I had a weird feeling just a moment ago that brought be back years ago.

Frustrated with the pressure of coming up with a logo for a client and the void of creativity that I was experiencing, I decided to surf Google for awhile and see what the competition was doing. That was uneventful, as it seems other job bank providers haven’t given much thought to branding, identity development, and the power of a logo. ‘Course it doesn’t help that the idea of a job bank doesn’t lend itself to a metaphor very easily—at least one that hasn’t been exhausted already.

Then I came across caljobs.ca.gov, and was greeted by the banner saying, “Welcome to California.” Of course I know that I physically haven’t arrived in California, but thinking about that just for a moment brought me back to when the internet was still quite new (to the general public).

I remember when web-based radio was a new thing and you could listen to radio stations on the other side of the planet; specifically I remember just how fascinating it was to hear through my computer what others were hearing then and there with their radios. The idea of connecting personally or virtually to another part of the world was such an incredible concept, I remember thinking that the possibilities would be so vast and virtually unlimited, save for the language barrier.

Now I think about how easy it is for people to access news and information about this and that, and how small our world has become. While it can be such a great thing, having access to such a wealth of information, it can be explosive.

I think about how crowded the world seems to be these days with the clash of ideas, civilizations, values, politics, and religion—and how the fuel for fighting one’s cause only seems to burn hotter with the ease of propagating an ideal. While I’d love to think humanity could rise above themselves and peacefully coexist despite our differences, I can’t help but to see only disaster.

I also think about how extremists have harnessed both the internet and the innocent to further their cause—cultivating a seething hatred for those that think differently, look differently, worship differently, and live differently. Bush calls them terrorists, but they’re all just different people that have extremely different values. The only difference is that some of those people use extreme measures of violence to defend their own perception of freedom.

But what is freedom for one person might be prison for another.

I think that some places in the world weren’t ready for the liberation of information through the internet. Bad news (however you define that) has a sort of encroaching, crowding sensation about it; and can have a number of effects on a person. Some might get stressed, others concerned, and some might protest or resist through demonstration. Some also use violence and force to push back the “aggressor’s” foreign ideas to preserve their own.

I know generalizing is bad and leaves too many gaping holes, but I think that the crisis in the middle east (though very complicated) seems to be only fueled by the West’s creeping ideals and values, thus bringing a clash between world views and the violent resistance we see from various factions.

I wish there were a better way to fix this mess—the conflict between people that think differently. But as long as people feel threatened in any way, there’s always going to be a violent response from those that don’t feel the freedom and safety to negotiate. I wish there could be an end to the cyclical violence.

Welcome to the world.

March 9, 2007, 4:40 pm

Filed under: Awareness, Culture, General, Politics

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.