as the value of the message.

The best antidotes to falsehoods are not strategies, but people: people who are not greedy but ready to listen, people who make the effort to engage in sincere dialogue so that the truth can emerge; people who are attracted by goodness and take responsibility for how they use language. If responsibility is the answer to the spread of fake news, then a weighty responsibility rests on the shoulders of those whose job is to provide information, namely, journalists, the protectorsof news. In today’s world, theirs is, in every sense, not just a job; it is a mission. Amid feeding frenzies and the mad rush for a scoop, they must remember that the heart of information is not the speed with which it is reported or its audience impact, but persons. Informing others means forming others; it means being in touch with people’s lives. That is why ensuring the accuracy of sources and protecting communication are real means of promoting goodness, generating trust, and opening the way to communion and peace.

The pontiff wants to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace. He said

By that, I do not mean the saccharine kind of journalism that refuses to acknowledge the existence of serious problems or smacks of sentimentalism. On the contrary, I mean a journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines. A journalism created by people for people, one that is at the service of all, especially those – and they are the majority in our world – who have no voice. A journalism less concentrated on breaking news than on exploring the underlying causes of conflicts, in order to promote deeper understanding and contribute to their resolution by setting in place virtuous processes. A journalism committed to pointing out alternatives to the escalation of shouting matches and verbal violence.

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Preceding articles

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #1 Abrahamic religions

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #2 War on God’s Plan, Name and title

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #3 Cyberwars and prophesy

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Additional reading

1. An openingschapter explaining why things are like they are and why we may have hope for better things
2. The figure of Eve
3. Bereshith 3 Fall of man
4. Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy
5. Messianic prophesies 2 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy
6. Delph Radio – Spreading God’s Word to All Nations

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Related

1. Opinion Journalism
2. Why Journalism?
3. So What Happened to the Journalism?
4. Dumb journalism makes for a dumb nation
5. The problem with modern “journalism” summed up in one story
6. Crossed Lines
7. Sturgeon sets media and Tories straight after latest round of fake news
8. JT Blog: Examiner analysis
9. Content analysis of the Huddersfield Examiner
10. What a ______ time it is to be a journalist
11. Can you trust social media?
12. Fake News and the Good News
13. Politicians Intermix Cyberwar, Information Warfare, And Fake News
14. Pope condemns ‘evil’ of fake news and its use for political gain
15. Pope: ‘Fake news’ is evil, journalists must search for truth
16. Be more responsible journalists, Pope Francis says…
17. Pope Francis weighs in on fake-news – a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes pope decries unthinkable barbaric treatment of Yezidis audience cate
18. Pope Francis Denounces Fake News
19. Pope Warns Against ‘Fake News,’ Likens It To ‘Crafty Serpent’ In Genesis
20. Pope Blames Eve for Listening to “Fake News” Serpent
21. Pope condemns ‘evil’ of fake news and its use for political gain
22. Be more responsible journalists, Pope Francis says…
23. Edelman Trust Barometer 2018 – Redefines Media & Gives Journalism Hope
24. BuzzFeed: This Is Facebook’s News Survey

(Poem) Endless Time

Time for some or many may be their side, but for many it also may be against them. For many time can also slip through the shadows and get them frustrated and not knowing where and when to go.

Perhaps an old poet, but that does not mean one has become out of time. Today many companies wanting to get rid of the older persons, forgetting that they have the experience and knowledge. Though it looks like today their time is not any more accounted for. Therefore pleased to find some people not leaving themselves put aside but crawling into the pen and daring to let their voice be heard on the internet.

Today’s guestwriter remarks

We all grow up believing things we are told, to be correct, mostly. If we are told by our parents, teachers or Pastors that this or that is the truth most kids, if they have respect for these people tend to believe them. But you know, sometimes these people are simply incorrect. {Truth}

With the years , passing time, we come to see and experience different things and then time may give that we get more knowledge and insights, if we are willing to grow.

Today’s guest writer got to see that so many things told to him were not Biblical, so he dared to take the time to learn more about it by taking up the Book of books itself. He also writes on his blog

I did a somewhat quick read through the Bible just so I could say I had done it once. But, after I had finished reading through it I realized that these things my Mom had told me “the Bible says”, I didn’t remember seeing anywhere. So, I started rereading the scriptures more slowly and with pen and pad so that I could make notes. {Truth}

This is a good attitude which can bring man to think better about what he reads and about what he hears what should or could be written there – but is not. We always should remember that the others are not always telling lies but do not know the exact truth and have also been part of their time and their generation’s thougths.

After completing time two, I realized that these things Mom had told me weren’t correct, they just weren’t there. I know that Mom wasn’t lying to me, she was just wrong. We can grow old and comfortable with the stories of our youth’s no matter who they were told by, or we can use our own brains to think a little. Parents, teachers, priests, they all have stories they had been told in there youth’s, is it possible that on some items they were told wrong? {Truth}

The Final Testament of the Holy Bible (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So they and we do have to take the time to come to know more and to correct those things we learned wrongly. By time we have to keep willing to learn and to adapt otherwise we shall become stain or a rock where the fast streaming water runs over and past, making us in a little grain of sand after some time.

We always should remember that time depends how we want to perceive it. When we are young all seems to take such a long time. When we are old all seems to go too fast. And when we look at the time of God

There are several places in scripture where we are told things like “My days are not your days”, and how a human life is like the twinkling (blink) of the eye to Gods time. Even in the New Testament the Apostle Peter told the people that one of Gods days are like unto a thousand of our years. In other words, our days and Gods days don’t match up. Think about it, even in our own orbits of the sun, the planets that are in this orbit with us have different amounts of time that make up their days. {Truth}

And in this world we so often are confronted by people who want to own our time. Often we look at time and wonder what we can do with it or what to do next, or how we missed doing things we wanted or should have done.

