But It’s All Over Now

Great song performed by the Rolling Stones way back when.

Because I used to love her, but it’s all over now. That’s how I feel about the internet. I remember when it first came about. We had AOL. You could get online via a dial-up modem. Most everything was home-grown, it felt like there was plenty of space. Of course there was pornography, my guess is it was one of the first things that got posted outside of educational sites, guys being what they are. I remember my surprise in visiting the Whitehouse website, when I forgot to use. .org. So you could end up in some bad spots but nothing you couldn’t just back out of.

Now I think of it as the failed promise of the internet. Then, it was a collection of small sites that we hoped would open up the world. Within a few years a couple of dominant players arrived and took over. About 2010 I realized, from my own family experience, that starting a delivery service for seniors would be a good idea. Before I knew it, Shipt was advertising in my area, and my dreams of setting up a local service for those who could no longer drive were dashed. Shipt was everywhere, and there was no need to speak to anyone to have things delivered. Just go online (most of the customers wouldn’t use computers but their families would). In this case, instead of humans interacting with each other, it’s humans interacting with machines. And you can repeat that a million times over. Because the simple fact is, it’s easier to work with a machine than it is with a human.

Now everyone who uses social media, and I am one of the very few people I know who don’t, puts details about their lives out on the internet, probably thinking that only a few people have access to it. That is so wrong. Once it’s out there, it can end up literally anywhere. A former law enforcement office told me a few years ago that he stays away from social media. Everything law enforcement used to have to get a warrant for is now available for free on social media. You may have nothing to hide, but the world changes, rapidly these days, and what was innocent last year may be incriminating this year.

But that’s not the worst part of it. The worst part is that social media has become a megaphone for everyone to shout insults at the world. As though this is how civilization is supposed to be. Every time something happens in the world everyone runs to social media and puts their two cent’s worth in. Every event has a commentary immediately, without time for gathering facts, without time for reflection. And the worst, most hateful, most arrogant and unfeeling comments are the ones that go viral. It is poisoning our society. People say things on social media that they would never say to someone face to face. They are shielded by the screen from immediate condemnation, or a slap in the face. But the screen no longer shields anyone for long. I’ve seen numerous accounts of people whose lives were crushed because of social media, and often for things that weren’t even true.

So why not disengage with it? If people would stop using it, the world would not end. They would still have friends. You might have to reach out to them directly, by text or heaven forbid, a real phone call where you can hear emotions in each other’s voice and not have to rely on emojis for kinda sorta what you meant. If the whole social media era ended tomorrow it would be the best hope we have of rebuilding our broken society.

Posted on 09/23/2025 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

Just What the Truth Is,

Heard this old song by the Moody Blues the other day:

“Nights in white satin, never reaching the end. Letters I’ve written, never meaning to send. Beauty I’ve always missed, with these eyes before, just what the truth is, I can’t say anymore…..”

Hard to tell what the truth is these days. Everyone is spouting their version to the universe daily, or sometimes multiple times per day. The internet has given us many wonderful things, but social media is not one of them. For the first time in history, anyone can say anything and have a global audience.

When radio and especially television came on the scene decades ago, there was wisdom enough in the world to know that there needed to be some rules about what could be broadcast. When a technology is new, it is not wise to let it run unchecked through society. Now, most of the controls that were in place back then are gone. Broadcast media bears little resemblance to the programming of the fifties and sixties.

But social media has shattered all the rules, which is the company mantra of one of it’s founders. Run fast and break things. What if the thing they are breaking is society itself? Because individuals can say one thing to journalists and then post on social media to talk about how ‘they really feel.’ We say things on social media that we would never say to someone’s face. That’s part of the charm. But these posts are finding their way to more and more audiences. More and more we are engaging in behavior that really had no place in society prior to the advent of social media. Sure, there was the National Enquirer, available at most grocery store checkout lanes. It was marketed with the magazines and entertainment, not with the newspapers. But now, people just read what they see on social media and think it’s the same as news, which it is not. Anyone can take a photo and post a comment about it. Many can alter photos, it’s not hard to do.

