When Magellan completed his circumnavigation of the earth there must have been many anxious political and economic interests who would have given an arm and a leg to get hold of his ship’s log. Imagine the horror, the complete disbelief that would have swept their hearts and souls if they had found large portions of this groundbreaking, or perhaps waterbreaking would be a more appropriate expression, documentation missing.
“Magellan! Where are all these missing pages to your ships log?” they would surely have exclaimed.
“Well,” Magellan would possibly answer, “some of the crew disapproved of some of my portrayal of our experience. They thought it insensitive to the idol worshipping, sexually free, cannibalistic cultures we experienced and found the imperialistic goals of our voyage socially irresponsible. So I tore out all related pages and burned them.”
So it is with Twitter.
Just the other day I read several reports about rumors of a coup in Red China. I immediately thought of my prediction last Summer that Red China would be no more, would break apart within a year. So I went to my Twitter account interested in the exact date I made my prediction. But my tweet was no where to be found. I thought I had seen it even a few months past, long after it was posted. Could it have been scrubbed off the Internet due to the rumors of coup? As Red China sanitizes their own corner of the Internet of any and all references to any possible unrest, could they be doing the same across the United States and the rest of the world?
This is far from my first Tweet to disappear. Actually several of my first Tweets were removed and I offered some criticism on that occasion. The benign nature of what disappears sometimes baffles me, as does what doesn’t.
My Tweet, that I didn’t find the Herman Cain smoking man campaign commercial strange, was gone almost immediately. The only thing strange about the add was the wimpy little drag the smoking man took on his cigarette. Not that I smoke or think people should smoke, I would be happy if no one smokes, but if your going to make a statement that the government should stay out of the personally lives of its citizens …then make a statement. Take a good strong drag and fill that screen with smoke.
But my predictions for Red China are spelled out in several posts over the last year or two. My more precise prediction, in reference to timing, however is gone; removed by Twitter without notice and for reasons undisclosed. If the downfall of communist China as we know it does occur this summer, where can I seek restitution for being denying prophetic status?
More seriously, the idea that a business, a government, even a government not our own, or any group could work, either through official channels or covert actions by agents of fore said organizations posing as generic Internet users, can shape the debate, the flow of free speech, on the Internet is disturbing. But what can be done?
One needs to evaluate the role of technology in their life. We all need to place our trust in things that are proven; trusted institutions and individuals. The integrity of such institutions,centered around the religious foundations of our society, are the foundation for everything we consider civilized. But even our institutions have become corrupt, tools of propaganda; the media, academia and unions to name a few. We are subject to the failed dogmas of socialism and the faulty science behind manmade global warming. This is why people such as Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and even Glenn Beck, along with many local counterparts, hold so much sway over public debate. Few others can be trusted.
Twitter is not an institution. It is a machine and the operators, official and hidden manipulators, prefer to remain ambiguous.
What inflames me about how Twitter portrays itself is that they advertise themselves as a micro blog. Blog being short for ‘web log.’ A log suggests that a standing record is being kept. This is not the case. Twitter is simply a mass texting tool. A promotion platform that can provide instantaneous access to those one wishes to follow, for personal, professional, political or business insight or collaboration.
Even more unfortunate than Twitter not being what it claims, is the fact that it can be so easily manipulated by those seeking to oppress, take advantage of, or misrepresent others.
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