Facing the universe we can see that planets that surround us possess their own concept of time on a clock. And while they continue to circle around in the universe our own personal life’s hour-glass as the sand falling down.

Reading the Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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• Matthew McConaughey learns of Sam Shepard’s death on the red carpet

Artists role in Time of great danger

Artists are the voice of or for society. They are the ones who look at things, analyse the situations and try to warn the people around them.

At 1:00pm on Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at Radio City Music Hall  the New York City’s School of Visual Arts had activist and icon Gloria Steinem spokeeaking urgently on the state of the union at the College’s 41st annual commencement exercises.

On Tuesday, beginning around noon, a sea of buoyant figures in swirling red gowns descended on Rockefeller Center in New York City. Slowly disappearing into Radio City Music Hall, the some 1,170 students were gathering for commencement and graduation from the School of Visual Arts. In the auditorium, their robes billowed out over the velvet-red seats; the resulting camouflage effect seemed symbolically appropriate as a nod to their shared experience at SVA, in a last, unifying moment before they dispersed to start the next chapter of their lives.

Kicking off the program was a speech by Allison R. Schaller, soon to be an alumna with a BFA in Photography and Video.

“As artists, we can think up anything. But it’s the creating, the doing that’s important,”

Schaller said.

“We know many of the world’s problems, and largely the actions we need to take, it’s acting on that knowledge that’s challenging. But luckily for us, we now have a leg up, as we are armed with an education. Find a cause you believe in, find something you are great at, find a passion and make it yours. And please do so with empathy for others.”

SVA President David Rhodes spoke about how citizens in a democracy have an obligation to parse out the truths in the deluge of information circulating in public discourse.

Writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer Gloria Steinem when stepping up to the podium remembered that she grew up in Toledo,

” hoping, praying to be a Rockette.”

“I want to say to my 10-year-old self, I’m on the stage of Radio City Music Hall, and this is better!”

she declared to a cheering audience.

Addressing the students, Steinem implored them to realize their power as visual artists — namely, in their ability to appeal to sensations, even instincts, shared by all humans.

“To be universally understandable is to have the potential of bringing diverse people together, undivided by different languages or degree of education,”

she said.

The work that writers do, in contrast, takes shape internally, subject to the whims of consciousness, which are as fleeting as they are inscrutable, she implied.

“My joy in writing comes from having an idea and then from finally achieving it,”

she explained.

“But not so much from the tactical, visual and sensory processes in between.”

It was not lost on the room that Steinem’s calls for unity had uncommon urgency.

Women’s March in Washington – worldwide protest on January 21, 2017, to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues, including women’s rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, reproductive rights, the natural environment, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, and workers’ rights.

“We are in a time of maximum change. On the one hand there is great danger, and I am not for a moment diminishing how great that danger is, and on the other hand, we are woke! I have never in my life seen so much organic, sustained, enthusiastic, inventive, created, and fan-f..cking-tastic activism as I did doing the March on Washington.”

I think we have come to a time where artists of all breed have to come out stronger again. It is perhaps not bad we can see a movement again like we had when we went on the barricades in 1968. Our egocentric capitalist society needs again some voices to bring awareness about climate change and our way to live.

Steinem looked back at the more recent march and said

Steinem raises a fist after being presented with a Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Glaser (left). Photo Copyright © 2017Joseph Sinnott.

“What we remember are the symbols, the hats! It’s a rebellion of the visual arts, the arts of the heart, the arts that are not limited by language, not limited by technology.  There’s so much to be learned if you go beyond your boundaries and now is the time we need to blast those boundaries.”

Steinem called the graduates

“the arts of the heart,”

and cautioned them that from her experience, revolutionaries have to proceed in a way that will renew a world they want to be a part of.

“If you want to have fun and laughter and sex and poetry and music at the end of the revolution,”

she said, beaming at the cheering graduates and their families,

“You have to have fun and laughter and sex and poetry and music on the way.”

Reacting against the bad way our society is moving should not limit us to have fun at the same time that we react against the wrong going. By our creative work we can give criticism and can show a reflection of how our world is evolving, treating its past and showing where it wants to go. We need more artists who hold the mirror in front of us, like Rabirius does, for example.

Reflection to awaken the people around us. By all the social media and advertisements they have been taken asleep. So many are not any more interested in the welfare of animals and plants and think

“It will not be so bad”

Many like the present president of the U.S.A. are not interested in bringing the truth and are more concerned about their own positioning and ‘shining’ in the world. Many are even prepared to walk over corpses if necessary to create a better position for themselves. Others are just happy when they have their gadgets and daily fun.

Today we also can see lots of people are looking for the communal fun, to feel the vibration of togetherness, having the idea they may be between like minded people. Lots of festivals are “in”. It reminds me of the time we had also the many festivals, Woodstock being our ‘greatest one’. Now the Belgian organisers of ‘Tomorrow Land‘ manage to create a magic world and incredible worldwide feeling of unity again. They claim

We believe in enjoying life to the fullest without having to compromise everything. We are responsible for the generation of tomorrow and respect each other and Mother Nature. Respect, Health, Nature, Responsibility and Innovation are the five circles of Love Tomorrow. The Heart is the inner circle, representing passion, love and respect.

