Hiatus from Facebook and the Internet -

I'd say, visit Facebook ONLY ONCE each week: plow through, do no chats, accept no "gifts" and sign up for no events. However, it can be a great organizing tool IF folks are 'in the space' for social media, but few of us really have time to 'be in that space' (having thought about it).

I've met some of the techies who develop this stuff: not bad guys or gals, but often 'self-absorbed' in terms of cyberspace and their own interests and how much money they 'bring home' from doing the development, and very little sense of social responsibility that isn't in terms of using the Internet between persons and 'social action' (as an intermediary).

Of course, we're using such an intermediary to say this.

It reminds me of the head of Buildings and Grounds at Tufts University, where I used to work in the days when we were setting up the materials management program that included recycling. "My men are all on union contracts. I cannot ask them to lift, move, or relocate anything by hand; they cannot be expected to lift, move, empty, or relocate anything that doesn't put a machine in between them and the task. Now, if you want that to be done, you're asking for subcontracted custodians, and my men are not custodians."

To which I replied: "Might you consider a pair of safety gloves a machine?"

"No" was his answer.

Then I think also of a vegetarian friend, a vegan friend with two doctorates (philosophy and psychology) who for years planned to write a book on how modern life alienates us from experiencing directly, built upon Plato's analogy of the cave (the inner resident saw against the wall he was facing the shadows from the flickering flame behind him).

Well, such is complex existence, and some strive for a tenured position in a field where that depth of analysis can be pursued, or a clinical role that might also indulge it (like a chaplaincy in a school or mental hospital).

If you find it, just stay sane and don't commit intellectual suicide.

For me: Animals as Persons by Gary Francione

http://www.amazon.com/Animals-Persons-Essays-Abolition-Exploitation/dp/0231139500
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_L._Francione
http://www.gary-francione.com/
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/