Moving Minds and Touching Lives

Letters travel ponderously upon horseback and steamships.

Missives tarry long in the mail.

In times long past and centuries forgotten, getting messages from one place unto another proved a challenge both tedious and slow. Weeks would pass between the sending and receiving of a single envelope. And just as long would trickle by before the response finally arrived.

The flowrate of information traveling round the world moved at modem-esque speeds. The limited speeds of conveyance throttled the bandwidth of those connections.

Therefore minds moved just as tediously. And thoughtstreams evolved equally slow.

Thus the evolution of intellects moved at reduced rates.

New ideas and original thoughts became commodities rare.

Therefore moving other minds became insufferable hard.

If you wanted spread an idea or effectuate social change, you needed wait months or years or decades before your idea could ever reach enough people where it could garner groundswell support. You needed endure forever before you could touch enough lives to avalanche change into being.

Now--in modern times--we have the ability to accelerate the pace of mental evolution. Because we each have access unto this amazing realm.

The Internet allows us near-instantaneous contact with practically the entire world. Whereas hundreds of years ago it would take weeks or months for one letter to reach one person, now any of us can reach thousands and thousands of people per day from the comfort of our homes.

Typing our thoughts we broadcast portions of our minds into the ether. Presenting our ideas we provide them unto the masses.

All literature, after all, is nothing more than Immortal Telepathy.

This is an incredible power and a remarkable gift, and as Peter Parker's Uncle Ben once said, "With great power comes great responsibility."

Thus as each of us has access unto that power, each of us has an inherent responsibility towards the world.

Access unto the Internet is access unto the minds of those upon it. It's an opportunity to insert your viewpoints and opinions into the collective stream of consciousness and effectuate positive change unto the world.

It's a chance to spread your energy across this pretty garden planet.

And it happens whether you realize it or not.

Spreading hate and discord, writing angry and aggressive words, sending out messages that run contrary unto higher ideals--these things are corruptive acts that negatively impact all who encounter them.

By typing up cruelty and posting it online, you're literally making the day of thousands upon thousands of people worse.

And however you'd like to rationalize your participation in that endeavor, that's an objectively evil act.

We've all been guilty of it from time to time. We've all typed out things and hit "submit" only to later regret our words, our tone, our intention while writing.

But regardless the regret, we still committed an act that made our world a slightly worse place.

The Internet is powerful technology--thus those upon it should always work towards wielding it with intentions of kindness, and using it for benevolent means.

It's a double-edged sword that can enliven or kill, like a blade in possession of a saint versus that same weapon in the hands of a sinner.

Thus wield it with prudence and treat it with care, and only use it for purposes of making the world a better place.

Be cognizant of what you write online. You're not just shouting into a vacuum.

You're moving minds and touching lives.

So take this great opportunity to spread a little more positivity through the world. Go write a post or thread that spreads love and light.

And leave the trolling to monsters in video games.

Because honestly--by harassing people online, by being rude for no reason, by spreading negative messages and ideas--you're exposing your mind to the world.

So when you think you're being witty and clever and slicing apart your target, you're really saying much more about your own inner state.

And you're actually cutting down yourself.

Being good should be its own reward, but I think for many of us it's not. Even though we believe in doing good morally, we sometimes feel compelled to behave immorally, and instead of sticking with only doing good, we get cajgbt in cycles of doing good and bad. We tell ourselves the good counterbalances the bad, so we don't feel as bad about it. And as we don't feel as bad about the bad, we don't feel as good about the good... And because its a habitual cycle we don't know what it would be like to only do good, because every time we do something good and then do something bad, it reduces the sense of what it is possible to feel when only doj g good. And because almost everybody in society is like that it makes it even more challenging...