We can only hope that those who go and visit such Fantasy World festival shall come to think further their than the entrance gates of their magic world and shall rally spread that love and respect.

Let us hope they may meet others from all over the world to keep contact with and to exchange ideas, but also to get a preparedness to react to our present world and how politicians are screwing the people where they are standing next to them.

In any case it has become high time for the artists to let their political and world views be shown in their work again to bring a ‘voice to think’ again.

Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away

With the terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels and now in Nice we can find lots of information and disinformation on the net.

Mark Evans, Loren Feldman, Cynthia Brumfield, Rachel Sklar

I must remark that in the blogging world there are lots of people who try to break down or crush all that is said in the media and want their readers to believe it is all fake. I noticed this with the lies about the Brussels Airport (where I also work and could see the real damage), of which bloggers said the published photo’s were fake or from other places, etc.

With certain bloggers I chatted and became convinced they intentionally wrote such lies, whilst others I became convinced they were not so good in their head. The last category hopefully would be recognised soon by their readers, but for the first category it is much more difficult for the readers to unmask their acts of false information giving.

Since the time of Pericles, defenders of human freedom have promoted the virtues of open debate within society, and for the full freedom of citizens to investigate their government and world. Whether in a household, a classroom, or a nation, a free flow of critically examined and openly discussed ideas gives us our best chance for intellectual growth and personal achievement. {Our Classified World}

When I was a teacher I demanded from my pupils that they thought for themselves and analysed everything which came in front of their eyes. They never had to take something as the full truth nor undiscussable or unmentionable.

Atiaf Alwazir, Yemeni activist and researcher speaking during session 1: “Hopes and Fears” of The London Conference on Cyberspace.1 November 2011

Everything should be checked … the problem is we can not check everything personally, so we hope we can have trustworthy sources. By time we can come to know who is trying to tell the truth and who does sincere research to tell the truth, opposite those who just tell some fantasies or bring irresponsible post. Biggest problem is when we allow ourselves to become dependent on the news or mass media. In industrialized and information-based societies, the danger exists that  individuals tend to develop a dependency on the media to satisfy a variety of their needs, which can range from a need for information on a political candidate’s policy positions (to help make a voting decision) to a need for relaxation and entertainment, but also to be led in their decision making or news gathering so that they always can blame somebody else for the wrong information or when something went wrong. By allowing the media to direct them they put away their own responsibility.

When we look at the media and how certain states made it possible by the media to control their people, we see that the greater the number of social functions performed for an audience by a medium (e.g., informing the electorate, providing entertainment), the greater the audience’s dependency on that medium, and how easier they can be placed in line with the leaders thinking or wants. But we also notice the greater the instability of a society (e.g., in situations of social change and conflict), the greater the audience’s dependency on the media and, therefore, the greater the potential effects of the media on the audience. In that instance propaganda of the state is a very big weapon and ideal tool for control.

We do find countries which try to play with the “war within” being convinced that by silencing those who dare to speak, they shall win. also when there are factories or big commercial institutions which seem to loose grip on their customers they do not mind to secure their brand by providing enough funding for the leader in favour.

Media freedom is generally held to be necessary for democratic societies end as soon as leaders notice they start loosing control, they start limiting the freedom of the media (a beautiful example is Turkey with Erdogan, the 105th Caliph, his reactions).

Often we see that when certain who should keep law and order have done something wrong and others like to criticise it, they are being silenced. Even in a state which always shouts loud it is the land of freedom police arrest people because they tweeted on wrote negative things about the police force in their state. Arresting people for speech is something the Americans should be very careful about. They also should think twice before continuing supporting the billionaire who is able to bring the land in chaos and ruins and who is not afraid to say he would start a world war with what happens now in Europe.

The danger exist that leaders of a state want to silence those who have a voice or want to dissent, to notice things, to point out facts, to express an opinion.

Media are an outlet for public discussion and opinion and generally fulfil the functions of seeking truth, educating the public, and serving as a watchdog over government.

A blogger who claims to be a “Truth Connoisseur” and having “an inquiring and incisive mind”, saying he is also “an open-minded skeptic” wants to be “an avid learner” and “Part-Time Researcher” who looks also at this phenomena of reality and freedom of speech.

He has a website where he perhaps want to “breakaway” as an outgrowth/spawn from the notion of the ‘Breakaway Civilization’. He writes

The term ‘Breakaway Civilization’ was an idea that is the brainchild of historian and notable scholar Richard Dolan, who coined the term a few years ago.

Behind this particular premise lies [pun intended] a group of people so sophisticated they operated literally as a separate civilization from the rest of humanity. This is given to the extremely advanced knowledge and technological capabilities/infrastructure that they were able to create/reverse engineer not only by learning what they could from deeply classified black projects et al, but also from essentially monopolizing information and controlling access to it, thus preventing the rest of society/humanity from benefiting from such advanced progress. {What Does It Mean To ‘Breakaway’?}

Certain man of power have done everything to have the media telling what they want. Certain statesmen were even not afraid to have those killed who did not want to run in line and tell the people what the state wanted them to believe. Censorship has always been part of man’s life. Though we also had voices of those who were not afraid to uncover the dismal functions of state organisations or institutions. Every generation had its whistleblowers. To expose illegal or unethical activity of the state has proven dangerous for the one bringing it in the open, certainly as “external whistle-blowing” but by mass media spending more attention to them, the involved state became less able to easily harm the whistleblower. Though those persons mostly can not reclaim their previous life and some of them have even to leave the country. Data show that retaliation against whistleblowers is most severe and certain when the observed wrongdoing is systemic and central to the way the organization conducts its business and accumulates its profit {Joyce Rothschild and Terance D. Miethe 1999, Whistle-Blower Disclosures and Management Retaliation: The Battle to Control Information about Organizational Corruption; Joyce Rothschild, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008}. Even in countries where whistleblower protection laws prohibit reprisal against federal employees they often find themselves in danger and have to flee the country. In case no effort was made to silence them, a number of individual federal officials have been dismissed or suspended. It is important that much more work is made in our society to protect such people who bring out the wrongdoing of an institution or a state. Whistleblower protection, like freedom of information laws and other open government provisions, supports the right of freedom of expression. This right is the foundation of democratic accountability and of democratic government.