And what’s with Twitter, now called X. I signed up for it when it first came out but I never could see any value in it. Do I really need someone basically texting me every day, or several times a day with whatever’s on their mind? Isn’t this a kind of brainwashing, someone whispering little blurbs in your ear all the time? Or several someones, like a schizophrenic. I recently read about a woman whose life was ruined by some false social media depictions of her in a compromising situation with a teacher or coach, I don’t remember the details. I thought, if you weren’t on social media, it would never have mattered. It’s only because we let this form of technology invade our every moment that it has any power at all. And all we have to do to stop it is quit using it. It really is that simple. You don’t need it. I used to spend at least an hour a day checking in on my feed. I quit several years ago, when I realized all the damage that was being done, not to me personally, but to others who had gotten to far into it. And I got along just fine without it. Yes, I may have missed my friend posting a picture of the lovely steak dinner he had cooked, or another group of friends out at a local restaurant. But very little of any real importance has slipped by me after cutting loose from it.

It is an addiction, by any definition of the word. The harm that is being done to society, by breaking down the social norms may end up being devastating. Don’t for a second believe that the inventors of this technology care in the least about the plebes who use their tech. They absolutely consider you to be fools whom they have tricked into giving them all your data so they can profit from it. And profit from it they have, to the tune of billions of dollars. So it’s not just a place where you can go and check in with your friends. It’s a data-driven, world-wide surveillance system with no oversight, in most countries. In a few countries there is oversight in the form of the government knowing every single key stroke you make online.

Hope is a wonderful thing. It keeps us going when times are tough. I have little hope that the world will turn it’s back on social media on a scale large enough to stop the damage being done to our civilized world. I’ve been saying this for years and no one has listened in the least. But unlike the lyric in the song, I do know a few things that are true.

Posted on 06/17/202506/17/2025 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

I’m a Member of Country Club

Another great country music song, I’m a member of a country club, country music is what I love. I drive an old Ford pickup truck……at any honky-tonk roadside pub, I’m a member of a country club.

Maybe we need to remind our elected representatives that they’re not, actually members of a country club. Their job is to listen to the people in their district, the ones who pay them to speak for them in Congress. Many of them, probably my own state included, get paid far more from lobbyists and wealthy donors. Contributions to their re-election campaigns, jobs for their relatives, nice additions to their salary. Now it seems they no longer want to listen to anyone except those who agree with them. They don’t want to go to town halls in their local communities anymore because there might be (I would say, certainly will be) people there who are angry and upset about what their government is doing. What elected officials are allowing to happen on their watch.

More and more, it looks like once you get in, you’re a member of an elite country club, where, if you are more interested in yourself than in your constituents, you can make a fortune. Once elected it seems our representatives no longer represent the people, but something else altogether. They have a ticket to the big time.

Country clubs are great, though. There, you can be surrounded by vetted and ‘approved’ people. Money comes into it but looks are important too. It’s about as far from a democracy as you can get. There’s no merit involved except money and looks, and having the same opinions as the current members. That’s what a country club is, a place where like minded people can get together and not have to deal with those other people. The members are safe inside where everyone agrees with them. Anyone not following the rules is quickly asked to leave.

We may be fast approaching a time when those members will not tolerate anyone who disagrees with them. China and North Korea are examples. Every move is tracked, every communication is monitored, every action known. There can be no dissent. Russia allows dissent but anyone who gathers a following will probably first be given an opportunity to join. They would have to give up any outside ideas, become like all of the other members. If they choose not to join, they end up dead, one way or another. The country club members are in charge. Once they have the power, votes don’t matter any more.

Country clubs are fine for those who prefer them. Democratic leaders are not elected to a country club though. They are responsible first and foremost to the people who voted for them, not their ‘club members’.

Posted on 05/19/202505/19/2025 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

It’s So Easy To Slip

Great song by Bob Weir, vocalist and guitarist for the Grateful Dead. “It’s so easy to slip, it’s so easy to fall. And let your memory drift and do nothing at all”. So appropriate. It’s so easy to let the world skip on by especially if you are a politician and more worried about your career than the people you are in an elected position to watch out for.

So easy too for a democracy to become that in name only. Russia calls itself a democracy. But notice how anyone who opposes the current ruler ends up dead. Usually they get put in jail and then die while there. Sometimes they are poisoned while in other countries, with substances that are only available to defense departments of large countries. Russian laws are there for the aristocracy, not for the people. The people have no rights against the government. Anyone challenging the ruling class is arrested or killed. The exact opposite of what the founding fathers intended when they wrote the American Constitution. A government by the people for the people, not for a select few who work themselves into positions of great wealth and power.

