I do so love it when the powerful, thus usurious villains and monsters get smashed and it happened one evening when I read the New Yorker story about the Facebook Phoney. I am so incredibly vengeful but am encouraged in that stance by Wise Man. These wise words were contained within the article. :
“I recently wrote a book, “Antisocial,” that shows how Zuckerberg and his fellow-founders came to build a new attentional economy, and how their techno-utopian ideology brought us to our current moment. At the core of this ideology—by turns naïve, blithely rapacious, and hubristic—was the technologists’ determination to avoid being perceived as gatekeepers. It’s now clear that they were gatekeepers—what else to call people whose algorithms influenced what billions of people saw, heard, and knew about the world?—and yet they were surprisingly adept at denying this fact. Some of them, at least in some circles, are still getting away with it.:
Do you not love the power behind those words and the words themselves??? The New Yorker article was written by Andrew Marantz – that man gets my ever lasting praise. Then Marantz goes on in great and glorious prose to say this: “ It’s one thing for Zuckerberg to build the world’s biggest microphone and then choose to rent that microphone to liars, authoritarians, professional propagandists, or anyone else who can afford to pay market rate. It’s another, more galling thing for him to claim that he is doing so for everyone’s benefit. And yet many of the members of Congress at last week’s hearing—the Republican ones, to be precise—seemed to take Zuckerberg’s rationale at face value. “I do want to commend you,” Andy Barr, a G.O.P. congressman from Kentucky, said. “I don’t want you to be bullied by politicians to relinquish our treasured free speech under the First Amendment.” Free speech is treasured indeed. It is also, in a discussion about Facebook’s policies, a canard: the First Amendment restricts government, not private companies. Bill Posey, a Republican from Florida, also encouraged Facebook to resist any temptation “to censor its users’ speech.” He was particularly concerned about one form of censorship: “I was disappointed that Facebook would consider restricting free-speech rights to communicate the risks associated with vaccinations.”
Faithful readers will know that in the last five years I have lived in three places – the UK, Canada and now back in the USA. I do love how the ‘elite’ media in the United States does fight back. The wonderful media say: Are you kidding? Do you think we are stupid? I am not familiar with that kind of ‘back lash to stupidity does exist in the UK or can Canada. Also US laws are more strident and more rigidly enforced than in either the UK or in Canada. What is strident? Harsh, raucous, rough, grating, rasping, jarring, loud, stentorian, shrill, screeching, piercing, ear-piercing; unmelodious, unmusical, discordant, dissonant, unharmonious; rare stridulous, stridulant, stridulatory, stentorious. ANTONYMS soft, dulcet.
But enough of this serious stuff. I shall tell you of my wonderful time in London. I cam to the UK as a reward because 2019 has, in many ways, been living hell. Many who read this blog may not realize it because the negative things are not revealed. But the horrors experienced are unbelievable, particularly on August 18,2019. Then along came knee surgery, definitely fun experience that. I was reduced to a baby, a child as I slowly pieced myself together with the aid of a miraculous care giver. But I became self sufficient, worked so hard at recovery that all of my doctors approved of my trip to London Town (and its environs). It has so far been glorious – I have been totally spoiled to death. At the conclusion of my stay in the Hampshires a driver escorted me to London Town. Such traffic has never in the course history been revealed, it took hours and hours to get here. . But he sent me this wonderful Instagram:
He: Well at least you had a wonderful taxi driver to keep you entertained for a few hours on the way there lol It was a pleasure to meet you Alexis, you are one in a million. I hope it goes well. Good luck xx
Me: It must have been so boring for you on the ride back home without the ability to hear my tales of woe. I consider it a real privilege to have met you and to have been ‘given’ the hours to spend with you.
You see, the horrendous traffic did have a good and rather powerful effect as our time together was extended and we did have an opportunity to know one another better. He was forced to alter his entire day as it was impossible for him to keep his later commitments but once that was resolved we could get back to leisurely chatting away in stalled and stopped traffic.
We arrive at our destination, my precious hotel and I am greeted by a chorus of Welcome Backs. I nearly fainted as whispered to my driver.
Me: Did you hear that? They remember me and they have hundreds, if not thousands of guests. .
He: (and others) Well, you are rather unique.
I guess I am – pondering that – do not know when or how or why that all happened – nor what the purpose is. Somehow I feel there is a purpose. What is ponder? To think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. It is to give thought to, consider, review, reflect on, mull over, contemplate, study, meditate on, muse on, deliberate about, cogitate on, dwell on, brood on/over, ruminate about/on, chew over, puzzle over, speculate about, weigh up, turn over in one’s mind; be in a brown study; informal put on one’s thinking cap about; archaic pore on; rare cerebrate.
I am assisted in my rumination my speculations, my deliberations and my reflections by my dreams which I occasionally recall and analyze in some detail. They do leave me with a sense of peace and purpose – almost as if God is speaking to me – a bit indirectly. People and their indirect messages?!?! I drives me mad sometimes.
The next day dawned and another magical experience emerged. When living in London I had a personal trainer – Brian and I trained outside because I hate gyms. We would walk and talk and exercise and stretch along the streets of London. We stayed in touch and when my physical therapist in San Francisco informed the need for continuing therapy while in London. I contacted Brian, we set up appointments – the first being yesterday. It was down to the warm waters of the hotel spa – Brian was an expert, his skills and abilities amazed me. I was increasingly mobile in the water with ever-growing flexibility. Afterwards ice was brought to my room and the knee was iced. I was happy to learn of Brian’s marriage to a woman I met during my former London days. We discussed how a relationship requires work,that “they lived happily after after” is just a myth, and a harmful one at that. One declares their commitment to work on the relationship through marriage.
Ok, Ok, Ok, I do realize I have had three and left those marriages. but when there are no children involved it is a possibility particularly when none of my marriages were wisely entered into in the first place. So there! So there! So there! If I ever did the marriage thing again it would be done with wisdom. So there! So there! So there!
The photographs are of me in the Cotswolds – with my stick and gazing into a Christmas store with SEE.