The whistleblowers also can dismantle the propaganda fog which makes people not noticing what their government is doing. As such the more or less systematic effort to manipulate the citizens can be broken. Most countries have utilized propaganda techniques repeatedly through their history, particularly during periods of war and international crisis. And the last few years it looks like we are in a general worldwide crisis where disinformation is rife. In one big federation of states it has come so far that the inhabitants do not notice it that their country manipulates press continually. Americans have employed numerous euphemisms for their propaganda in order to distinguish it from its totalitarian applications and wicked connotations. Many industrialised countries are implement an “ideological warfare.” We also notice that the term “Cold War” in the previous century used to refer to propaganda techniques and strategy (as in “Cold War tactics”) has again become common talk. Also “special operations,” and “information warfare” have become fashionable again.

Propaganda is of all times. Constantly we hear the ‘state talk’ from the different sites at best, in the worst circumstances only from one party, the other having no chance to say how it really is.

Edward Bernays points to the danger for this widely used tool, by those holding positions in many facets of society, from politicians, religious leaders, agents of the state to corporate brass.

“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.” {[Review] Recommended Book – Progaganda, By Edward Bernays}

Edward Bernays magnum opus “Propaganda”, originally published in 1928, outlines in profound detail many aspects of how propaganda works and details how the mass manipulation of the human subconscious can place can take at unprecedented scale. {[Review] Recommended Book – Progaganda, By Edward Bernays}

Communication techniques have been employed by government agents to cultivate public opinion so as to put pressure on governments to pursue certain policies, while traditional diplomatic activities — negotiations, treaties — have been planned, implemented, and presented in whole or in part for the effects they would have on public opinion, both international and domestic. {Kenneth A. Osgood, Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2002}

Today we can see we are at the top of propaganda making and can not escape the state interfering with the mas media. The propaganda vice-grip has reached unfathomable levels. Most people do not notice how they are manipulated by those they so called vote for. Worst is it in the U.S.A. were people think they are the most free democratic country, though they do not seem to see how only those who have enough money and dare to go over corpses can win the elections for presidency. The present republican candidate is a very good example of the danger of grandiloquence.

Throughout centuries many have searched as an individual how they could stand apart in this world where the unseen mechanism of society constitutes an invisible government which is the true ruling power of that country, and survive. They looked for ways not to be part of this world or to breakaway from the control grid that was trying to have everybody in its hand and was taxing every facet of their life.

“Much of what is reported as ‘news’ is little more than the uncritical transmission of official opinions to an unsuspecting public,” wrote Parenti.  Fox news commentator Brit Hume stated, “What [the mass media] pass off as objectivity, is just a mindless kind of neutrality.”  – Jim Marrs, Rise Of The Fourth Reich – The Secret Societies That Threaten To Take Over America {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Zy Marquiez had quite a few friends and acquaintances online and in person asking him how it is possible to figure out what information passes muster in our information overload reality of ours.  This got him thinking about the simple things that experience has taught him over time.

He sums up what I and others repeatedly have told others also. Though he goes a step further saying it in a harsher way

“Don’t believe anything anyone says, including me.”

he writes. I am sure he means the same a I and my confraters (fellow creatures), demanding our readers to inform themselves and to check everything, also what we say or teach. We always have to be careful how we look at the news brought to us, reminding ourselves it is always just a “newsflash” a quick clocking at a moment when not everything is known.

Walter Lippman once said

“News and the truth are not the same thing…”.

They simply can’t be because at the moment of bringing the news it is a flash how people could perceive that what was happening , without knowing all details.

Zy Marquiez rightly remarks

If we take a cautious approach, we make sure we are not being mislead into opinions being passed off as facts, or a belief-system [i.e. the current race war propaganda nigh everywhere] at the outset that might work against us.  If in the end, the information is still true, nothing is lost.  But when news ‘happens’ to be incomplete, or if its disinformation, misinformation, or downright deception, we as individuals stand to pay a heavy price by believing news without verifying what’s being said.  Be wary. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

In this day and age, though the speed of development of information-access laws increased sharply, we may not forget that many are still ensuring deception putting more pressure and vesting greater economic and social power, investing lots of energy in false communication. Cheating may be a pan-cultural component of social life but politicians often make it not only their favourite sport but their profession.

There where the state leaders are investing lots of energy to get the people to consider themselves as one unit, one state more than as an individual, it is more problematic because countries are more corrupt if they feature a collective culture, rather than an individualistic culture.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally after endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. – Photo Alex Hanson

The general public is often not aware of the “Pinocchio phenomenon”, for example when the person every time when he does not say the truth goes for to touching his nose or striking his hair, the last action more to ask confirmation of the listener or giving a sign “you believe me hé!”.

