I was reviewing my statistics for this Journal.  And I saw that a lot of people from Facebook have been reading this Journal.  But even though that is the case the fact still remains that I do not really get anything from Facebook.

To begin with, the text editing system on Facebook is nothing short of what I might consider, insane.  The matter how I dictate into any particular text entry program, or even if I dictate directly into the Facebook text entry system, the dictation or the entry that I have composed does not come out formatted correctly.  That is because the text entry system on Facebook is not friendly for people who do not use the keyboard.

So right off the bat Facebook is not very friendly to people who are disabled.  Because Facebook is not set up for people who are disabled.  And if Facebook were really concerned about people who were disabled then they would make their text entry system a lot easier for people to use where people are using speech programs.  But Facebook does not do that.

Additionally, Facebook is not very friendly to people who are disabled because everything on Facebook is extremely mouse intensive.  Meaning that you cannot hardly access Facebook without having to go through a great number of mouse clicks.  There are mouse clicks when someone pokes you.  There are mouse clicks for your mail.  There are mouse clicks in order to find out what is going on with anyone else.  And then of course there are an untold amount of mouse clicks with all of the games that Facebook sponsors.

So again, the issue comes to my mind as to why it would make any sense for me when I am having arthritic issues with my hands to join any service, where by joining that service I am going to have to use my mouse so intensely that my hands are going to hurt.  That does not make any sense at all.  On most of the websites that I go to the websites are set up so that they actually work very well with speech programs.  For example, when I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking if I have to navigate throughout a page of any of the services.  I belong to, when I put up that mouse grid, I am able to position the mouse almost directly over anyone of the functions of the web service.  The same is not true with Facebook.  Because Facebook is not geared for people who are not able to use the keyboard or mouse.  Facebook is geared for the mass majority of people who are extremely interested in knowing every single thing about everyone.  They interact with.  People on Facebook seem to be obsessed with knowing about.  Every single detail of everyone’s life.  But that is not how I live my life.

And as I said before, the only time I ever get any kind of response on Facebook is when I am actually writing about Aileen.  And what people on Facebook do not understand is that while Aileen is all through my life.  While Aileen lives within me.  My life is my life.  Meaning that I do not always talk about Aileen in every single thing I do.  If I did I would never be able to deal with my grief.

And in point of fact, I get more response from readers to this Journal then I have ever gotten on Facebook.  Plus, the text entry system here on WordPress.com is extremely user-friendly, especially very user-friendly for people who are disabled and who do not use the keyboard or mouse.  And if WordPress.com can do that then why cannot Facebook?

So I realize that everyone would like me to go back to Facebook.  But I just do not get anything from Facebook.  I do not enjoy the service.  I do not enjoy social services where I am going to list out every single thing that is happening to me in my life.  People who are really friends of mine that I communicate with you by e-mail all know that if they are interested in knowing what is going on with me.  All they have to do is simply look at this Journal.  Because they know that any of the real issues I deal with are always listed here in this Journal.  In that way.  This Journal almost becomes like a kind of Facebook page.  Where I am actually listing what is going on with me in my Journal articles.  Facebook on the other hand has all these little boxes and all these little mechanisms to let people know what is going on with them and to share things with other people.  But I do not share a lot of things with people.  I do not watch a lot of YouTube videos.  I do not play any games on the Internet.  And there is really no one for me to share pictures with that I cannot share them more easily through e-mail.  So there is no real reason for me to be putting pictures on Facebook or videos that I never watch.  And if anyone is interested in a movie I have seen I will write a Journal entry about that movie.  And again, I am getting more response to what I write on this Journal that I ever got on anything I wrote on Facebook.

I actually belong to change.org.  And I also belong to Web MD and to a number of petition sites.  So I have a rather significant Internet presence.  It is just that the places I associate with on the Internet are not places where I have to go through all sorts of gyrations using my mouse or keyboard just to be able to use the site.  I do not know how other people my age who are having arthritic issues deal with services like Facebook where just accessing the website means a tremendous use of one’s mouse.  Because that is what Facebook is all about.  Everything needs to be clicked.  That is not like things are in this Journal.  I present a Journal article.  If someone is interested in reading what I have said they will click on the article.  And that is all they have to do.  They do not have to do anything else.  There are no games.  I am not sharing YouTube videos.  I am not sharing pictures.  Because that is not what this Journal is.

