It is I, the Beta, Omicron, and Decepitcon, your savior, Dave Vanachronism!
It strikes me that every wrongheaded sentiment in society ultimately derives from the culture of inherent, unconditional rightness. As I grow older, I find myself less prone to have an opinion about anything, and to distrust just about everyone who does.
I am supposed to have a lot of opinions about things. Very often, people ask me my opinion about things I’ve barely even thought about before. This is always an enjoyable experience, but I never understand why they are interested in my response. I certainly don’t think it’s because they believe my opinion is accurate; I think it’s probably because they like knowing that a potentially inaccurate opinion has the potential to exist (and that holding such an opinion is socially acceptable, particularly if the holder has no specialized knowledge of the subject itself).
All the world’s stupidest people are either zealots or atheists. If you want to truly deduce how intelligent someone is, just ask this person how they feel about any issue that doesn’t have an answer; the more certainty they express, the less sense they have. This is because certainty only comes from dogma.
Like all techno-media advances, the Internet is good for the world in the short term and bad for the world in the long term. But its most meaningful impact is neutral — it provides an opportunity for average people to create public identities that are entirely their own vision. The self-portrait you upload on Myspace is what you always look like. Always. It does not matter if you’ve honestly enjoyed the movies you list as favorites or read the books you claim to love; by typing those titles, they constitute your aesthetic. Who is going to disagree?
This, I have no doubt, has been wonderful for the self-esteem of countless people who are not designed to thrive in a less pliable, more judgmental, wholly nonvirtual society. There are now two distinct worlds in which people can live simultaneously. But that also creates a new kind of problem: Because of technology, the gap between the life one inherits and the life one creates has become exponentially vast. The fake world is much, much larger. Every online existence is a noncommercial simulation of celebrity culture: Users develop a character (i.e., the best-case portrait of themselves) and then track the size of its audience (via the number of friends they acquire or page views they receive). As a result, private citizens now face a dilemma previously reserved for the authentically famous: How do they cope with the disparity between how they are seen in the communal sphere and how they live in private?
Obviously, the idea of people having secret lives is old. However, the idea of having a secret public life is new — and it’s a different kind of secret. It’s more creative than escapist, and it requires the person to self-identify as a public figure. Over time (or at least on occasion), the online creator will desire separation from that celebrity construction and return to the simpler, unimagined existence that was always there. Don’t get pissed off over the fact that the way you feel about culture isn’t some kind of universal consensus. Because if you do, you will end up feeling betrayed. And it will be your own damn fault. You will feel bad, and you will deserve it.
Our notions and arguments for belief have their own dignity and require a certain distance from presumption to fully appreciate their complexity. By ignoring the theological arguments of all but the most facile of the believers, you have gained nothing but further alienation and lack of truthful communication. But that is not the point…
There is a certain dignity to humanity and however much you believe in your reasoning and perceptions, not only is toleration of differing opinions a necessity, outright respect is as well. If you cannot come to demonstrate the smallest appreciation of another’s opinions, where can you expect a semblance of toleration of your own? Eventually, under rational circumstances, the truth will always come out, but if you do nothing but step on everyone’s toes in order to protect your preconceived notions of reality, truth will on some level be always impeded and stifled. Fair, honest appraisal without dismissiveness, is the only way for you personally to meet that goal.
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