Wanderings

I recently ran across a group on Facebook encouraging people to pray for the death of U.S. President Barack Obama.  Regardless of a person’s political ideologies praying for the death of the President is unconscionable and the resistance of Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg to remove such hate speech is very disappointing.  The first amendment was not intended to protect threats and despite their cavalier attitude when a site such as Facebook has over 200 million people logging on every day and over 400 million users total they have a certain responsibility to moderate the content and to take a stand.  Web 2.0 allows for people to socially create content on the internet, but it should not absolve them of morality.

Whether you are a Facebook user or not, you can sign a petition to encourage Facebook to remove the group at this link: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/clean-up-facebook

Instead of using our prayers for such hateful purposes that cause division between us, we could instead prayer for the unity of mankind.

The purpose of the creation of man is the attainment of the supreme virtues of humanity through descent of the heavenly bestowals. The purpose of man’s creation is, therefore, unity and harmony, not discord and separateness.

~ Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 4

TeacherJay Promulgation of Universal Peace, The, Reflections politics, prayer, prejudice, technology

The historic breakthrough in information and communication technology, which represents so potent a means to promote social development and the deepening of people’s sense of their common humanity, can, with equal force, divert and coarsen impulses vital to the service of this very process.

~ Baha’i International Community, 1999 Feb, Who is Writing the Future

I believe this passage is referring to the rise of the internet, e-mail and other related communication methods.  There can be no doubt that these technologies have been able to transform our world by hastening the rate at which information can be exchanged.  However, it has also served to create more of a divide between the cosmopolitan elite who are able to do things such as read this blog, read news from other parts of the world and contact loved ones.  Just like humans themselves, modern technologies have the potential to do great works towards restoring a balance throughout the world and promoting the social development of humanity, but only when used to that end.  They also have the power to become destructive forces.

TeacherJay Baha'i International Community communication, globalism, poverty, technology, unity