Because many have been left behind in the economy of today they are rightly upset about the way the government is functioning. Currently many people think that having three equal branches of government is too cumbersome and would prefer to have a CEO, or two, to take charge and get things done. It might help in the short term. but down the road when there are no restraints and things aren’t going the right direction it will be a different story. There are very few in history who have given up power once they were offered it. George Washington was one. He could’ve kept the presidency for as long as he lived but he chose not to. He realized that it wasn’t him but the people who needed to be in charge. Leaders of democracies are responsible to the people, who have the ultimate say over them. But if the leader sets out to tear down the curbs and restrictions on his power, and no one stops him on the principle of it, then it won’t be possible to go back. Hitler was elected too and he dissolved the governing body so that he could do what he wanted to without anyone standing in his way.

Our current leaders admire dictators. They think they themselves are good at dictating. They really don’t believe in the three branch system of government. I doubt they have ever read the constitution, or had any understanding of it if they did. It’s not in their nature. One person, or two, with a handful of cronies ruling the empire. That’s how they operate. Because it’s so much easier, of course, than having to convince others who disagree with you, that you are right. We’ve lost, not only the ability to compromise, but the ambition to compromise. All or nothing is the new modus operandi. And every day they are testing the limits of their power, always pushing for more and more, at the expense of the other two governing bodies. Whittle away at the legislature here and a little at the judiciary there and soon neither will have the powers granted by the constitution. All the reins will be in one set of hands.

Is this what America has come to? Are we really willing to give up the greatest democracy in the world because it’s easier than working out a solution we can all agree on?

All it will take from here is to do nothing. But it’s going to take an overwhelming majority to do something, and soon, before there’s nothing anyone can do.

Posted on 03/27/202503/27/2025 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

Make America Great Again

Just when was this period of time when America was great? Because it’s looking more and more like the early twentieth century. Then, a few men had amassed enormous wealth. Small businesses were bought up and shut down to stifle competition. Prices kept rising because anyone who tried to come in with a better product at a better cost was quickly put out of business. That seems pretty close to what’s going on today. CEOs travel around the world on their private planes, going from one luxury mansion to another while the cost of living for working families keeps rising. Groceries, gasoline, not to mention rent or the cost of owning a home, all have steadily increased, and rapidly increased since the rise of the super rich.

Is there a correlation? I suspect there is. Technology is right there in the middle of it, maybe at the root of it too. Technology has allowed companies to offload many of the costs of doing business onto the consumer. For instance, how often do you get a paper statement in the mail these days? Not often at all and in many instances you pay a fee for that service. While it may be fine to skip the paper invoices, where did that savings to the company go? It went right into the exorbitant salaries of the executives and the shareholders. Self checkouts have saved companies billions, maybe even trillions. Prices continue to rise though because the wealthy not only need that money, but deserve it too.

When job cuts are made at an organization, who benefits? I heard one woman on the news the other day saying she hoped the savings being found in the Education department would be passed on to the states. I had to laugh. Those savings are going to fund tax cuts for the rich. How is it possible that billionaires many times over care anything about the poor? The poor are there for them to take advantage of, and to be afraid of. After all, the extremely wealthy, with a few exceptions, believe that every one is just like them. Willing to do anything to set themselves up with so much money they never have to worry again. Because they are ruthless, they believe everyone else is too. They live in a world where everything is cut-throat, get the other guy before he gets me. The fact that there’s a whole world out there who simply want to work for a living, have enough to raise their family and have a little fun once in a while, is alien to them. That money might not be the be all and end all of life is deeply offensive to them. People who want more from life than money are considered losers. They are to be stamped out because without the masses working as hard as they can funneling money into the hands of the few, how can they amass their enormous fortunes?

There’s talk about this new return to the greatness of America putting humans on Mars. Just what kind of a place is Mars going to be? It looks extremely likely that everyone will work one hundred and twenty hours a week until they are used up, then cast aside to make room for the next guy to make his sacrifice. Slaves to the ultra wealthy. A few women, slaves as well, will be there for servicing the men. I wish all the ones who want that kind of a world would just go on and go. If you can’t make it to Mars, set up some space stations somewhere in between. When you look back down to Earth maybe you’ll see us losers waving good-bye.

