Social Commentary - 2/2 - Marketing, Sales, and the Art of Persuasion

Online behavior, why is it so bad sometimes?

October 19, 2009 By Paul Lorinczi 1 Comment

Two Face - Character from Batman comic book

What is it about being in front of a computer that can sometimes bring out the worst in people?

Hiding behind email

In the office, email is the weapon of choice. How often have you received a nasty email from a co-worker who says things they would never say to your face? I had a boss that used email to say what he really thought, yet he had a hard time communicating it in person. After reading it, you would scratch your head and ask, “What was that all about?”

Back in the day before all the electronic communication, if you had a problem with someone, you would spar with them in some form to settle the dispute. Today, we hide behind email.

I like my wife’s rule to my kids. If you can’t say it to their face, then don’t say it at all. She can’t stand the “hide by email” effect. She is a direct person and tells it like she thinks it is.

Message Board Rage

Another phenomenon I have been observing is what I call “Message Board Rage”. I participate in several boards and blog discussions. There is another guy in some part of the country or world. He has never met the other person, yet he is spewing a vitriolic hatred for the other person. In many cases, it is because the other person just does not agree with what they are saying.

Growing up as a 1st generation Hungarian boy, respect is a very important concept in my family. I grew up in the era of respect your elders. Now that I have reached my mid-40s, I understand what experience really means. There is an absence of this long held value in message board culture. Not only can you show disrespect, you can down right destroy someone you do not really know.

Which begs the question, what drives this behavior? Are these individuals so unhappy in their real lives that they feel power to take it out on people half a world away? As my wife says, would these people do it in person? Chances are not.

Twitter Rage

Recently, we observed some Twitter rage. An individual did not like something another person said, so he attempted to totally destroy the credibility of the other person. It was not an intellectual banter of professionals. It was a vitriolic dialog akin to something seen on the Jerry Springer show. Is there no professional respect in the world?

The individual tried to engage me. I pointed out, this will become a circular argument. Why even have it?

The individual that was getting the rap is guy anyone would like to have a beer with. He is funny, witty, and just a decent human being. Yet, this guy from another part of the country had no qualms about trying to destroy this person’s reputation online.

Binary World

Everyone today is right and the other person is wrong. Convictions are so important that basic human communications have degraded into a disrespectful shouting matches. The current economic situation does not help matters, as people are full of fear. The anger out there certainly does mask that fear.

So, what should be done to change the bad behavior in electronic communication? Simply, start with your own behavior. Ask yourself, why am I allowing this person I don’t really know, pissing me off? Is what I am writing, what I would say to him/her in person? If not, don’t write it. It’s a start.\

Online Golden Rule

“If you can’t say it to a person’s face, then don’t write it in an email, message board, blog or twitter post.”

Let’s bring the concept of mutual respect back into our dialogs. We can solve more problems this way. Maybe even help one another in the process.

Filed Under: internet marketing, Internet Public Relations, Online Behavior, Social Commentary Tagged With: angry posters, bad behavior online, binary personalities online, golden rule for online behaivor, two faced personalities online

Nostradamus and the Anti-Christ

September 10, 2009 By Paul Lorinczi Leave a Comment

Last night, my Son and I watched Nostradamus on the History Channel.

According to the program, my Son and I learned that Napoleon was the first anti-Christ in his prophecies. Wait? What?

He was a change agent for his time. He invaded Europe to eliminate the Monarchial structures. After his defeat, the royal families quickly put them back. They continued their repressions, until the 1848 revolutions which forced a compromise to their rule.

Now, the whole Hitler idea made sense. But, when the guy tried to explain that Nostradamus predicted 9/11 by using numbers that if you convert them to something else, it comes up 9/11/11. See, he had secret code because he did not want people to know they were the one. Wait? What?

I used to have an employee that was a born again Christian. We would have heavy discussions about religion, satan, etc. He made reference to someone being an anti-Christ. I said, “Of course he is, if you want to believe.” “For all you know, I am the anti-Christ!” I gave him an evil look and I think he almost pooped his pants.

As I was watching the show, the construction of the essay, I realized that we can see the things they were sharing, if we want to see it.

Who is Mabus that they speak of? Well, if you move the letters and assign mathematical equation to the the letters, Mabus is Bush. Wait? What? I thought he just had a hard time speaking English and had a “I don’t get any respect from my Daddy syndrome.”

If you Google the question, who is Mabus. The answers are all over the place.

The anti-Christ is who we want to see. For right wing Republicans, it is Obama. For Liberals, it is Bush and Cheney. According to Google search, it is a host of Middle Eastern leaders whose names mysteriously translate to Mabus.

