EPTRevolution in Modern Times. A Quick Study.
In today’s society, there are many ways to get information, ideas, and innovation to a wider audience than was possible before the invention of the internet. These mediums that we find ourselves engrossed in daily have become a staple of new formats for us to connect with each other. The sense of revolution that was prominent in the 60’s and 70’s were at one point made possible through television, landline telephones, and message sent by couriers. Now, following the recent unrest in the Middle East, e-mails, text messaging, and social network sites make it near instantaneous for people to see, read, and voice their opinions. The sense of revolution has evolved.
The 1960’s and 1970’s saw television, radio, and telephones pass information and ideals along to people who held the same political, religious, and personal views in a way to mass them together against a common cause. It started with Fidel Castro in the sense of modern revolution. In Cuba, they had to mass together in the woods, forests, and jungles of Cuba in order to overthrow the government they were being oppressed by. Messengers with letters or memorized words would traverse great distances on the island to carry messages from one commander to another, delaying news for days, even weeks and months. Though it proved effective, it was the only means that they had. Iran was another upheaval that used the same means of communicating. Though the technology advanced in the 1970’s than what it was in the 1960’s the core components still remained intact; people had to be used physically to transfer information.
Fast forward to a few months ago and we find ourselves with Tunisia. This country started with the same means, people voicing their opinions to others who shared the same beliefs to one another. Once they had a large enough population that would hold hands, stand together, and protest together, they could then rely on the internet, cellular phones, and social media sites to recruit more people. The cause was just in their minds but the massive amount of persons involved grew exponentially since the ease of communicating allowed them to quickly express themselves to a larger audience. These past few weeks have shown how social networking sites can stir angst, dissatisfaction, and unrest in a country with relative ease.
Check any news site or opinionated website and you will find that they are crediting Facebook, Twitter, and other websites with the ouster of the dictator who was in control of Egypt. Being able to freely share your world with anyone else on Earth in a timely manner is the best way to raise awareness and alliances. Facebook groups, Amnesty International, and other world organizations began to follow the events once more people were “liking”, “tweeting”, and reposting the news as it came in from the ground in Egypt. The sense of revolution in the modern world, the time since the internet and social networking has been introduced to the world, has indeed evolved.
It is likely that with the advancements in the way we share information and pronounce ourselves to the disapproval of the people who are in charge of the welfare of our collective nations grow, the faster this new form of revolution will bring change. A voice that was once confined to a region or lone state/nation-states can now be shared across the globe with the press or click of a button. Revolutions made in the digital age will spur more frequent revolutions. Some will be bloody as the “old timers” are replaced by new, energized, and technologically savvy individuals who can now spread the news.
Love
As the world continues to circle and we continue to get older, we forget what our purpose in life is. Of course, it may be peace, happiness, and wealth. But what about love? Is that included in happiness? Is it bought with the wealth you attain? Or is love a state that comes with peace? What love means to you and how you go about obtaining, that is a personal crusade that this note is not here to answer or show you the path. Love is something that we must all search for in our lifetimes.
Love is often confused with lust, the same feeling you get when you see a new flavor of Skittles on the store shelves. Lust drives us, no, compels us to act in a manner in which we would normally not do. Sometimes it drives us into fits of obsession, our mind and body craving that gratification that we so desperately want. Sometimes it drives us into a state of bewilderment. We cannot believe that what we saw or did actually happened and we go into denial, knowing that we must once again taste that sweet nectar to see if it is indeed real.
Lust is something that comes and goes without us knowing it. You may desire one thing one moment and the next moment, after you've had your fill, you're over it, looking for the next fix. This feeling, this seemingly uncontrollable force of nature is what moves us as human beings to create an alter ego, someone who we are not in order to grasp that which we seek. Our minds are overwhelmed with the insatiable need to sleep with someone or get whatever gratification we can from them. That is where a lot of things are confused.
Love is a feeling and sensation that is rivaled only by hatred. Pure unadulterated hatred can only be matched by the same intensity of love. Love is like a fog. It slowly creeps into your vision and life when you least expect it. You can't see clearly, but you know that everything will be okay. Somehow, you just know. The more you try to grasp the thin wisps of air that this fog is made of, the more it slips through your fingers, staying in place. You can actively seek out love, but rarely will you find it. It may be love at one point, and it may have come in the form of a fog. But when that fog eventually cleared away, you were alone.
Love cannot be grabbed or contained. It must envelop you, head to toe, heart, mind, and body. You have to give into the notion that you will not find the love your so desires, but that it will find you. When you meet someone and they never leave you mind, or the last thing you go to sleep to is a perfect image etched forever into the vaults of your mind, then love may have finally found you. This being has the power to leave you spellbound. You don't realize you're smiling or whistling some tune or just overall in a mood you don't recognize. This feeling is that fog starting to envelop you.
What seems to be the most important problem with people searching for love is that they hurry it. They are trying to force someone else to become their fog. They are trying to wrap their lives around that of the person they believe to be the "Fog of Love." If you attempt to try and force this kind of emotion and feeling, then you will eventually make a thunderstorm appear that will clear the fog you created. You must bide time and let the events of love and life take their due course. We are all victims of this urge to plant seeds and watch them come to fruition, but more often than not, we end up growing a seed that is rooted deep in malnutrition and needs nourishment from some source. This is due to lust pretending to be love and a precursor to the rainstorm that is on the horizon.
Let the fog develop around you and encase you in the feeling of weightlessness and a cloudiness that seems to insure that just being alive is okay and that no harm will come to you. Let love find you.