There are Journal entries where I will put up pictures for that Journal entry.  But because I have an account on Picasa I generally, will link my photographs on Picasa to my Journal entry here on WordPress.com.  So consequently, my Journal is and like a lot of other people’s journals.  My family is dead.  The only family I have left are Aileen’s brother Claude and Aileen’s sister, Evelyn.  And I have very few friends.  The remnants of the Maschke family want nothing to do with me.  My sister, who was adopted from a different family that I was, has basically turned out to be a selfish and very ruthless liar.  My daughter married into a lot of money.  And so basically, in so many ways is completely out of touch with the people I write about in this Journal.  So the Maschke family and I do not have much left in common anymore.

And the only reason I have gone to the extent in my biographical profile of talking about the Maschke family is because I promised my grandmother that I would always maintained the real history of the patriotism and the courage of the Maschke family.  And for doing that a lot of times I ended up in the position where people ended up disliking me or taking exception to me.  So as a result I do not really talk very much about my own life.  And that is probably fitting.  Because most of the comments and most of the attention to this Journal take place.  Not one.  I write an individual or personal entry.  But most of the comments that come to this Journal are brought forward as a result of any one of the different news stories that I have presented in this Journal.

So anyhow, I know that people are probably upset that I am no longer on Facebook.  But they will get over.  They will move on to scrutinizing other people’s lives rather than mine.  And the people who really do like this Journal will continue reading this Journal and deriving enjoyment from what I have created.  Those people who are feeling like I am refusing to go along with the majority and do not like the fact that I am not on Facebook anymore will probably stop reading this Journal.  And that is okay to.  Because my hopes for this Journal have nothing to do with the number of people who read this Journal.  As I said, this Journal is really the Journal that my darling wife Aileen wanted to do with me, but never got the chance to.  And this Journal is for me to state very clearly for myself and anyone who chooses to read this Journal what my life has been and what my life is now and what it probably will be.  And to do so on the basis of the fact that this is going to be the last Journal.  I ever do in the world.  It is going to be the Journal where I make my case before whatever energy.  There is beyond this world that religion calls God.  And this Journal is where I will present news articles specifically to attempt to bring to light a lot of the problems and issues that humanity so often chooses to ignore or may not in fact be aware of.  To talk about the shadow people.

And there is another dynamic that exists as a result of people doing Facebook and twitter.  And joining match.com and other services like that.  As I said before, the world is losing its tolerance and it is understanding and its acceptance or compromise.  And the reason that this is so significant is because what this basically says is that the world is more interested in placing value on how similar individuals or groups are with each other rather than how different they may be or celebrating the difference.  And as a result of the world, focusing more on only wanting to associate with then become involved with groups that are similar people who are similar the world, then in fact is saying by that attitude that they do not really enjoy difference very much anymore.  And we only need to look at the right wing extremists of the Christian conservatives to know that that is true.  Because the right wing extremists of the Christian conservatives hate anything that is not white and Christian.  They do not like gay Americans.  They do not like black Americans.  They do not like Jewish Americans.  They do not like anyone who is not white and Christian.  Because the right wing extremists of the Christian conservatives maintain that the only thing that has value to them are things that are exactly like them.  And if something is not exactly like them then they do not see any value to that individual or group.  So the right wing extremists of the Christian conservatives are basically saying that they do not value any kind of difference in society.  Because they do not want anything to be different.  They only want to associate with people who are exactly like them and groups who are exactly like them and they do not want to.  It is more anything that is different.