I think the solution to all of this is simple. If we would spend a little more time loving each other rather than hating each other, the world would in fact be a better place. If we stopped listening to other people’s opinions about how things are and should be and start loving, things could get better. Maybe we need to aspire to a higher level of consciousness. A consciousness that understands our fears, our anger, our sadness, and embraces the joy, instead of allowing others to manipulate our fears and convert it into anger. This could free us from ourselves to truly experience the love we all want and raise us to a higher consciousness.

Ah…who am I kidding. We fear and hate because it feeds our egos. Love is for suckers and hippies.

Filed Under: Social Commentary Tagged With: television

From Boom to Bust – Flint, MI

September 8, 2009 By Paul Lorinczi 2 Comments

“You can go from boom to bust, from dreams to a bowl of dust, you can fall from rockets red glare down to brother can you spare another war, another wasteland, another lost generation”

Neil Peart – Between the Wheels

When I go back to Flint, this line in a Rush song always comes to mind. See, Flint, MI is a case study in boomtowns gone to bust. At its peak, General Motors in Flint employed 82,000 people at plants around the city. This does not include all the industries that support General Motors. Today, General Motors only employs about 8,000 workers.

Back in the day when folks would travel north from Detroit or south from Saginaw, you would be greeted with a very proud sign that declared Flint, Buicktown. See, back in the day, Buicks used to roll off the lines in Flint. I remember the big Buick Park Avenue friends of ours had. One of my favorite cars we owned as a family was our Buick Riviera. It had a powerful V-8 that moved when you pressed the pedal. Flint was not a beautiful town, but parts were charming. It boasted a fantastic cultural center that included museums, a theater, and planetarium – all the things that patriarchal wealth from the Mott family bought. It always seemed that Flint started to die when Mr. Mott died.

Today, the big billboard that would boast you were entering Buicktown now advertises the greatest economic development solution for all struggling economies – a Casino. (I guess Mr. Potter won, we are transforming all our struggling economies into Potterville).

Go around town and you will find that its mighty past has been dismantled – literally. The factories that my Grandfathers, Grandmothers, Uncles all worked – no longer there. One of the largest manufacturing facilities that stretched 2 miles on the north side of town – gone.

Today there are a lot of weeds growing between the pavement throughout the town. Flint could become an episode of “Life after People” on the History Channel.

I have friends that are still making a life of it in Flint. A couple have their businesses downtown and are doing their part to make something happen. The bright spot being the investments being made by the University of Michigan into downtown Flint.

Where is the next Billy Durant and what industry will bring to the community? Or, is Flint just a footnote in the history of communities that have gone from boom to bust?

Maybe they should just shut portions of the city down, give it back to nature, and become a lumber town again. Sometimes, we have to go backwards to go forwards again. Maybe that is what a community like Flint should consider.

The one bright spot – they still have the best hot dogs/coney dogs in the world there.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Social Commentary

Are we playing Russian Roulette with our kids?

August 19, 2009 By Paul Lorinczi Leave a Comment

Here is an interesting article from the Daily Mail in the UK about the upcoming H1N1 vaccination that is happening globally.

Swine Flue Vaccines – are they safe?

A former colleague of mine who used to be in the healthcare device manufacturing business told me that FDA approval is very difficult to get. He said one of the biggest costs of device development is testing and approval. Yet, beginning in October, the biggest game of Russian Roulette will begin in the United States and around the world.

The US has ordered 200 million of the untested H1N1 flu jab. Locally here in Indianapolis, they are talking about setting up the vaccine centers in our schools. They want to give it to our kids first.

Here are some facts to consider:

1976 Flu Pandemic – the vaccine killed more people than the actual flu itself from complications of the GBS disease contracted from the virus. People died because the vaccine disabled the nerves needed to help people breath. Therefore, they did of respiratory failure.
The current jab they are going to use on us has never been tested on humans. That’s right. No human trials. Now, folks will tell you that the trials are occurring in St. Louis as we speak. The problem with those trials is they are not using the same vaccine that is being mass produced. The mass produced version has something called adjuvants. These are ingredients that allow vaccine makers to mass produce. Problem is, they are the same ingredients that have been tied to Gulf War Syndrome.
The US Government has granted the drug companies immunity from prosecution for any negative side effects from these vaccines. So, if your local school injects your kids with a vaccine and it either kills them or severely injures them, you have no recourse against the drug companies.

Why are we planning on vaccinating 200 million people against a flu virus that has shown a mortality rate less than the common flu? Well, for one, the drug makers themselves have a log to gain. Check out the stocks of Baxter, Novartis, and Glaxo. They are performing rather well.

So, why are we playing Russian Roulette with our kids?

Filed Under: Social Commentary, Swine Flu Tagged With: H1N1, Swine Flu, Vaccination

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