In the old times liars may have been less forthcoming, but today they are not afraid any more to look sure of what they are saying and try to convince everybody of what for bully talk they are pronouncing. Mostly they take a peacock attitude, play the bully, making everybody else look a looser. How more they laugh with others, how more it seems the listeners are taking in their lies. This proofs why Donald Trump with his arrogant attitude could come so far in his candidacy for the presidential election. the biggest danger for the nation and for the world in general would be when such bullies win the election. We have seen that by Stalin who for some is still their god and worshipped as their best statesman. with beguilement, deceit, bluff, mystification, and subterfuge such people manage to propagate beliefs in things that are not true, but have convinced their listeners that “it must be so”.

We may not forget that in the end such major relational transgression mostly shall lead to feelings of betrayal and distrust and shall provoke a counter reaction which shall endanger the stability of the society.

Donald John Trump Sr. (1946) American business magnate, investor, television personality and author, chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts.

By shouting and trying to ridicule the other people are becoming afraid to express an other opinion, and there lies the power of such bullies or political clowns. The agenda at play has to much at stake, and the power hungry shall not unremittingly shall do everything he can to get others to believe him (or her) even if this demands to falsify ciphers and documents. All funds will be well found.

As individuals, it is imperative that we proceed in our search for facts with a devoted approach that’s as flexible as it is trenchant.

Asking shrewd questions is practically mandatory to get to the bottom of things, or at least to follow certain leads. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Receiving the information we have to keep an open mind and have to stay flexible as well.

The whole point is, when initially examining an issue, don’t get married to an opinion/statement,  regardless who it’s done by. Many times evidence surfaces that blows holes in the official story large enough to ferry the titanic through. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Those graving for power do know that fear is a very good tool to get more credibility and power. We have come in an age where politicians and media are aware of the validity and commercial value of fear mongering.

Within a lot of the media, be it mainstream or alternative, there is an noticeable undercurrent of fear taking place.  This causes individuals to not only live very limiting lives believing that the end is nigh [in some cases, literally] but also leaves individuals feeling powerless. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

This fear and feeling powerless drives them in the hands of those who promise them heaven on earth and say they have the best solution to get rid of the problem causers. (Because there has to be some one at fault and therefore finger become pointed to other people, immigrants, other believers, other peoples, etc.)

We have to be mindful that

Information can be presented in a manner that is concerning, but still self empowering. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Always look who is behind the message and what the intention of the information might be.

Those who may benefit from certain events might be organizations or they might be specific people [i.e. George Soros].  However, always keep in mind almost always there are large factors at play that couple to institutions, organizations, or secretive groups who benefit from certain events taking place, or certain news being disseminated.

By following that rabbit hole, it will be easier to ascertain what kind of agendas these individuals might have given the discipline involved, the institutions involved, and any other poignant data that would be useful. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

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Preceding articles

Tolerance Ends When There Is No Tolerance Shown Towards Us

You might be an extremist if …

Human tragedy need to be addressed at source

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Additional reading

1. Message of Pope Francis I for the 48th World Communications Day
2. Daesh hits heart of Europe
3. A Black day for Belgium – Brussels Airport ravage
4. Knife-trust in democratic sore back
5. March 22 2016, attacks in Brussels at airport and metro
6. Public not informed enough about Jihad terrorism in Belgium
7. For those who call the Brussels Airport attacks a fake or a conspiracy of the government
8. What Associated Press released on Wednesday 23 March 2016
9. US President, Barack Obama Condemns The Outrageous Brussels Attacks
10. Terrorist attacks in brussels
11. Silence, devotion, Salafists, quietists, weaponry, bombings, books, writers and terrorists
12. After The Dallas Shootings, Police Are Arresting People For Criticizing Cops On Facebook And Twitter

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Further reading

1. Terrorists are not Muslims. Terrorists have no religion.
2. Unchallenged Islam and the cloud of terror
3. Women Speak Out Against Islamic Terror In France
4. France: The Coming Civil War
5. Sad Discussions
6. theintercept.com: After Dallas Shootings, Police Arrest People for Criticizing Cops on Facebook
7. Sheriff David Clarke Versus Don Lemon. Live Confrontation on CNN (Video)
8. and Twitter — Indiĝenaj Inteligenteco
9. Feed the Revolution: An Interview with Rojava Plan — The Free
10. Defending Freedom Of The Press: Activists Now Suing Facebook Over Censorship
11. Film Festivals in Conflict Zones
12. Michael Barone: Why Do So Many Liberals Want to Suppress Political Speech? 
13. Purdue student called to meet Dean over Facebook post criticizing Black Lives Matter
14. Thailand will shut down stations
15. Baha’is to receive only four minutes in their appeals court
16. Free Speech In India
17. Police in Kashmir Raid Newspaper Bureaus, Detain Employees, Seize Copies: Prabodh Jamwal
18. Israel NGO Transparency Law Takes AIM At Opposition, Not Honesty
19. The Fairy Tale of “Post-Modern” Turkey
20. How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block — TechCrunch
21. How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block
22. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube blocked in Turkey during reported coup attempt
23. [Bleep]
24. The surprising power of a movement once social media is taken away
25. Facebook Community Standards vs. Soh Lung Teo
26. Chinese Media Spurn UN Ruling on South China Sea
27. Facebook and Twitter are getting rich by building a culture of snitching
28. Federal Government Authorizes Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to Censor “Anti-Islam” Speech; Lawsuit Filed — The Counter Jihad Report
29. So, What Can Europeans Say?
30. An Award-Winning Documentary About Islamic Terrorists Becomes Hate Speech
31. Robert Fulford: Russian censors, then and now
32. 7/18/2016 – Large East Coast Virginia Fracking Earthquake – USGS Not Reporting?
33. Boshra: Comedians in Quebec are at a crossroads, and they’re not alone
34. America’s internet is incredibly free compared to most countries
35. Republican draft platform claims Pr0n is a public health crisis
36. Obama’s divide and rule presidency
37. Was Babe Hillary Born to Bash Free America?
38. So, you critiqued the president’s hairdo?
39. If you want to see underage characters’ underwear either learn Japanese or make your own games
40. The MMA Media’s Boys Club
41. Does Creativity Matter?
42. Illuminations of a Lunatic Fringe
43. Getting Smacked in the Face by Censorship in Today’s Society
44. Censure en Tunisie : 7 mois depuis le 14 janvier : Justice404 versus FreeAmmar
45. Tunisie : Après un an, #Ammar404 le retour ?
46. Terrorisme et TIC : Carte blanche à Ammar404 !