And that is one of the reasons that art is suffering and education is suffering and creativity is suffering and inspiration and invention are suffering.  Because it is a well-known fact, anthropologically speaking, that when a culture begins to become extremely similar meaning where a culture loses a lot of the internal differences within that culture such as individuality as the level of sameness in a culture increases the level of creativity decreases.  And the reason that is true, is because when a culture is predicated on everyone being exactly the same.  That means that anything that is created will not be any new information but will be nothing more than accentuating or expanding upon the sameness of that culture.  So consequently true creativity begins to decrease the point where it eventually does not even exist when cultured become so very similar that they do not even celebrate difference.  And that is exactly what groups like Facebook and these Christian dating services and match.com are in fact promoting.  They are promoting similarity.  They are promoting the idea that people should be much more interested in similarity and that people should look for the quality of sameness.  And that people should not look at anything that is different or celebrate anything that is different.  Because none of these groups in fact celebrate difference.  They are all about promoting sameness and similarity.  They are not about promoting difference.  And as a result not only is creativity suffering.  But the concept of compromise is suffering terribly, which is seen in our political systems.  And in the way that religious groups throughout the United States and world are related to each other.  Compromise is practically nonexistent.  And it is nonexistent.  Because everybody is becoming more concerned with sameness or similarity than they are with realizing that the human condition was never meant to be extremely similar.  The human condition is made up of literally billions and billions of different souls.  And each one of them is an individual.  And for any culture or any group to demand that the group be based upon conditions of sameness or similarity is for that group to basically say that they do not want a lot of creativity, or inspiration or invention in that culture.  Because cultures or groups that base themselves on similarity and sameness will only tolerate creativity into creativity accentuates or expands upon the similarity of the group which is not true creativity.  Creativity and inspiration and invention are the absolute basis upon which human intellectual evolution takes place.  But the world is not interested in intellectual evolution.  The world is interested in everyone behaving the same thinking the same being the same.  And people who go to match.com.  And these Christian dating services are not looking for people who are constructively different or have differences that will be challenging to them.  The people who go to those services are looking for a mirror image of what they are themselves so that they have the highest degree of compatibility.  And that almost suggests that people who get married as a result of going to match.com.  And these Christian dating services are actually behaving in a very narcissistic way.  Because they are actually looking for people who have exactly the same traits and interests that they have themselves.  Which means they are not really interested and falling in love with someone else because they are not marrying someone else.  They are pretty much marrying a mirror image of themselves.  So true love is never tested.  Because there not loving someone who is different.  There not loving someone in spite of the differences that they may have.  They are loving someone who is almost the mirror image and has tremendous compatibility with everything they are.  Which means they are basically loving themselves.  Because that is who they meet.  And that is who they marry.  And so as a result the marriages to come out of match.com.  And these Christian dating services are based on so much compatibility that not only is true love never really tested.  But as I said the people who end up married.  As a result of those unions are pretty much in love with themselves.  Because the two people who end up being married as a result of match.com.  And these Christian dating services are actually marrying people who have so many similar traits to themselves that the amount of difference between the two people who end up being married is virtually negligible.  So again, love is really never tested.  Because it is really easy to love someone who is exactly like yourself.  Because most people love themselves.  So naturally it is easy to love someone who is exactly like you.  And in that way.  Love is never really tested.  But to love someone who is extremely different from yourself in so many different ways that takes growth.  And that takes understanding it also takes one having the ability to compromise.  It also demands that the love that you feel for the other person supersedes any of the differences.  Meaning that you love them in spite of of those differences.  And that is not a condition that exists when people have huge amounts of compatibility between each other.  Because with so much compatibility.  There is very little that is different at all.  And as a result love is not really tested.  Because in reality the person is marrying someone who is so similar that they are basically marrying themselves.

And began.  You do not have to believe me.  You can look in the science of anthropology and you can see very clearly that every single culture in human history when that culture began to focus on sameness and similarity and became so regimented to similarity and sameness within the culture the level of creativity and inspiration and invention decreased.  It is an axiom that has existed in the field of anthropology since the science of anthropology was even formed.

