Showing posts with label Crude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crude. Show all posts

October 26, 2016

Abraham Lincoln And Election IT Scandals

This just seemed like such a fascinating photo.

Abraham Lincoln on a tie juxtaposed next to the guy using his smartphone and email.

This election cycle has been plagued with scandals from private email servers, "extremely reckless" handling of emails, Wikileaks disclosures of corruption and collusion from hacked emails, crude denigrating language online, politicians claims of they can't recall and IT professionals pleading the fifth, and an overall lack of transparency to the American people and Congress.

Yet, isn't this the diametric opposite of what our esteemed President Lincoln was all about in terms of being "a man of profound feelings, just and firm principles, and incorruptible integrity."

Is it now the technology that somehow has caused us to perform questionable deeds or is it just an enabler of what is in people's hearts and souls?

As the man holding and controlling what he does with the smartphone in the photo, it is we who control our actions with technology and what we chose to do with it.

If we use technology for good or for evil...for raising up and helping people or insulting and hurting people...for lies and deception or for truth and transparency...for communicating principles and directives that are just and upright or for selfish and corrupt ends...these are choices of integrity that we alone control.

Lincoln fought for the democracy and freedom for all Americans and the end of slavery, and to that moral end, for whoever wins the election, we should continue towards using technology as a means to extend justice and freedom for all and not for operatives and operations that can jeopardize it's meaning and integrity for America. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Share/Save/Bookmark

March 22, 2013

Down In The Dumps

This is a display at a retailer in posh Rockville, Maryland.

As crazy as these mugs are including their $4 price tag, what adds to this comical scene is that there is the broom leaning up against the stack on the right, which I suppose you would rightfully need if these mugs were accurate. 

I am sitting here thinking (briefly--very) about what exactly the social commentary is for these nasty mugs, and I believe that this is about people wanting to let down their (no, not their pants!) facade of perfection and propriety and having to do everything right at work and at home, and just instead for a while being silly, crude, and even (a little) stupid.  

It's like the person who says the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate time and says, "Did I say that?" And everyone starts laughing as the tension of the moment is swept away. 

I think to some extent we all need that...to break the tension of the everyday rat race we live, and to give everyone pause to just say or do something a little silly and for everyone just to laugh it off. And then the real business can go on with everyone knowing that there are real human beings behind those suits and stone faces. 

Anyway, this was probably the strangest display in a retail store I have seen, outside of the Village in New York City, but that's another story. ;-) 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Share/Save/Bookmark