7 Ways To Become A Better Christian

Having the Spring-cleaning it is also not bad to do some Spring cleaning in the heart and mind.

Coming closer to the days for which the Bible warns, looking forward to be able to cope in harder times to come, we should work on it to become a better Christian and to get others into the faith. Attracting others to the right faith can only be done by giving a good example and by a good knowledge of the Right Faith and sharing the Truth.

In the knowledge that religion is a man-made thing we should take care to be grounded on Biblical teaching, liberated from all those human doctrines, which only are a burden to the fulfilment of our religious ways of living.

Lets make sure that more people can hear the Word of God and come to see “Who is who” and get to understand that there is only One True God (Jehovah) and only one mediator between God and man (Jeshua = Jesus Christ, the Messiah).

 

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Preceding

Get the lenses out to getting closer again

Happy First Day of Spring: Spring Cleaning!

Something Needs to Change!

The works we have to do according to James

Your Future

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Related articles

• Christians celebrating Easter Sunday on wrong day – ahead of Jesus’ crucifixion, pastor claims
• We Are Still Waiting For The True Messiah – Dep. Israeli Ambassador
• Risen (thurs, Fri, Sat ) ( Mar 24,25,26)
• It Is Finished
• “It Is Finished!” Jesus Does Not Need Your Help
• Good Friday Services in Lackawanna County
• March 25: Christians Commemorate Good Friday
• New & Notable Books (March 2016)
• What I’m Learning from My Students – Part 8

Reggz Magazine

There are a myriad of ways in which one can become a
better Christian. Outlined below are some ways to attain a better relationship with God.

1. Devote every second of your life to Him and His
ways.

2. Keep your trust in the Lord.

3. Read the Bible day and night, as stated by
Joshua chapter 1 verses 8.

4. Understand that there is no such thing as a ‘utopian society’. Thus, as Christians, we are soldiers of God and should preach the word to those who have fallen behind.

5. Do not be a sanctimonious Christian. We are all humans. We all sin. We are far from flawless. If you become a sanctimonious Christian, there is a possibility that you will turn people away from God rather than towards Him.

6. Have faith not in religion, for it is man-made. It is a tool employed by humans to…

View original post 184 more words

Is being a humanitarian enough to convey the full love of Christ?

We always have to speak the truth and shame the devil in a kind manner loving God’s Word more than the words of human beings.

The task given to his followers, by Jesus, is one which should have our hearts burning with a kind lovely fire, attracting those who want to hear the call of the Lord.

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To remember

• God gives us a three ingredient recipe to be successful evangelists. [Taking Ownership of Grace]

to receive full benefits of Christ’s completed work on the cross => declared righteous, acceptable, freely + fully forgiven

reality of Christ made known through God’s Word + revealed through transcendent grace = moment where  invisible became visible through change of a hardened man into a tender + active soul

grace means undeserving love

• concept of universal justification = God’s way of saying “You have won the lottery! Now, come and receive the prize!”
• Faith = only winning ticket that is considered redeemable <= Faith alone receives that gift
• by faith, we receive the free + full forgiveness of sins.
• Come + claim prize = Believe in Lord Jesus Christ + you will receive gift far greater than anything that the earth can produce.
• Share gospel to listening ears = speak truth prompted by love + concern for the soul
• Demonstrations of love =one of those ingredients that God mixes together with truth + speak => one of these ingredients forgotten or not used = ruins whole recipe.
• Not enough for a Christian to be a humanitarian, nor is it the role of an evangelist to meet people’s needs. To fully love our neighbour means to share message of salvation + rescue them from the eternal consequences of sin.

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Preceding

Preaching Christ Is Not Enough

Witnessing because we love

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Preaching by example

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

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Related articles

• Time to let you go
• What Must I Do?
• True Friends
• The People’s Manifesto of Barbados
• Scripture Verse of The Week ‘Romans 5 Verse 1’
• A Life of Peace Overflowing out of an Experience of the Grace of God
• Respect For All
• Hope
• I Want To Know Christ….And Experience The Mighty Power That Raised Him From The Dead
• Be Known By Your Fruit

WITNESS WELL

Jesus’ greatest command is for Christians to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

We see images of destruction caused by natural disasters and are dismayed by the loss. Homes are destroyed. Families are left with nothing. Prompted by love, we extend a hand by offering financial support or materials goods to help those in need. Some are even willing to travel long distances to help pick up the pieces.

