polarization | David M Masters

Massive Polarization Is Google the Culprit?

Interestingly, I have a couple in my office with relationship issues. While they were conversing, they came to a fork in the road. “How about this?” says the husband, “Let’s Google it.” Both of them, the husband and the wife typed the same query into Google’s search engine and reviewed their results.

Based on their own individual Google search results, they were now equipped for a full-on battle of completely opposing views, thanks to Google.

In Google’s defense, Google is smart. It is nearly sentient. It knows each user, the device they are using, where they are located, and who is in or nearby their current vicinity. What communication languages, formats, providers, and locations they use. More importantly, what they like and what they don’t like about anything down to the most minute detail.

In this case, Google knows that the husband is likely to click on Google search results that will align with the opinions of his macho friends, while his wife is more likely to click on more positive links that reflect the ideas of her friends that see themselves as peace-loving but highly opinionated about what is right and what is wrong.

Same query: Opposing results.

Still, again in the defense of Google, Google is personalizing search results based on the user. That is hugely smart.

On the other hand, Google is perpetuating the one thing that I think is the biggest problem in our society today. Separation. The polar opposition of individuals in the proximity of each other.

Before the proliferation of Google and its manipulation of data and the people who access said data, people self-sequestered themselves into groups of like-mindedness. You could pretty much tell that if a person lived here, or there, they probably had a particular political view or bent.

Here, today, is a perfect example of two people in the most intimate of relationships, almost at each other’s throats, and here I am, watching the entire thing play out before my very eyes.

And this is what is destroying the United States if not the Internet-connected world as well. There is more angst and hate in the world than ever before.

Why?

Not because of Google, though Google does help to feed the fire, for whatever reason.

The biggest problem in the world today, is Judgment. I’m right, you’re wrong.

(Here comes the coding IF/THEN/ELSE routine.)

IF you don’t agree with me, you are wrong.

THEN I must do everything in my power to convert you to my way of thinking because you are wrong.

ELSE you are my enemy and you must be made to suffer some unfortunate fate, if not death, which may be the preferred price to pay for not thinking like me.

Oh, and it gets worse, THE GOLDEN STANDARD, “If you see someone not thinking like you and you do nothing, you are just as guilty as the faulty thinker, and you, too, must be outcast or punished accordingly.”

As an Olympian Life Coach, when I meet with a client, the client does not come into my world. Before the client ever enters the building, I’ve created a safe sanctuary, a sacred space, for that client to come in and be seated. Then I enter the room.

When I enter the room, I humbly and respectfully enter the client’s world. There is nothing for the client to defend. I have no preconceived expectations or judgments. I have respect and honor this person to be who he or she is at whatever stage of life he or she may be in.

I avail myself to the client to help him or her make his or her way through life, and in the best case scenario for me, because this is my mission in life, to help him or her achieve his or her highest and best, and make the world a better place.

That is all. I don’t have any agenda. No path to make them follow. They are the masters of their own lives and missions. My only function is to assist them so that they can accomplish whatever they might like to in this life.

And having this kind of attitude, which also carries over into all other areas of my life as well, I get access to the greatest data and information, that no one (or very few) people in the world ever get to know. My world is so diverse and colorful, I am utterly amazed and gracious every day.

Granted, some of the data, I could do without the knowledge of, but nonetheless, I have a better understanding of how diverse life can be, and I know things that would never make it to the media. I also feel as though I am blessed to be in this (maybe not so) enviable position.

Still, here I am, surrounded by, “YOU DON’T THINK LIKE ME, SO

- - - “get thee behind me.” Or alternatively, “go away.”
    - “I hate you!”
    - “you lost your job. Ha!”
    - “you can’t eat here!”
    - “you are not entitled to a helping hand.”
    - “you cannot attend.”
    - “you can’t play.”
    - “you cannot be healed.”
    - “you will go to hell.”
    - “you must die.”

I see the multicolored fanciful beauty of a loving world that welcomed others with open arms, turned into a monochrome planet of THIS or THAT or ELSE, and it breaks my heart.

On that day, I looked out at the world and said, “I am sorry, there is no love in them.” And I wept.

But I tried, and I will never stop, while I still have the breath of life in me.

There is hope. Not only for this couple, but the world.

And there are others that believe… are you one of them?

