Keep Calm And Rock On

It may seem like tumultuous time. It may seem like things are spinning out of control. It may seem like people are fighting more. Guess what, we've been here before and we've endured worse.  More after the jump.

Let's start by assigning blame.  Facebook is one of the primary causes of increased tensions across the world. Facebook is an amplifier, taking normal thoughts and turning them into screams. It allows faceless jackasses the opportunity to make baseless statements, rude remarks and assassinate otherwise impeachable character.  Facebook takes away the facial expressions that denote whether you are happy, sad or joking when you are speaking. It depersonalizes all communication and makes everything so damn contentious.

The internet itself should also shoulder a lot of the blame. It is chock full of sites that offer opinion as fact, half-truths and out right lies.  Gullible people will take these 'facts' and fight over them even though they have no basis in reality.  With all of this in mind, I offer you some facts.

*We have had more contentious presidential races (some even involving accusations of murder).

* We have had giant corporations we grew up with tank (everybody's crying over Twinkies, where's the tears for Blockbuster, Wherehouse Music or WCW Wrestling?)

*We have had giant fights over religion since the beginning of time (and this one makes the web doubly fun!).

*We have been involved in far too many wars with and without suspect origins (Research "Gulf Of Tonkin" if you think the search for W.M.D.s was ridiculous).

*The people of the Mideast have been blowing each other up forever

*States have threatened to 'secede' over and over again.

As I mentioned in the opening, our new found avenues of communication allow anyone with an opinion (educated on the topic at hand or not) to put it out there.  We're living out large so everything seems bigger and more important when it is literally the same old sh**.  I find myself getting sucked into the drama all the time. From my end, I can't stand when I see someone post something hateful or is a gross exaggeration or a wrongful characterization of a topic. Even then at the end of the day, even if I thoroughly research my response, all the other person has to do is quote some bogus stuff they read on some sketchy bloggers website. These days people think if someone holds their breath and jumps up and down while saying "I'm telling the truth, I'm telling the truth" that that person is, "telling the truth".  Quite frequently they are not 'telling the truth' or they are telling what they think is the truth based on sketchy information.

My advice to you. Keep calm, rock on.  Go look at some kitty pictures.  Most of all, remember that we've been here before and we'll be here again.