That thing. That thing you did. That was… That was a good thing.

This Shark would like to thank you for what you did.

Never think that the good things you do go unnoticed. In this world, where everyone is ready to judge you and call you out on any of your views that may differ than theirs. This is particularly true on divisive issues that have large opposing groups to deal with.

These groups maintain a strong sense of cohesion through promoting harmony through groupthink.  It’s a very effective way to ensure compliance to a groups tenets and through the use of consequences such as the risk of being ostracized. This makes for a very difficult situation to bring in fresh ideas.

Face it, after working so hard to become a member of a group, risking being removed for not parroting the groups views as expected of them… Takes a very confident, self-assured and brave soul to stand up and face possible humiliation and expulsion by those they care about and thought cared about them.

When you are only able to express your views anonymously or otherwise risk retaliation from your government, religion, company, social group or whatever. Popular avenues to share your views are the only way to do so as long as they allow you to do so anonymously.

Here’s the problem, when internet based countries, such as facebook, twitter and google… Begin to create outrage on situations they carefully crafted themselves (can’t prove it, but it makes sense to me) in order to justify a host of draconian verification methods to use to validate its citizens.

One would think that this would be a good thing and would allow these internet based countries to offer a verified identification service to validate who someone is throughout the world.  The fact that it would effectively keep all the anonymous whistleblowers, abuse victims, independent thinkers and others who can only tell us the truth as such… effectively gagged.

So, I thank each and everyone of you that stood up and told us the truth about what is really going on in this world of ours. Thank you for taking the risk, knowing full well the potential consequence to you and those you care about. I truly can only hope that these internet based countries will find a way to allow you to continue expressing your views without risk.

That thing. That thing you did. That was… That was a good thing.

It’s really all in our minds

My thoughts on how biased my perception will always be. Thus, I must consider others perspectives that differ from mine. That’s the only way I can get a clearer understanding of this world we live in. Granted, I do have a bit of an advantage in that I can’t see certain shades of pink. It’s just a constant reminder that we all see the world differently and I must rely on others perspective.

For example, Women see a lot more colors than I do and they can easily point in general to things I miss, dismiss or find irrelevant.  On a side note, I can see more shades than most, I may not be able to give the color a name… but I know they all belong to the same color group. I’m thankful for that, at least I’m going to be able to match, blend and balance colors for them to complement each other.

The interesting thing to note is that I could never tell you how I perceive colors. There is no way for me to know how you perceive colors. However, I must accept that the majority says that color is pink. Yet, no matter how hard I try I will always see “not pink.”