Are these demonstrations the type of love Christ is looking for, or is He calling on Christians to do something more?

In this growing impersonal and materialistic world being enveloped by today’s technology, perhaps Christians have lost touch on what Christ means to love our neighbor.

View original post 551 more words

From Guestwriters 2015 in review

From the start in 2014, April the 26th

On 2014 April 26 we started offering a readers digest to you. We wanted to have different writers presenting their selection of most interesting articles found on the net. We regret we did not find enough people interested in co-operating to create a free lifestyle magazine where people could find uplifting stories.

We started talking about the dreams we all have or have to have, because he who beams never walks in the dark, and looked at our position in this world and how positivism should enter this world more. Our invitation to you reader to share those read articles you liked is still counting. We would love to present more interesting articles people can find on the net. For this reason we started the Reblog section in 2014, when we looked if we or you have something to say or not.

At the opening of 2016 we would like to remind you that you too are invited to share with us. You too may be sharing your words with us and many more readers. You don’t have to stay in the shadow.

At this site we want to speak about feelings and started to look at the worst feeling, the one which pulls us down. Depression is when we can’t walk in the light of life any more. Our intention is to show that each of us matter in this world and that we can get fate in our change to positiveness. You and us we all can contribute and help to create a positive attitude. You have to get the right attitude of an unstoppable success, and once more we do bring a call to help to create a positive attitude.

You may consider your own journey in life but we dared to ask which kind of attitude you want to take. In 2014, when we started we asked our readers to begin their day by living their positive attitude and in started also to point out to look at the way to come to the truth. We went in defence of it. For that, we also started looking at Who should be your closest friend.

Though we may be lonely in the crowd we wanted to build up a place where many could find each other and could overcome hurt feelings. we do not ask people to be some one else, but would love to see you smiling and with a positive attitude or positive disposition.

Perhaps what we hope for is what you hope for. In September 2014 we repeated our call to come to write for us and to share what you think interesting. A year after our question what our readers are seeking we did not receive many answers. We expressed our love to find more contributors who could show ways of fulfilling our dreams. We do hope you could find inspiration here and follow your dreams.

In 2015 finishing our first year

On the first of January we, like many others looked back at the previous year and presented our first review: 2014 in review.

Our first year we got visitors from 71 countries in all. 13 countries were added in 2015 bringing the total to 84 countries in all, with most visitors again coming from The United States (2467). Netherlands (351) & United Kingdom (341) were not far behind. Based in Belgium we only could get the attention of 181 viewers in Belgium in 2015, which is not much, but which can be caused by not many writings being in Dutch, French or German. We are pleased we also got 141 viewers from Down Under.

Knowing that we need light on our path in life, near the end of 2015 we also started placing some reflections or meditations texts, which we shall continue to do. Because we did so often got questions why we referred to some ones website article, or got requests to take some listed article out of the list of “Further reading” we shall enter less references or note lesser further readings. Normally you would think people would be pleased when there is placed a link to their site, but at several of our websites we got an other impression, hearing people not being pleased they being mentioned on one of our sites. Not being appreciated we bringing others to their writings or commenting on their writings, plus they not understanding we are helping them to get more readers and to get higher on the Google ranking, whilst we take them away from our own website, we will not any more invest so much time in looking for appropriate articles worth mentioning. Therefore in the future you will find lesser links and we shall be pleased keeping you more to our own websites.

Treats, fear and discussions in 2015

2015 was again a year were many civil rights were tread under foot. The Syrian war continued for its fourth year and brought many war refugees into Europe, a region where many do not seem to know themselves very well because kindness to others seemed to be far off. Though we are born to shine, not to fear, lots of people got over-manned by fear. At a time where there is not much knowledge of the truth, but lots of doubt and/or blindness, we tried to convince that less is still enough.

While viral moments and trends or fads, that took up lots of people their time and their Twitter feeds included viral phenomenon The Dress, pizza rat, dad bods and adult coloring books we looked at the major refugee crisis in Europe as well as numerous instances of terrorism and mass shootings. Whilst July, Caitlyn Jenner made her big debut via a sexy and scantily clad Vanity Fair cover shot…and her new reality was officially underway we also look at how we human beings manage with birth, our being and our behaviour and acceptance or not of certain situations. Bringing articles around abortion and life we were pleased to have as our 5 most active commenter  Blackhorn33 who is Comanche – Irish and a half-breed that’s Full Blooded American, who with “Our Circle of Friends” met on Google and was willing to contribute about Child Abuse -The Facts, and show the world the importance of the unborn life.

A place for a Higher Being and for His Creation

“Stockholmsfyrens” ungefärliga utseende vid Ropsten med vy från hotell Forestas entréplan på Lidingö. Det runda 187 m höga tornet innehållande både bostäder och kontorslokaler är föreslaget att uppföras omkring 2014-2015. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With less for more we looked at one of the major discussed issues of the year, bringing global warming and climate change at the second place and the refugees at the first place as major topics for 2015. Pointing out that it is important that we do know that we have to find the meaning of life and reach a state of peace, of old and new ideas to sustain power and to feel good by loving to be connected and worship something, we brought to the attention that we have our duties in this world and have to take our responsibility,making the right engagement in an actual two way conversation with your deities or more important to build up a good relationship with the Only One True God, the Divine Creator.

Throughout the year on this and our other sites we wanted to bring to understanding that we do have to come in a good relationship with others and with the Most High, even when we sometimes have to deal with the silence of God.