Keep Em Separated

That is the entire agenda, to keep em separated. And I’d say it was a hidden agenda if it wasn’t so obvious. But was isn’t obvious for someone would appear to be hidden to someone else. It all starts soon after entry to the planet, especially if you are born into a family with other offspring.

The oldest sibling asserts his or her superiority, or the youngest exercises his or her ability to manipulate “the system” for his or her benefit.

“Mom! She’s touching me!” and endless cries of judgment, unfairness, victimization, and disrespect, then the cries for assistance and the attempt to demand justice and equality. “Stop him! He got the bigger half!” In an attempt to quell the disturbance, the more dominant parent demands that the squabbling siblings be separated. On and on it goes.

You would think that after we’ve grown old enough to leave the home and establish our own independence, we would grow out of such violent opposition.

As we enter adulthood many social mechanisms are pervasive in society to keep us separated from those we share the planet with including the news, other media, and even social media as well.

HEADLINES, IMAGES, and BOTS, Oh My!

There are forces who hire people to keep em separated, though most of us fall into the trap of promoting the separation for free for many psychological reasons, some deeply affected wounds or trauma fueling the angst to promote separation at all costs.

Headlines are made to appear as shocking and polarizing as possible to keep the hate rate rising. Even if the content actually contradicts the headline. This is an old newspaper-selling trick that still works today for the invaluable click-bait and increases the possibility that your misrepresented or fake news goes viral.

Images are easily altered to appear even more shocking than the original using manipulation methods made famous by the program, “Photoshop” which is now synonymous with the term for altered images. As these methods improve over time, it has become so difficult to detect an original photo from an altered photo that you are likely to suspect that any normal photo has been photoshopped.

And it’s not just people. Now there are automatically AI-programmed bots scouring the Internet looking for people to poke and disrespect just to raise your enthusiasm for supporting the separation, and they’re not even real people, just programs pretending to be people.

Internal Examination

Let’s just take an internal examination, checking with your inner self, or higher self if you dare, and ask yourself, “How do I feel inside when I watch the news?” Then ask yourself about the other forms of media that you expose yourself to. How do they make you feel?

Do they make you feel like you’re doing really good work in the world? Do you feel like you’re sharing positive/loving energy with like-minded people? Does this media exposure fill your heart full of love? Are you in the habit of letting that love overflow into the community and the world around you?

If you answered, “Yes,” to these questions, then congratulations, you are doing great.

If not, you might want to have another look at how your exposure is serving you. Maybe it is not in your best interest. Only you can determine this.

Since the media you are exposed to is probably programmed to make you feel bad and especially bad about someone or something else, you are more than likely feeling something that will feel like the opposite of healthy and lovingly.

It might be something you might want to take a look at.

Polarization and Entitlement

“Me, me, me. Mine, mine, mine.” It starts at a very early age, and if left to itself, this polarization and entitlement can expand and grow, like a cancer, infecting our society. With 7.4 billion people on our planet, we should start to find ways to coexist with less conflict.

You might be able to recognize the adult signs of polarization and entitlement and choose to be part of the solution for a better world.

I am the victim

“You don’t understand, I am the victim, here.”

When you see yourself as the victim of some kind of abuse, mistreatment or lack of respect, you polarize yourself away from the subject (person, place or thing) that has “wronged” you and greatly reduce the ability to resolve the issue without conflict. You have drawn the proverbial line in the sand and declared war on the situation.

Any further conversation or negotiation from this point forward will be in the form of debate. You post up and ready yourself for battle and start building your case to establish your affirmative position while imposing your view of how you have been harmed or disrespected. You are ready to fight.

You don’t know me

“You have no idea about who I am, or the life I’ve lived.”

To assume that no one understands me, my plight or my perspective, implies that it makes a difference. Of course, it is actually impossible for m to actually see anything from your perspective – you might be able to give me clues – but it is simply not possible. All of us are completely unique. Though we may share some things in common, no person can truly see anything from anyone else’s perspective (unless we can figure out how to do the Vulcan mind-meld) and at times, we all feel like a Stranger in a Strange Land.

Don’t trust anyone

“I don’t trust you. I don’t trust anyone.”

When I was young, I trusted people. If I’ve learned one thing in my life, it’s that you can’t trust anyone – I don’t care who you are – I cannot, and will not, trust anyone ever again, as long as I live.

Everyone is out to get me

“People are always trying to find new ways to put me down.”

