What Strangers Lurk On Facebook

Just to reassure people in the light of recent posts that I haven't completely lost it, and in the interest of balance, I'd like to relate something interesting that happened to me not long ago, at least I thought it was interesting..

As posted long ago, I'd suggested the wisdom of buying silver or, if you can afford it, gold, as a hedge against inflation, currency devaluations or general mismanagement of economies by governments that don't really know what they're doing. I still stand by that (indeed, I opened an online account at goldmoney.com, with just a relatively small amount of money, though it's a start) although I'm also prepared to stand by the fact that I don't have a crystal ball and that this movement might prove to be pie in the sky as so many other have.

Be that as it may I signed up to one or two Facebook groups of enthusiasts (who were generally much more enthusiastic than I am) of gold and silver and related issues, many of whom are based in the States. One day I got a friend invite from someone whose name was Joseph and who'd evidently thought we'd be of a like mind, and who'd tracked me down via one of those groups. Seemed like an interesting character, had been in the US military and served, by the looks of it, in Iraq. He liked the San Diego Chargers but I was prepared to forgive that.

Before I knew it, I was in for a whole load of invites, recommendations and postings which were, well, they were very political, and not really related to G& S. Things like survivalism (hiding out in the desert in a sealed impregnable box with enough supplies to last though the streams of people of colour coming out of the cities, until the latter devoured each other and it was safe to come out) and 'I support Israel's right to defend itself'.

Now, I don't know about the Israeli situation, maybe the government there is as brutal and heavy handed as they say it is, but the fact remains, I was only interested in my little gold and silver enquiries and hadn't realised I'd had to sign up to a whole agenda of other stuff ... talk about getting out of my depth.

This is something that seems to happen more and more, especially in the States, this kind of agenda-ism. It seems that, you can't think for yourself on various issues and come to your own conclusions, but rather, have to sign up for a whole smorgasbord of accompaniments that you frankly don't want. So, you think that guns are a bad thing? Well, better understand that you're also pro-abortion and same sex marriage and like to talk about how the christian religion was solely set up as an exercise in mind control. Want less government interference in certain areas? Not without an M16, paid up support for the Israeli government and irrational screaming outbursts against Canada and Europe you don't.

Why can we not pick and choose for ourselves? I realise that certain beliefs tend to go together but these hodge-podges of conflicting and contradicting shibboleths and stereotypes that are forced upon us are as obvious as a beach ball in the snow, do not help anyone, and hinder progress.

Some time later Joseph disappeared from my Fabcebook list of friends- Maybe I'd  posted something that wasn't from the same hymn sheet as he wields, said something cynical (or rather, true) about American 'friendly fire' incidents on British troops and others in Iraq or Afghanistan, or maybe he'd even found his way to this blog and read one of my, er,..Walt's posts - who knows. But in hounour of this oddest of social networking dalliances, I'd like to remind Joseph and others like him, be they right or left or centre, that there is still relative freedom of speech and availability of information in much of the western world, and for as long as there is, and as long as people keep thinking and don't just blindly swallow everything that someone with a microphone and and imposing voice feeds them, like so much candy floss, people can choose for themselves what they think on various issues, and don't have to 'join your club'. Grow up!