Why Facebook Only Helps the Second-Hander: Keeping the “frenemies” at a proper distance
By now it should be clear why I do not participate in Facebook other than some very remote advancement of my literary projects. Even with those, I do not engage in the practice of associating with the mass collective of society whether it be friends, family, or “frenemies” in any means whatsoever other than this blog, which consists of top down advice and opinions intended to do two things—act as a personal notebook for myself to work out complicated topics—and to offer advice to those who need it—which is most of the world. For a person like me, there is nothing to be gained by Facebook associations. It is only good for the type of person who feels they need to justify their existence with “like” buttons and foul language to pluck up their social feathers in the manner of a peacock. In that Facebook realm it is only the busy body type who are always on the lookout for what everyone else is doing who prosper when in their private lives they are miserable failures—Facebook allows them to be second-handers in society, to steal ideas and concepts from others via a “Facebook wall” then pass them off as their own gaining notoriety within a collective group—whatever it may be. So for me, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by Facebook. Yes it connects people from all over the world; yes it is a great way to get product notoriety—but there is a cost. It allows the bottom feeders of civilization to feel like they are equal contributors to intellectual dialogue and legislative value within circles of influence—and that is proving to be detrimental, culturally.
There is a reason that the founders of Facebook ended up gloriously rich primarily by investors seeking data collection—particularly among government agencies. The reconnaissance of who knows who and how and what little brat is harassing the latest elderly grandpa over some old-fashioned idea of family value—is just the kind of scouting report that enemies of tradition seek to capture. No longer does the CIA, or FBI have to seek complicated warrants to spy on potential threats to their existence—they just check the Facebook wall of a potential target to see what they are saying, and who likes their opinions, and who hates them. If there are those in dissidence, it is far easier to steer those minds in a negative direction against the target than to launch a complicated counter-strike involving hundreds of man hours and a lot of foot work to do the same just ten years ago. Now, the soothsayers and busybodies rule the planet from Facebook leaving those of a private mind at a severe disadvantage as the chaotic thinkers through social media now have equal latitude in cyberspace with the wise and well-earned intellect.
This is just an example, but it is one that I witnessed from afar over the Holiday season among a particular group of such busy bodies. An elderly couple wanted a family photograph but one grandchild is having particular trouble with drugs and personal social destruction. The parents of this child of course are defensive as to any judgment because ultimately it points back to them as the ones at fault for their kid’s behavior. So the friend of this poor child was brought into a family photograph for Christmas causing all kinds of commotion. The friend to the rest of the family is a symbol of the type of person who has greatly deteriorated the mind of the beloved family member fair or not—so further memories of such a person was not welcomed into the family photograph, which caused quite an uproar on Facebook.
Those most guilty of allowing the mind of the fallen child to waver on self-destruction came out on Facebook fanning the flames of discontent against the elderly couple bringing in members of the family who weren’t even remotely connected to the situation other than maybe seeing each other at a wedding or funeral, to offer their defense of the vanquished child bringing equal opinion to the matter with collective banter—as if by measuring the number of opinionated fools somehow outranked the few who were close to the situation and hurt by it. Of those are people like the grandparents who simply are on Facebook to talk to old friends and family during their silver years as travel and frequency of correspondence is increasingly difficult due to their advanced age. Once the democratic banter against the grandparents had raised to a fever pitch then the youthful felt entitled to banter four letter expletives generally making fools of themselves as the parents of these children and their extended families of liberal round hounds mixed with drug induced whores cheered from the sidelines marveling in the power of democracy that Facebook provided them.
As cowardly souls in their normal every day lives going nowhere fast and stuck like wooly mammoths in the La Brea tar pits Facebook gave these mass swarms of know-nothings the latitude to hen-peck at the truly wise and intellectual just because they don’t like the opinions shaped by the elderly personal values. The cause of the poor child’s problems in question to begin with is that the parents screwed up in the upbringing causing directly the problems at hand. So to cover up that error, they seek the blanket of social acceptance through Facebook ridicule to justify their quandary of failure in lieu of collective salvation.
That is another trend of social media that is emerging—it allows the cowardly and stupid to sit from behind the comfort of their computers and cell phones to become suddenly bold in justifying their failed existences by summation of a collective opinion consensus among others of like mind without fear of retaliation. Because social media is so effective in combining those of like mind together, and the number of idiots in the world greatly outnumber the intelligent, it is easy for such faulty thinking people to build a consensus against wisdom by collective input. If a series of drug addicts and former bar whores believe that a judgment against some particular social value is too intense by a well-hated target, that slug of a personality can then seek out aunts, friends, or that loser drunk uncle who otherwise has no valuable opinions except to add to a “like” button on a Facebook wall, and other connected losers and social outcasts to suddenly be the most important people on the planet when they can gang up and pile drive against someone because their view of the world is too “old fashioned.”
I know all too well who my frenemies are, and unlike most, I feel absolutely no impulse to make them into “friends” by seeking their counsel about anything—anything at all. If anything, I seek ways to make more “frenemies” so that my daily correspondence is made more simple allowing me more time to do the things I truly enjoy. It is good to be pleasant and fair to all people—once. But once they screw you over in some literal or intellectual way—it is time to place them on the frenemie list and discard them from the inner circle of cherished memory forever. Facebook allows those fenemies to appear as friends when really it just empowers them to become more like succubus types behaving as social destroyers than any kind of wise counsel granted from a trusted relative or friend. Facebook is only good for the despot–the intelligent introvert has nothing to be gained from the interaction but to place themselves on a cross to be picked apart by the know-nothings and dregs of society.
For this blog, my opinion is all that matters. What I write and why I write it is my own decision and device. I do not seek the approval of one other human being on planet earth in providing it. The opinions come from deep within my own thought process and does not require anybody to “like” it. But when I see validation to my original opinions play out on the Facebook stage, just remember that I told you so. To the parents of the little girl in the example, I explained to them what was going to happen if they didn’t listen over twenty years ago to the wisdom my wife and I offered. But they chose to run away from that help, and screwed up their lives and those connected to them forever. And to further conceal their mistakes they found it opportune to pounce on a person whom I respect a great deal just because that person had an opinion about the poor choices of a lifestyle that has been conducted by that child and they didn’t want a hint of that in a family picture commemorating the future.
In Facebook misery loves company, and they do find themselves there easily. Once they do, they unite together to become a dangerous band of cyberspace thugs able to pardon their poor decisions in life with collective opinion attacking like a mob all those who fall outside of their social virus of Facebook groupings. But even through the expletives and tough talk the real measure of success in life—and death—is in how one lives and how things really end up in the end. For those who speak loudest against traditional opinion of value are those who even today are drug abusers, sex addicts, failed intellectuals, destroyed personalities, conservatives turned to liberal hippies with massive college debt, homeless wrecks cast aside by their own stubbornness and a youthful culture that is hell-bent on doing it all again by drowning out the wisdom of their elders who simply love them too much to let them fail without saying something. Facebook takes that traditional wise voice of old and drowns it in a collective goo of democracy providing the illusion that mistakes can be redeemed if enough people believe something to be true. The only people who really benefit from Facebook are the second-handers, the beings that live through other people. Those who don’t function from this modern social parasitic entity gain nothing, but lose a lot—which is why I don’t participate in Facebook—and I never will. I deal with enough “frenemies” on a daily basis at just about every level—and family is not immune to that experience. So there is nothing to be gained by breaking bread with them on Facebook. Because being a person of value, they can only take that value from you. They have nothing valuable to contribute otherwise making Facebook a lost cause.
Rich Hoffman
Visit Cliffhanger Research and Development
