Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 203
“The power of being human is easily dissolved in the process of excessive trivialization. Banality and triteness, the by-product of repetitiveness, continue to strangle or corrode the sense of significant being.” (Who is Man pg. 114-5)
The rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Wikipedia, Instagram, Twitter, etc have absolutely added to the banality and triteness that is permeating our lives, whether one participates or not. As I write this, I know I use these outlets to get these words to a wider audience to promote a different way of life for everyone and to promote myself and offer the wisdom I have acquired as a consultant to and for individuals, organizations, and companies. I do this on a ‘pay what you can’ fee basis and I believe, maybe erroneously that I am using these platforms in the ways they were meant to be used. Yet, I may be delusional and I may have fallen into the banality and triteness.
The problem with the social media world is we are not always seeking truth, we are not always seeking to raise ourselves nor another up to a better level of living, nor are we acknowledging what is truly significant about our beingness! Rather, we are using it for likes, for celebrity, for fame, for advantage, for the tearing down of another person, etc. We are using Social Media to spread lies, to coerce people into believing the ‘alternative facts’ that we want to promote so no one sees what we are doing while we are saying ‘what they want to hear’. We have seen the fabric of our freedom become stretched to it’s breaking point by the use of Twitter by people who are only trying to promote themselves, people who only want power and have no other ideology or platform other than their self-aggrandizement, their hunger for power and their need for money and control. All of this done while the creators of these platforms and the C-Suite people wrap themselves in the 1st Amendment and knowingly promote lies, ads targeted to deny people access to the truth, to voting, etc. All this done under the banner of Free Market Capitalism, which we all can believe in, up to a point.
Herein is the issue, for all of us. To lift ourselves out of the pit and the quicksand of triteness and banality that are strangling and corroding our sense of significant being, we have to say no to the lower, animal self within each of us and begin using the platforms as forums to share ideas that are based in truth, not Q-Anon fantasies, based in serious discussion and exchange of ideas and solutions, not the Trump-fueled lies and self-aggrandizements. We have to remake the fabric of our society to live into and up to the promises of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, the Bible, the Prophets, the Gospels of Jesus, the teachings of the Koran, the philosophy of Buddhism, etc. It is not as hard as many people believe, it is not too big of an ask nor too much to accomplish. As the teaching in the Pirke Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, teaches, we are not called upon to finish the work AND we are not free to not engage in it and we are not free to nullify the work that has been begun by another. We cannot allow the Social Media Platforms to further nullify and destroy our democracy under the banner of free speech.
Speech is not free, we are responsible for what we say, how we say it, when we say it and where we say it. Just as one cannot cry FIRE in a crowded theater, if there isn’t one, we are not free to say what we want about whomever we want to without regard to the truth. Yet, we are in this situation in this moment. Free Speech is under attack as is Freedom of Religion by the same people who want to control us for their sake, not God’s sake. We are inundated with the lies of some ‘religious’ people who are sure they know God’s Will and it is to listen to them, tithe them, bow down to them-how UnGodly can one get. God created the world through speech, according to the Bible, so our words also create and we are responsible for the creations we bring into being with our speech. When we are responsible for our words, our ways, our world, we heed the Hasidic saying: “If you assume the person next to you is the Messiah, you will come to weigh your words and watch your actions. If he/she chooses not to reveal her/himself, it will not matter”.
In recovery, we are aware of the power of our words and what we put out in the Social Media stratosphere through our taking inventory of our actions and their consequences, positive and negative, over the years. We make the commitment to be more judicious and less impulsive with our texting, our social media, our speech and we know we are works in progress and sometimes we fall short of our goals so we do our amends and we improve one grain of sand more each day.
I am guilty of flying off the handle, I am guilty of speaking truth at inappropriate moments and in anger. I am guilty of not assuming the person next to me is the Messiah all the time. I have violated the space of people with my calling out their bullshit and lies in public and I have been violated by the lies of these same people and the innuendos they throw around about me. I pay for my way of doing life, being upfront, brazen, if you will, about spreading truth and calling out the mendacity of another. It is lonely, it is misunderstood and it is the only way I can live, it is the ultimate of recovering my soul for me, for God. It is the deal I made with God, my daughter, Heather, my wife, Harriet, my siblings, Sheri and Neal, and my community/my friends. I am not always correct, I am usually loud:) and I am willing to be wrong. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark