We should have a national day of, “Turning off Cable TV”. We need to ween people off the we are all going to die channels and get people back into their communities actually solving problems.

It’s about the economy. Join your local Entrepreneurial group. Learn about new companies that need support. Find out where your local economy can engage into the global economy.

Our problems do not stem from minority groups or Mexican immigrants.  It’s because we moved all our manufacturing off shore along with the jobs. It’s because we need skilled workers today, not unskilled. It’s because our economy has been on a slow decline since the 1950s.

Yet, we can not look back to the 1950s. The advantage we had at the time is gone – a world devastated by war and rebuilding. The United States economy was the only one intact. Now, we have to compete again. Yet, today, we choose to compete with each other’s opinions about right and wrong – black and white – left and right – forwards and backwards.

Government can not solve the problems.  It can be part of the solution. Here in Indiana, laws holding us back were the inventory tax and daylight savings time. When the State Government repealed these laws, the logistics companies were able to take advantage of the Indianapolis being the Crossroads it always claimed to be. Government has a role. It can work towards the future without disrespecting the past.

This country was built on idea generation like no other in the world. You can still try anything you want here. You can succeed, but you are allowed to fail. Let’s stop arguing about social issues and encourage ideas, investment and creation of new industries. We are the only nation good at doing those things.

My favorite line from John Stewart, “We are not living in the “End of Times”, we are living in difficult times.” Let’s all stop whining and pointing fingers at each other.  If we lose hope as a nation, it’s too late to fix our problems.

Turn off the Cable Television and join a local Entrepreneurs group. If there is not one, start one because the future depends on it.

Paul is the President of Professional Blog Service. PBS works with clients making strategic investments into blogging, social media and search engine optimization.

For the past 6 years, I have participated on an online forum that covers the state of Hungarian Football.  There are a small number of “hopeful” Hungarian Football fans that are waiting for the resurrection of the “Golden Team” of the 1950s.  We religiously follow our beloved Hungarian National Team only to be disappointed every 2 years when they fail to make a major tournament.  The last time Hungary participated in a World Cup was in 1986 in Mexico.

Football is passion and passions brings out the worst or best in others.  The forum is going through the changes that often occur in groups where a choice is asked of its members to be with the forum leader or not.  Members come and go, but now there is a come to Jesus with the remaining members to pledge allegiance to the Forum Manager.

Now, if we follow the pattern of what is happening, it is a common in offline communities for people to become divided.  There seems to be a life cycle that starts with the following steps:

1.  Mutual Respect

2.  Cooperation

3.  Division

4.  Power Grab

There is a “Lord of the Flies” effect that seems to take hold.

Division leads to power grabs by individuals that leads to potential dictatorships for order.

I am going to explore this phenomenon further.  This behavior is not limited to online forum behavior but permeates our lives.  I have seen it in how organizations work too.  Competition breeds cooperation that denigrates into division which ultimately leads to a new congregation forming at another Church.

This common offline behavior can be seen occurring in online forums also.

More to come on this subject…

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.