We asked not to forget that falsehood darkens the pure knowledge of God and that we should always turn to the Book of books, the Bible, to find the truth and Guidance. But to come to know the Creator and His creatures and creation, we do have to look with our eyes and to see with our heart. Some may think “God plays hide’n seek“, but He is always around us and sees everything we do.
The Almighty God above all other gods greater than all gods has given us His infallible Word, the Bible, helmet of salvation, God’s Words put in the mouth of prophets for perfecting, to reprove and correct. Searching or overlooking God’s presence more people do have to find His Word and take up that book that is Written by inspiration of God for our admonition, to whom it shall be imputed if they believe.

2015 once more showed to the world that human beings need a lot of correction. It was good to see that in France many nations also came to conclusion we have urgently to take care of mother earth. In this world were many have to learn that stuff is just stuff, it became time that man takes his position about materialistic desires.

The terrors which came over Europe should make those who call themselves Christian to think and have them remind and hear God’s voice, bringing them into the habit of dealing with God about everything.

Statistics for 2015

In 2015, there were 295 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 525 posts. On the 12th of January in total 534 articles have been published on this site. 

The busiest day of the year was October 19th with 175 views. The most popular post that day was Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion. But the most commented on post in 2015 was Bible, helmet of salvation, God’s Words put in the mouth of prophets for perfecting, to reprove and correct.

For 2016

We are thankful that you came along on this site and do hope to find you more than once at this and some other of our sites. We wish you all the best for 2016 and do hope you may be like a tree planted by streams of water.

Have faith in your faith…doubt your doubts and don’t throw a curtain across tomorrow… the star of its performance just may be you !

There still has to be done a lot before we shall have sustainable, green habits as a second nature, but at this site we do hope to bring incentives to work at it.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,300 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Preceding: 2014 in review

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Additional reading

1. A look at materialism
2. Our you taking a step back to think
3. US must do more to protect its children
4. A year coming to its end and our Spiritual Senses
5. Summary for the year 2015 #1 Threat and fear
6. Summary for the year 2015 # 2 Strewn with corpses and refugees
7. 2015 In the Picture
8. 2015 Human rights
9. 2015 Health and Welfare
10. 2015 Ecology
11. Vatican against Opponents of immigration
12. Greenpeace demands scale up of ecological farming
13. Building a low-carbon world: the sixth industrial revolution
14. Republican member of Congress from Arizona to boycott pope’s address over climate change
15. Vatican meeting of mayors talking about global warming, human trafficking and modern-day slavery
16. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #1
17. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #2
18. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #3
19. 2015 Summit of Consciences for the Climate
20. A Miracle of Unity at COP21
21. Charlie Hebdo
22. Belgian Bible Students review of 2015
23. Bijbelvorsers Blogging annual report and 2015 in review
24. Refugee crisis, terrorist attacks and created fear
25. Before you blame All Muslims for the terrorist attack in Paris
26. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
27. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience
28. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
29. Hidden potential for helping others
30. Only one person who has the power to cast the deciding vote that will kill your dream
31. Have faith in your faith…doubt your doubts
32. The inspiring divine spark
33. Healthy life can be found in sacred books
34. Bible, best Book of books to get to know the truth
35. Written to whom it is about to be reckoned
36. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
37. By temptations, by signs, and by wonders we can see the Works of God
38. A Bible Falling Apart Belongs to Someone who isn’t
39. A heart in the right place and brightly burning faith
40. For attractive lips, speak words of kindness
41. If you want to go far in life
42. Spread love everywhere you go
43. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair
44. The truest greatness lies in being kind
45. Kindness
46. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
47. Be kinder than necessary
48. He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass
49. Taking care of mother earth
50. No curtain placed over tomorrow

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Further about what happened in 2015

1. MSN 2015 in review
2. 2015 in review: Memorable Journeys on EP
3. 2015 Wrap Up!
4. My most difficult travel moments of 2015
5. The 2015 Eternal Hunt Awards, pt. 2: The Hobbyists
6. Stay within the lines – or not!
7. coloring to de-stress; I’ve joined the craze!
8. Art and the Holidays
9. Whatever Is Lovely
10. Intuitive Coaching 101–Zen & The Art of Coloring Books
11. Adults Coloring Kaleidoscopic Creatures
12. Unique Sugar Gliders Chinchillas Reptile Adult Coloring Books
13. Adult Coloring Worldwide & Tangle With Jessica Palmers Hidden Treasures
14. What Amazon’s 2015 Bestsellers Say About Us
15. Winter 2015: The rest of the field…
16. Grandad, I can smell you …
17. Kaleidoscope of 2015
18. Reflecting on 2015
19. My 2015 In Year Review
20. 2015 In Review… (adventuretimealpacamybag)
21. 2015 In Review (ingridandjimmy)
22. 50 Things that made me smile in 2015
23. The Year That Was…2015
24. Favorite-est things from #2015
25. Be Looking at 2015 in review
26. 2015 in Review: Paradise River, Dusk
27. The Obsessive Viewer Podcast – Ep 148 – 2015 in Review – Best and Worst Movies of the Year and Viewing Stats
28. Looking Back at 2015
29. Year in Review
30. New Zealand’s 2015: the year we hid from a world in need
31. End of the Year Survey 2015!
32. 2015 in transit
33. A New Year: 2015 In Review and Plans for 2016!
34. Bye bye 2015 and welcome 2016
35. Start 2016 with a Backwards Slide
36. Let’s Commence to Coordinate our Sights
37. Flee from Idolatry

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