Interesting how things can interact, isn't it? Everything has it's fundamental frequency, the frequency at which, if you get too close to something producing that frequency, you fall apart. Remember the case of the bridge in the US that fell apart when they let cars drive across it? Or the other one that fell apart because of the wind blowing across it?
That was when something close to them hit their fundamental harmonic. And their bonds just gave up. Decided they had more interesting things to do than being stable, went on their own merry way with gay abandon. Not caring for what happened to the whole.
It is an over simplified explanation of what happens, I know, excuse me for a while - my more technical nature will wake up soon enough. For the moment just bear with me as I ramble, 'kay?
Things/ideas/people resonate at varying frequencies, I think. And when they come close to a fundamental harmonic they affect you more than you expect. After all do they not say when someone has had a nervous breakdown that they have 'fallen apart'? Or some other euphemism, for that usually covers the guilt that person feels for their part in 'the business' (yes, I have my euphemisms too.)
In this analogy someone who has had a nervous breakdown has simply hit a fundamental harmonic and their life has fallen apart on them. Completely. The various fragments have found something more energetic to do and gone...
But I digress, and I am trying not to get too diverted today.
I brought this idea up because of something that happened. Simple enough, trivial to the computer semi-literate and literate alike - I was Webbing. Well alright, to be more correct and less glib I was reading a page on a World Wide Web server. Somewhere in the States, of course - seemingly there are few good personal pages closer to home as of yet.
By an unlikely set of circumstances (to be read as "I can't remember how the heck I found it.") I came across a set of pages that contain someone's collected rants of the week. Text files detailing the trials, troubles and tribulations the person suffers, as seen from their perspective. Often brooding, nearly always introspective - I find these pages quite fascinating to read. It is so rare that you see someone's collected thoughts and feelings expressed so clearly and so concisely.
No euphemisms, well less than usual anyway, and someones actual bare thoughts on what is happening to them. The vicarious thrill of reading these things is hard to explain. Perhaps it is because the person writing these thinks in ways sorta close to my own, on a similar frequency so to speak, or perhaps it is because it is refreshing to see someone say and speak what they think. More likely it is simply the thrill of doing something your not normally able to do - see inside someone elses head for a brief clear glimpse. Usually the best we can manage is a quick guess, a semi accurate hunch as the conversation twists in ways we can follow long enough to see the pattern and recognise it again.
But it has it's dangers. Sometimes the wavelength the person is on comes close to a harmonic you would really rather not hear. It shakes you for no other reason than it was near a harmonic of yours. Now, for my own reasons, I am not going to go into exactly why this post rattled my mental 'bonds' - there must be some privacy between the reader and the writer, no?
But in the article, the rant, that page of almost pure, and not that diluted, thought & feeling I struck a resonance. I understood too well why what they described hurt and it reminded me of things. People I'd rather not remember in a hurry. Places where deeds of mild (to serious) ignomy were committed both by, and against, me. Times I wish I could go back and change, sometimes.
At least till I remember that those events shaped the me that I am today. Oh not totally, I don't give them that much credit, but to be scrupulously fair they did change some of my outlooks. I became less trusting, slightly paranoic, often depressed and usually on a slow boil about the way I was treated. Sometimes it would surface and for a moment I would be gloriously mad, except that it didn't help - it was what they wanted. Took me a long time to learn that.
Suffice it to say I remember. And this rant reminded me of all that. Brought it back for a moment and pointed the mental eyes right at the whole ugly mess of it all and made me face it for a time.
My point in bringing this up?
Well I am not sure I have much of one. I more just kinda wanted to ramble for a time, bend your ear - make myself feel profound or important or something. But the little point that I have is that of late alot has been said about the net. Some of it has been accurate. Alot has been hype, and most of it seems to be people taking their stance as the one true stance on how the net should be run.
They perceive the net as a danger, never to themselves of course. But to the children whose minds it is going to corrupt. I am dubious of this. The campaign just ...feels... wrong to be motivated purely by the most laudable of motives, the safety of our next generation. The people leading the way seem wrong for the role. Too often they are people whose goals in life have been at the expense of others, now they suddenly have others welfare ahead of their own? It makes me suspicious.
But then, to get back to my analgoy, perhaps they aren't being so selfless. After all different materials have different fundamnetal harmonics. What complicates it even more is that the arrnagement and mixing of various materials changes the behavior. One thing is sure, some things have fundamental harmonics that are easier to reach than others.
Maybe that is what scares them the most. That their achillies heel is being displayed, waiting - ready to spring and shatter their sensibilities. To rock the boat, however strongly it can, and disturb their lives.
I mean if someone like myself, who is reasonably seasoned to what the net can provide, can be shaken up by a, seemingly, quite innocuous web page - then who is immune, safe?