Nastiness in Blog Land
When my students display acts of cruelty and/or violence, there are plenty of consequences. One such consequence that I insist upon is they write the following quote and we talk about what it means.
The quote:
If Others Disrespect Me Or Give Me Flack
I'll Stop And Think Before I React
Knowing That They're Going Through Insecure Stages
I'll Take The Opportunity To Exercise Patience
I'll See It As A Chance To Help The Other Person
Nip It In The Bud Before It Can Worsen
A Chance For Me To Be Strong And Sure
As I Think On The Buddhas Who Have Come Before
As I Praise And Respect The Good They've Done
Knowing Only Love Can Conquer Hate In Every Situation
We Need Other People In Order To Create
The Circumstances For The Learning That We're Here To Generate
Situations That Bring Up Our Deepest Fears
So We Can Work To Release Them Until They're Cleared
Therefore, It Only Makes Sense
To Thank Our Enemies Despite Their Intent
It helps that the quote is from a pretty amazing Beastie Boys song. (MCA is the original JewBu.)
Anyway, when others online spew hate and nastiness because they can't disagree politely, it helps me to listen to this song and remember the words.
I'll be glad if it helps anyone else out, too.
posted by kate @ 9:09 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Not sure what the underlying cause is, probably many(broken home, dysfunctional family, abusive relationships), but some just seem to thrive in conflict. Like soldiers with PTSD the battle is so much a part of them it's hard to fit into "normal" life. Others have yet to mature to accepting personal responsibility and always need to play the victim, hence the constant need for a nemesis or an opressor.
As for the Internet, it is an empowering media that emboldens the meek, and provides a level of personal detachment that shields the insecure. I've often pondered about how the ever-increasing exchange of information will ideologically alter our world. Will the Internet and it's descendants ultimately be a unifying force as we find that, despite our differences, none of us are all that much unlike one another. Or will it be the great flocculator as the like-minded tend to aggregate in cliques and gangs further polarizing our world.
Great lyrics by the way. Without discourse life would get pretty boring, but opposition doesn't require enmity.
>>As I Think On The Buddhas Who Have Come Before
As I Praise And Respect The Good They've Done<<
I can't help but think that if this song were making essentially the same point but made reference to Jesus Christ or Moses that there would be those who would be complaining that you're bringing religion into the school.
DBB - I'm hoping it will be a unifying force.
RW - Good catch. Come look in my classroom. I leave those two lines out.
Although, I gotta say, the reason I keep it out is because my parents would complain, bitterly, about their kids being forced to write anything relating to Buddha. If it were Jesus Christ, my parents wouldn't complain a bit. So I keep it out because I don't need to be written up.
Still. You make a good point.
I hope so too, but, particularly with blogging it almost seems like petty infighting quickly leads to fractionalizing into smaller subsets. I wonder if we extrapolate far enough we'd see everyone become a party of few or one. It might be melodramatic and overly pessimistic, sure but interesting food for thought and fodder for philosophizing.
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