And that of course suggests to those who are philosophically astute that the direction that humanity is going in is very much Orwellian meaning that humanity is moving in the direction of George Orwell’s political scheme that was embraced in his book by the title of, 1984.  And if that is the direction that humanity wants to go when that humanity needs to understand that by concentrating so much on sameness and similarity and making those the baseline criteria for how people will interact with each other means that knowledge will be just as limited and stereotypical.  Creativity and inspiration and invention will be just as stereotypical and narrowminded.  And all of the true intuitive inspirational aspects of humanity will also be as limited by the degree of how much attention and how much Regiment is brought forth, pursuant to similarity and sameness.  And again, if that is what humanity really wants then they are doing a great job by subscribing to services like Facebook and twitter and match.com and all these other services.  But that is not the real world.  People are different.  And if we as a human condition cannot celebrate difference if we cannot celebrate the fact that each of us is a sentient being and is extremely different.  If we are not willing to love each other in spite of our differences then there is no way that anyone taking that position can love anyone in a personal relationship who is extremely different from who they are.  But that is something that made the marriage Aileen and I had and that we still have so remarkable.  Because we were extremely different.  And yet, because the love between us was so strong the chemistry between us was equally as strong.  And that chemistry superseded any of the differences that Aileen and I had.  But because of the differences we both had from each other.  Not only was our love tested all the time.  But we both had to make compromises all the time.  But today people do not want to compromise on anything.  When someone is looking for a particular spouse they go to match.com, and a list out all the different things that they will be willing to look at in a spouse.  So they basically tailor a spouse that is going to look exactly like themselves.  That not only shows the individual does not really have a very strong sense of wanting to compromise.  But it also shows that the individual is so in love with themselves that they do not want to meet anyone who is different.  They want to meet someone exactly like them.  And most people will say that they are doing this so that they have a better chance of the marriage sustaining itself.  And yet, with the differences Aileen and I had our marriage lasted 18 years.  And it would have lasted our entire lives and Aileen survived cancer.  So when people say that they are looking for a high degree of compatibility to give the relationship a better chance of survival my answer is simply, bullshit.  Because the reality is when humanity moved away from celebrating the differences within the human condition humanity moves more into a kind of Orwellian position philosophically, pursuant to how humanity will express itself.  And if humanity wants to express itself without celebrating the concept of compromise or difference then everything that is going on in humanity right now is probably perfectly in line with that thinking.

But that will not produce any real growth.  You can stand in front of a mirror as long as you want.  Looking at yourself lecture not going to learn very much new.  There is only so much you can learn by looking in a mirror at yourself.  And yet that is what everybody wants these days.  Facebook is predicated not on the basis of providing questions to people are celebrating differences Facebook is predicated on getting people answers and celebrating similarities in people celebrating sameness.  People use Facebook all the time to do background checks and to catch up on other people especially people they are thinking of dating are getting involved with.  Because they want to know every single thing about that person before they even meet them.  Because they do not really get very excited about discovering new information.  They do not get excited about discovering something new.  They do not want anything new in their lives.  They want to be involved with people who think exactly like they do look exactly like they do believe exactly like they do act exactly like they do and are pretty much carbon copies of themselves.  And so as a result, people are becoming more and more stereotypical and what might be called narrowminded.  People are becoming more flat minded in their thinking.  And as a result, compromise is suffering.  Compromises suffering and so is the survival of true difference and individuality in the human condition.

And I would have to be an idiot not to understand that by stating the foregoing that I am basically throwing a red flag up in front of everyone who is very comfortable about celebrating similarity and sameness.  But I do not celebrate that.  Just like I do not celebrate answers.  I celebrate difference.  I celebrate compromise and invention and creativity and inspiration.  I celebrate the newness of knowledge.  And I never put blinders on my brain with regard to what I will learn or how I will experience new things.  And that is why the world.  And I do not really get along.

So I realize that a lot of people are going to be upset with me leaving Facebook.  But when you think about it.  I mean, when you really think about what I am writing here right now these services such as Facebook and twitter and match.com and all these Christian dating services do not really make a lot of sense.  Because they are not challenging us to ask better questions.  They are doing nothing but providing us with answers in order for us to make excuses why we would rather not look at the differences in life.  But seek out only the similarities in life.  And that is an awfully limited way of trying to experience new knowledge.  It is what I have said before, basically putting blinders on your brain.

