It’s becoming scary out there. I am starting to fear for the future, and not sure how or what I can do to change the course of things. And I keep wondering when did things go awry, when was the exact moment we gave up on ourselves. I am not sure I will ever be able to answer this question or indeed if it matters anymore.
What I know is something started changing when we became too comfortable, when we stopped thinking for ourselves, when we stopped reading and questioning all that was placed in front of us.
Reading a scientific article became too difficult; we only needed to read the summary.
Seeing a film was too long; we only needed the imdb synopsis.
Going outside to explore was too much work; we only needed to google the images.
And that’s where our freedoms were taken away just under our own noses. We were fed false/biased news and we accepted them for truth.
We would jump from opinion to opinion without questioning who is saying this and why.
We became the 140 character generation; the generation that only was allowed 140 characters to say what they felt, what they thought, the generation that just followed and liked, most of the times not fully realizing what they followed or liked.
And that is when all of this started happening; the targeted attacks to individuals, to races, to whole nations.
But I am still optimistic. I still believe we can make a difference, every single person can make a difference. And I do make this pledge for myself. I will break my 140 mold that I made for myself. I will start questioning more, look into the root of things, the interests lurking behind decisions, and I will speak out more.
I will try and do my best and put my 140 world to good use.