I have been thinking about how our culture works right now.  With social media, people are attaining power and money over us by making us angry.

That anger divides us.

Making people angry simply works for people and organizations that don’t want us to think reasonably. Facebook makes money and political groups fire up their base. Our anger is not generated within ourselves, but instilled by bad people.

However, what is our part in this?

We jump into the anger with both feet.

I know I did.  I shared the meme and the post.  Came up with some of my own. Often it was for the most childish of reasons.  My friends liked me doing it.  So when I came across something that would make them laugh and agree with, I was motivated to find some more.  I encouraged my Facebook friends to do the same.

Basically, we became middle schoolers giggling by our lockers.

Though I saw it as standing up to bullies, the motivation of bullying was the same.  I wanted to make certain people steaming mad.

All it did was make it us and them.

I try to curb that behavior.  I have not changed my mind on any issue. And no one was going to change their mind. I am afraid of not speaking up. In letting people say hateful things and they think I agree. However, I am more afraid of the division caused by anger.

We need to go back to pictures of children and pets.