Posted on 03/08/2025 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

It’s a Mean Old World

The first time I heard that was from an unlikely source. Decades ago I had a client who was an elderly Jewish widow. She had all kinds of money, owned a condominium in the same building as Elton John in Buckhead, Atlanta. She and her husband had worked hard and been successful so I couldn’t understand why she had that outlook on life. Then one day I was at her home and her son stopped by. He was in his fifties I would guess and was permanently crippled from polio, which he had contracted as a child. I began to see how she might think the world was mean if she had seen him suffer, both physically, and in other ways from going through life with a disability. He, like my parents, was born before the polio vaccine was invented. None of my immediate relatives ever contracted it, but neither my mom nor my dad ever learned to swim because of the danger when they were growing up. I never found out any more about my client’s son’s story. All the money in the world could not cure what polio had done to him during childhood.

A lot of years have passed since I heard my elderly friend make that comment and for the most part I had forgotten it, being an optimist I guess because so many kind things have happened to me I tend to take the good in people for granted. But here lately it does seem like the world has gotten meaner. We’re all shouting at each other, cursing and threatening to kill each other over the slightest thing. I know social media has caused most of it, the more we give into our emotions online, the better our chances of going viral, which seems to be everyone’s goal these days. We can now vent our frustrations to the world. As I recall, pre-internet that was something I would only do with my closest friends and family and in private. Now it’s become the norm to show our worst selves to the world at large. And where a friend or family member would listen and try to calm our negative emotions, now once it goes viral there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. The media companies themselves, but we all know that isn’t going to happen, not in a million years.

So there we are. Yes, there’s lots of good things going on but what gets the most attention in all of our media is the ugly, the frightening, the worst. Maybe that little old lady was right, it is a mean old world after all. Too bad because most people are really basically good. I still believe that, in spite of how it looks online.

Posted on 07/08/2024 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

Project Liberty

I read an article today about a new service that seeks to create an altogether different Internet. The inventors of the current model say it’s fundamentally flawed. It’s design allows a few tech giants to gather up everyone’s data and use it without consent or even knowledge that it’s being done. They say that it can never be fixed because of the way it was built and the only solution is to start over. I agree wholeheartedly.

I remember when the Internet first came into use. I was thrilled with all of the amazing things it was going to bring into our lives. And in many ways it has. I currently work from home which could not happen without it. I check out many websites on a weekly or even daily basis for updates. But outside these places that I feel fairly confident of I no longer have much faith in the authenticity of what I’m seeing. And this is before the full implementation of AI. Just think what can of worms that’s going to open up. Very soon you will not be able to trust anything you see online. The ability to gather up data and manipulate it to fit whatever model is in vogue at the time will overwhelm the internet.

One thing I know, having worked in the tech field for almost twenty five years, is you do not want the current group of tech wizards to be in charge of anything. They are brilliant in many ways but they are also not and most likely never will be adults. It’s as though we’ve given the keys to the universe to a group of teenage boys who have no more moral aptitude than you would expect of a smart ass sixteen year old. You keep hoping to see some glimmer of responsibility beginning to appear but it never does. There’s too much money blinding them to what their success is really about. Part of it, a large part, was being at the right place at the right time. Some deliberately positioned themselves there but others were just the lucky ones. Their adolescent egos will never let them admit that nor will adversity ever cause them to stop and re-evaluate.

The damage done to society by the digital garbage in our online environment may turn out to be as devastating as the plagues of the dark ages. No one knows what’s true anymore so they choose what they want to believe and once started the internet provides justification for any and every point of view. We rush headlong into the abyss of our worst nightmares. That’s what the current version of the internet is providing us, a way to make almost anything we can imagine seem real. Don’t for a moment think that the boys behind all of this will have any qualms at all about using any and every device they know of to get you to click. True or false, right or wrong, makes absolutely no difference. Getting you to click is the only thing that matters.

Unless we drop their version of the internet and adopt a new one that is built on principles of privacy and trust. Check out Project Liberty. I hope we all live to see it flourish.

Posted on 06/28/2024 by thinkb4its2late_6cwoeb

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