Second contractor comes today to assess the issues with our alcove/tub and provide another bid, as well as give us quotes on the other projects. I’m actually pretty excited to get that plant shelf built and installed – the plants, I am sure, will enjoy more sun from the windows, and I am also sure my wife will be glad to have the “plant clutter” restricted to the shelf and the various plant corners rather than have our whole front room used.
Last night, I read an article on Substack by Damien Echols titled Internet Bullies, and several parts resonated with me:
Energy always seeks expression. When it can’t move forward, it moves sideways. When it can’t be transformed, it becomes destructive.
Social media gives this energy a perfect outlet. It offers distance, anonymity, and the illusion of righteousness. You can discharge aggression without consequence. You can feel powerful without building anything. You can feel morally superior without changing your own life. The screen becomes a pressure valve.
It’s true – most people say things online they dare not say to the face of another. That Mike Tyson quote, “Social media made you all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it,” is 100% spot-on. But Damien continues:
The tragedy is that the same energy being used to tear others down could have been used to transform the person’s own life. That anger could have fueled training. That obsession could have built skill. That vigilance could have become self awareness. But transformation requires humility, patience, and sustained effort…things that reactive minds avoid at all costs.
So instead, they choose the shortcut. The hit of righteousness. The brief feeling of power. The illusion of meaning.
This is something I noticed when leaving social media – it was much easier to focus my energy on other much more important things in life. The time I spent doomscrolling social media only fueled my outrage, and I realized that most of it was manipulative. One could read about a relatively unbiased situation, but it didn’t take long until the armchair politicos and so-called “influencers” jumped in and made it partisan – doing their best to whip “their side” into a frenzy.
I don’t need that sort of negativity in my life. It’s bad enough that the shit is already happening, but the nature of these social media mobs seems to indicate that the entire purpose is to keep us divided and fighting amongst ourselves, rather than be aware and see what our “leaders” are doing.
Anyhow, I have things to take care of but I’ll leave this last quote from the article:
The ego cannot tolerate seeing itself as petty or cruel, so it recasts the attack as virtue.
Damien Echols: Internet Bullies
Song of the day: Reckoning Day by Megadeth
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