Comments on The Belmont Club,"WMMV"

View this debate as a three cornered table. First we hear from those who want to "Do Something For the Children."

The Imperialist Cultural Hegemonist Zionist Oppression of the Anglo-Saxons and their tiny word language must be smashed! It is the obsession with unregulated communication and crude productivity that chains the masses and distracts those who could bring a more nuanced and authentic appreciation for meaningful activity.

Second we have the representative of the Texters.

Buy, Sell, Oh look a bunny! Woo Hoo! Ohmigd is that a truck?

Finally there is a voice for Contemplation as a source of strength.

I sit beside the fire
And think of all that I have seen,
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been.
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were,
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire
And think of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
That I have never seen.
In every wood, in every spring
There is a different green.

I sit beside the fire
And think of people long ago.
And people who will see a world
That I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door--

"Elbereth Gilthoniel,"
"Silivren penna miriel
"O menel aglar elenath!
"Nachaered palandiriel
"O galadhremmin ennorath
"Fanuilos, lelinnathon
"Nef aear, si nef aearon!
"Nef aearon!"

-JRR Tolkien

Texting should be communication and communication should exist for a reason, to connect two or more individuals so that value can be added to their lives. The acolytes of government seek to control for its own sake. They are Inner Directed but they lack any values from which to proceed. That makes them seek for issues to use in their thirst for dominance to feed the emptiness within. The shallow and self obsessed texters and those abusing other technologies are also seeking stimulation without considering how their activity could effect other people. They are selfish and therefor bring little to any conversation that they force themselves into. Kindly old Professor T understood that Wisdom came from understanding yourself first sufficiently so that you could have something to say worth another human being's time to listen to.

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Reepicheep,
*who praised face to face communications)
There has been a set of full car subway ads in NYC from a chewing gum manufacturer that pushes exactly your point. They show people hugging kissing and just being together under slogans that urge the viewer to take a break from the internet and make real face time connecting with people.

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Fifty or so years ago Ian Fleming had a passage in which Bond speculated on why it was dangerous for women to be drivers. His theory was that when women talked they had to turn around and look at the person they were talking to because they judged not just the words but the facial expression in determining the emotional content behind the message. Since that is missing in a phone conversation the theory would be validated to some extent if phones in cars adversely effected men as much or more then women.

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Jamie Irons,
(who posted a mock texting WBSMC, Who's Been Stealing My Chickens?)
If you are implying that USMC has something to do with Molester of Chickens then things could get exciting around here. I wasn't in the Corps. I was assigned to be the fellow standing on the raised platform at the back of the LCM or LCU with a machine gun to encourage them to get out quick if we ever did an opposed beach landing. Almost always liked being a JO on an amphib. Marines are a courteous well educated group and after a game of cards they pay up with a smile.

Yes I worked for the Bureau of Acronyms and Abbreviations. How did you guess?

Did you think that weapon was just for shooting at the enemy on the beach?