My Virtual World

Being on vacation and enjoying unlimited access to Internet, I can't not to notice how it created all of us into kind of prisoners of it. When I'm sailing I rarely have chance to browse and enjoy my interests as much as now when I don't have to walk around looking for Wi Fi. Nowadays it makes you wonder how did we ever lived without it earlier - back than we read much more I guess - even though I am aware that there are probably far more creative ways one can enjoy free time (taking a walk or simply being outside of the house, for one thing) the obsessive pleasure of living in virtual world is too tempting. We are somewhere in there, soaking all sorts of information in, leaving our comments and getting all worked up about things and people we actually never met. Take for example my virtual friend Ray Charles who is cute dog living somewhere in USA - he was born blind and usually these animals get killed but this one was lucky to get adopted by loving family who absolutely adores him and provided him with a loving home. Not only me but thousands of other people daily follow his life, photographs and adventures - now when we read that his best friend died it saddened us all to degree that I had to stop for a moment and remind myself it happens every day. But it reminded me to enjoy every moment with my dogs. 

Recent frenzy created around dentist who killed that lion in Africa actually scared me - what I think about hunters is completely beside the point here - the fury and anger that media so clearly, deliberately focused on one person reminded me on lynch mob and I couldn't help but question the dangerous power of media. Clearly this man deserves some sort of fine or punishment (or at least bad reputation) but the murderous anger that has now being focused at him, his home address and everybody associated with him is startling. Sure, most of us despise him but I also feel just a little sorry for the guy who was obviously swindled into this (he would not have been able to get to that lion in the first place if greedy locals didn't help him) so there is much more to the story that people realise and it seems everybody is very quick to judge without getting deeper into story besides just looking at pictures and reading the titles. And this is where Internet comes along as dangerous because it creates one sided opinions, arguments and judgements based on impulsive reactions of people with short attention span. This guy might end being killed now because everybody hates him so much and I always had repulsion against mass that is turning onto one person - as much as I despise hunters, I am equally against lynching mobs no matter what are the circumstances. Just imagine yourself being reviled by media and the whole world turning against you without ever giving you a chance to speak for yourself - it must be a nightmare and this guy (deservedly) lives in one right now. He should be fined and forbidden to enjoy his hobby but it is time to stop now before somebody actually kills him. At least we are questioning some deep moral issues and who knows, we might even come to the point where weapons will be forbidden, hunting will be outlawed and maybe even human race will eventually leave animals alone. How long would they live if we don't treat them as a trophy/experiments/pets/food is another question.