Rarely does a day go by (or a moment, for that matter) that someone doesn’t disrespect me, falsely accuse or belittle me. I am an adult, I have rights and I demand to be treated fairly.

Sense of entitlement

“You owe me. I demand to be taken care of.”

Whether it is being respected, heard, vindicated or to exercise vengeance, my expression must win out and any and all resources available can be called upon to satisfy my basic needs, desires or initiatives.

The idea that everyone should be the same; treated the same, the world is somehow responsible for catering to your every need or whim and your knowledge of how to manipulate the system to get you what you want (for the most part) satisfies your basic need(s).

Stop Intolerance

If you want to live a full and free life, full of happiness and satisfaction (with a little disharmony thrown in for flavor and personal growth) you must stop polarizing yourself against others.

Once you hold fast to the idea that it’s me versus them, you have created an impossible situation that feeds the victim mentality and breeds discord.

It is not until we can wrap our heads around the idea that we are more the same than we are different. Instead of demanding our differences be recognized and respected, realizing – we are all human beings, sharing what resources are available, each making our own way, doing the best we can with what we have – we are all the same, and I love and respect you as much as I’d like to be loved and respected.

Sure, we love those things that create our own uniqueness and celebrate our individuality among the rest of us. We all have the right to our own ideas, ideals, philosophies, beliefs and those characteristics that make us different, but to impose them on anyone else would be disrespectful. Can’t we all just get along?

Tolerance suggests that we all have the inalienable right to think or believe whatever we want, as long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s right to the same.

Barney said it best:

I love you
You love me
We’re a happy family

Until we can love and be loved – allowing each individual their right to their own perspective, without having to defend it – will we see true harmony in our society and/or the world.

Meet Miss Interpretation

I’m a communicator; it’s what I do.

How can something so simple, like stacking words in a certain order to convey one’s thoughts, be so complicated?

I can assemble a little 140-character text (laughing and giggling about how innovative, clever and humorous I’ve been in my word assembly) and press SEND.

Within moments, I receive a barrage of complaints, accusations and abbreviations, like OMG, WTF and/or blocked, unfriended, deleted or reported as spam.

Now, I feel bad because SHE reared her pretty head and stuck that cute little nose right in the middle of my attempt to reach out and communicate with others.

With a name like, “Interpretation,” you’d think she’d exert all her efforts in helping people understand what message I was trying to convey… BUT NO-o-o-o, she’s got to stretch, twist and garble it all so as to have the worst possible outcome.

Little Miss Interpretation has been at this as long as I can remember. As a kid, I’d try to express myself to my parents and get sent to my room or punched in the face. I’ve said things (and been fairly adequately quoted) from the pulpit, stage, conference room, boardroom, classroom or office with the best intentions, only to have MI mess things up for me.

There I was, fully intent on effectively communicating when she walks in and gets everyone all riled up, offended, objecting and ranting about something that wasn’t even intended to be included in what I was talking about. How does she do it?

“That’s not what he meant to say.”

~ Miss Interpretation

She gets inside people’s head and rifles through all their personal belongings and grabs words, ideas and thoughts that still hold emotional charge from the past and waves it in front of their face:

“See this! Look at that! Remember this? What about that?”

A relentless barrage of old information that is highly charged with negative emotion, causing the individual to think that danger may be ahead.

A person can’t help but recoil in self-preservation and protect themselves from such a vicious attack, and…

Forget everything I’ve ever said before this moment.

Now, all attention is on this word – or phrase – that harkens to a time that may have been dangerous (or at the very least unpleasant) and now I (the messenger who used the word or phrase with the best of intentions) am an assailant.

How does she wield so much power over us? And I’m the first to admit, that even though I work hard on kicking her to the curb every time she tries to interrupt someone else’s monologue, I too, have fallen victim to her manipulative influence and subject to mounting up to do battle or cut-and-run.

She does seem to have access to all my personal baggage accumulated since birth, and she’ll use anything she can get her hands on to derail (initiating fight or flight response) an otherwise potentially meaningful exchange of information between two people.

Why does she do it?

I don’t know… I think it’s because she hangs out with that little child inside us and that’s how she gets her kicks. Or maybe her intentions are good; it’s just that in an effort to protect us from harm’s way, she sees everything as a potential threat… even when it may not be a threat at all.

Tag: polarization