Logo

The Mayan Calendar

It doesn't take a brilliant and sophisticated mind to see that the world at the moment is one big struggle for control. If you look at the civil unrest happening in Egypt and Libya, it shows you that regular people are rising against governments and agencies who use and abuse power. According to the Mayan calendar, the Mayans said thousands of years ago that all factions including religion that abuse power would fall, and would cease to exist (para-phrasing). If you look back in the last 30 years, back in the 70's, you would think that as an almost impossibility. But in our day in age, people of our generation have been given the greatest weapon of all, the internet.

This is interesting, because people generally don't think of the internet as a physical thing. People don't take time to think that the internet is actually man's greatest invention. Not only for information and communication purposes, but has had a massive impact on the power that once was there for corporations and governments to exploit. As an example, people are no longer influenced by product placement, mass advertising campaigns, and false or misleading press announcements. Instead, most people rely on reviews and customer reports done by other people who have owned these products. I know this because its what I do.

Egypt Revolution in 2011

So because the change of the original social structure of humanity and the introduction of social media, regular people have been given a voice, and are less influenced by what the powers to be used to force people into their direction. The situation of Egypt could have possibly been catastrophic if the threat of the internet hadn't been there. It only takes minutes for somebody to take photos or shoot videos of an inhumane situation happening and for it all to be online for millions to see. Would have Hosni Mubarak done something unheard of to his civilians if there the internet wasn't shadowing over the top of him like a nuclear weapon? And would the people in Egypt risen against him if the internet didn't exist? and if so, was the internet the main factor in this uprising, knowing that the internet was there like a security blanket to protect there welfare.

Unfortunately, because of this new found freedom of power, it has become a double edged sword. It has opened a "Pandora's Box" of people and organizations finding different ways of exploiting, "Fake Power". An interesting story recently of a gig in Cairns where I witnessed the tour manager for the Australian musical group, "The Waifs" rip into security and production personnel for not wanting to conform to the rules and regulations that are set by the government run venue because of a delusion of "Self-Importance". As everyone has the right to stand up for whatever rights they have in a situation, this one was a perfect example of an exploitation of 'Fake Power" and self delusion. As this is no longer the rocking 60's and 70's, being loud and rude to show your fake power hurts nobody but yourself and your reputation, equal to that of the band that person is managing. It was this incident that gave me the idea of this blog.

Uthman Badar's interview on ACA with Tracey Grimshaw

This is also the problem of organizations and governments who originally has power over citizens resorting to drastic measures out of fear of losing power all together. For most western countries at this present time, most governments are finding themselves with there hands tied as they deal with a pendulum shift when it comes to the use of affirmative action. For those who don't know what affirmative action is, it was an idea set forth by the JFK government about the equality and balance of when it came to race and religion. But as time progresses, organizations that are involved with dealing with the protection of race and religion issues are playing certain cards to use affirmative action policies in order to gain huge advantages over general citizens. For the non-Australian readers, another perfect example of this came from an incident that involved the Muslim community wanting to create a completely separate state in Australia.

Uthman Badar talk about Islamic states with no democracy

Phillip Defranco - One of the leaders in social media freedom

So to sum up, the funny thing about approaching this subject in a blog that I have written, is I am showing my example of being able to reach people on opinions of what I have about certain subjects using a social media format. I am not deluding myself that all people will find what I write informative, or even right. But it enables me to have discussions with people about topics without having to worry about being controlled or watched over like a child. But if you don't take the chance to include yourself in this wonderful place that social media has created, then you are really missing out. To embrace the world and to listen and talk about things that matter, whether it is digital or not, is the reason why information is the real power. Not all of us are interested in Katy Perry's arguments with Calvin Harris on Twitter.