So my plans starting probably on Tuesday or perhaps tomorrow will be to put up perhaps one or two articles regarding general news every day.  But I wanted to take this time.  During the holiday season to go over some of the perceptions I was having about the holidays and about humanity.  Based on everything I have experienced during the year of my bereavement and now beginning the second year after Aileen died.  It is a brave new world.  That is my life.  A brave new world.  A world filled with newness.  A world filled with difference and the world filled with compromise and compromises.  My world is not the same as what most of the people in this world, except as their world.

So, I apologize that I am not on Facebook.  I apologize that I am not exactly like everyone else in the world.  But then I do not want to be.  I am never going to be a carbon copy for someone else.  Just like the other day when I was talking to Claude I explained to Claude that under no circumstances would I ever allow any woman into my life who was not able to love Aileen.  As much as I love Aileen.  If a woman wants to become involved with me.  She will have to love Aileen as much is I do.  And if she cannot then there is no way that we will become involved as anything but simply friends.  And I take that attitude the same way that single parents take the attitude when they are dating, whereby they say with their actions and their behavior, love me, love my kids.

So with me it is very simple.  Love me, love Aileen.  And if someone is not able to do that right off the bat.  I know that they do not really celebrate difference.  They do not celebrate compromise.  They are not interested in learning new things.  They are interested.  Like most of the world and only learning things they already know.

And I do not really expect many people to understand what I have written this Journal entry.  A few will understand.  Of you will see exactly what I am saying.  Because the dangers of becoming so similar are extremely serious.  They are changes that are very difficult to undo.  And at the human condition become so similar, more so than it is right now than George Orwell will in fact see his scenario in his book, 1984, being played out in reality.  In the human condition.  Because that is where humanity is heading at this time.

So I guess the whole point of this Journal entry is to simply try and warn humanity about the dangers of becoming so similar about focusing on similarity and not being willing to focus at all on compromise.  Not being willing to compromise, no matter what.  And if that is the kind of world that humanity wants that is the kind of world humanity will get.  Just like humanity will get all of the negative repercussions from taking that point of view.

Like I always say, it is your future….  Not mine….

 

See Also:

My Significant Journal Entries:

  1. My Biographical Profile
  2. Distractions
  3. My Spinal Injuries
  4. Now We’re Having Fun, Right?
  5. My Complete Medical Record Of My Caregiving For Aileen
  6. Connections
  7. Finding Neverland
  8. I Never Want To Stop Crying For My Darling Aileen
  9. How Do I love thee. The First Anniversary Of Aileen’s Rosebush
  10. Oh There You Are
  11. My Philosophy of Life
  12. Second Gear, My discussion of my Pro-Life, and Pro-Choice Position
  13. The Time I was hired to photograph and met President-elect Ronald Reagan
  14. My 250 Million Variable Characteristic Hieroglyphic Language
  15. My Global Warming Research
  16. Quantum Mechanics And Newtonian Metaphysics, Originally Dictated On Friday March 19, 2010 (two days before Aileen collapsed and was told she only had 2 months left to live
  17. Magnitude 2.6 Earthquake In Central California
  18. Earth Preaching
  19. When Cancer Meets City Code
  20. Religion 101
  21. I Am An Iconoclastic Human Rights Advocate
  22. The Dark Lord
  23. Sand On The Floor
  24. ACLU Court Challenge Religious Restrictions Government Funded Trafficking Victims Program
  25. Penelope Cruz even looks good in menswear
  26. An Update On How Mike DeWine Is Trying To Take My Home Away From Me
  27. The Truth Game
  28. The Tortoise And The Hare
  29. A Human Comedy
  30. Fear: One of Life’s Great Motivators
  31. Give Me That Old Time Religion
  32. The Shadow People
  33. Also To Be Noted
  34. At Last
  35. Midnight Madness
  36. The Miracle of Synchronicity
  37. A Speck Of Dust On A Dirty Beach