Sheep herding

James Madison argued at the constitutional convention that the president should not be decided by a popular vote of the general masses alone.  Why?  Because he felt that the average American was not educated enough to make that decision.  A person could argue that in Madison’s time the average American was less educated, had less opportunities for a formal education, had less access to current news and topics of debate.  But lately I’ve been concerned about the growing problem of people who act as sheep in our country and how almost anyone can use the internet to influence, not just a couple thousand, but an entire nation of people within minutes.  Literally minutes.

Think about how far our country has come in the past 20 years.  In that space of time, you’ve gone from having people find out their information through books, newspapers and magazines along with TV outlets to turning to Facebook and Twitter for their “news” source. It’s true that even the news affiliates can skew the news into whichever direction they choose.  But the reality is that they had to report at least some facts.  Today, someone can create a false meme, with incorrect information and a photoshopped picture and people will click like and share, literally millions of times, without ever checking the accuracy.

No, no, you say.  This doesn’t happen.  Wrong.  This happens all the time.  Every day.  Multiple times a day, just on my Facebook alone.  Now, I realize we are in an election year so that’s partially why I’m a little sensitive.  I realize that this is a free country and people have the right to go around spreading erroneous messages about the president, the lottery, or even 52 damn thoroughbreds that got homes 5 years ago.  But because you can, doesn’t  mean you should.  

Take this week for example.  Apparently thousands of people liked and shared this meme:

Those people never took the time to do that actual math, or even think about the fact that it doesn’t seem remotely reasonable.  I’m not a math genius and I can tell at a glance that the math just doesn’t work there.  But people blindly liked and shared it around the world until some rational person took the time to say, “Hey, wait - something isn’t quite right here.”  

The other day someone shared a photoshopped picture of Hillary Clinton shaking hands with Osama Bin Laden on my Facebook.  Warning people to not vote for her because she’s friends with terrorists.  When I posted a link to the snopes article that proved the image was false and photoshopped, did they take the image down?  Did they become embarrassed and correct themselves?  No, they deleted the comment.  In doing so, propagated the lie and spread more falsehood.  Now, I’m not the biggest Hillary fan, but if you’re going to attack someone, do it with the truth.  It’s not like there isn’t plenty of actual ammunition against her without making something up.

The blatant falsehoods about Obama that go around, the misinformation and scare tactics about muslims and ISIS, the damn 52 thoroughbreds that do NOT need homes and are NOT going to slaughter, it just seems endless some days and so frustrating.  I don’t want to be that person that has to post on every meme you share, “No Obama did not say that and, in actuality, do you really think the Founders meant for you to be able to buy a fully automatic weapon with your second amendment rights?  Kind of hard for someone to go on a mass murdering spree with a musket that takes a minute to reload. Maybe gun control, not taking your guns away, is a good idea? After all, that is what Obama actually SAID.”  I guess it would solve my problem because I would have a lot less “friends” in a short hurry.  

Can we all just agree to do the responsible thing and take a second to read, think, double check and be respectful before we click “like” or “share”?  Can we all agree to at least try?  Hell, when people post ridiculous memes, there is a whole culture of people out there that have to try to get the truth out through “counter memes”.  What does that tell you about sheep?

Happiness isn't easy

The other day I was checking up on a good friend of mine who has gone through a lot in the past couple of years.  I was so happy to hear that she was doing well and finding happiness. She commented that she could see from Facebook that things were going well for me too.  And on that day, at that moment, things really were.  But I thought back over the past two years, and most specifically the past year and how often my positive posts on Facebook were a desperate attempt to remind myself or maybe even convince myself of what I should be doing and how I wanted to feel.  My friend’s comment reminded me that often times I scroll through Facebook and am jealous of people who seem to have it all together, have blissful and happy lives without a care in the world.  Her comment was the wake up call I needed to realize, that as much as I was putting a positive perspective on what my life was, there were probably dozens of friends and family that were doing exactly the same thing, day after day.  There is no reason to be jealous of what you don’t know.  No more reason than there is to judge people who aren’t positive and happy.  They are doing the best they can at any given moment as well.  And sometimes, the best we can is a whole lot of work.

Happiness is hard work.  And over the past year I’ve learned that it is a choice that you have to make every single day.  Of course some days are easier than others.  I love the easy days.  I live for those easy days.  Maybe it is just me, but those easy days seem to be contagious.  If you “catch” one, they seem to “catch” on and before you know it you’ve had a whole string of days when the easy was, well…. easy!  

Other days it is almost more of a struggle than one person can take to keep putting that one foot in front of the other.  Keep looking for the positive side.  Keep practicing gratitude.  Some days I want to scream about how much something sucks or how unfair something is.  Some days I don’t want to meditate, I don’t want to practice mindfulness,  I don’t want to practice breathing, I just want to have things turn around and go my way.  I just want things to not be so damn hard.  On those days, happiness is a project.  

I guess, what I’m trying to say is that I learned a lot from that one statement.  I learned that I need to stop being jealous of someone’s positivity because they could be working just as hard as I am.  I was reminded not to judge others for their negativity because they are trying as hard as the rest of us to find elusive happiness.  I need to be kind with myself on the days when happiness is hard and cherish the easy days.