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I love Twitter. Too much.
Late last night, I was driving home from having a beer with a couple of old school mates and realized I was checking Twitter on my iPhone WHILE I WAS DRIVING every few minutes.
I don’t like feeling that I’m addicted to things. I gave up drinking alcohol for 12 years (from age 18 to 30) because I felt like I had a problem with it. And with Twitter, I’ve been feeling lately like I NEED to check Twitter. Like I’m missing out on something if I don’t check it or tweet something every ten minutes. It’s an urge. A need. It’s physical. I’d love to see an fMRI scan of the hypothalamus when people are using Twitter. I’m sure some people have a greater addiction to activities that generate increased dopamine (one of the neurochemicals associated with pleasure and motivation) than others, and I know I’m one of them. I get easily addicted to short-term activities that give me a burst of quick pleasure and I want to train myself to develop better impulse control. And I’m starting with Twitter.
Over the last ten years I have fasted a number of times (ingested nothing but water) for a week to ten days when I’ve felt like my diet was out of control. Every time I’ve done it I have found that it re-calibrates my thinking about food for pleasure versus food for nutrition. I’m hoping a Twitterfast will accomplish the same thing. By the way, when I used the term ‘twitterfast’ last night I thought I was coining it but apparently it’s been around for quite a while. 🙂
IN the meantime… if you haven’t watched Bill Gates’ talk from the recent TED conference, watch it now. I was stunned to learn that more investment goes into finding a cure for baldness than a cure for malaria.
I’ve been reading, and getting into lots of debates, about Israel lately. The whole conflict over there hasn’t been one that’s taken a lot of my attention over the years, although it’s one subject I’ve always been aware I should take the time to educate myself on. I thought I’d try to condense my current thoughts about it here and hopefully we’ll be able to have a constructive and polite discussion about it.
Let me handle the usual complaints up front – no, I am not an anti-Semite. I have Jewish friends. I greatly admire many Jewish people, past and present, from Seinfeld to Einstein.
Nor am I anti-Zionist. I completely understand and sympathize with the desire of the Jewish people to have a land of their own where they can live without the fear of oppression, where they have a sense of self-determination.
On the other hand, I can totally sympathize with the feelings of the Arab people of Palestine. for 1000 years, they were occupied at various stages by the Christian armies of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, the British, Egyptians, Jordanians and now Israelis. They have lived on this land for 1000 years and, up until Britain took control in 1917, represented 90% of the population. Surely they too have a right to self-determination and to the land their families have lived on for so long?
It seems to me that the offer that the partitioning of Palestine is pretty difficult to justify on a moral basis. After all, the Palestinian Arabs weren’t the people who had been oppressing the Jews for the last 2000 years. It was mostly the Christians of Europe. Most recently, it was Christian Germany under the Nazis (yes, they were Christians). If the United Nations felt like the Jewish people deserved a land of their own, surely it would have been much more morally justified to carve out part of Germany for them? It doesn’t matter much that the Zionists WANTED Palestine – it wasn’t morally justified to punish the Arabs of Palestine.
So when we look at the anger and violence committed by the Palestinian Arabs (and their supporters in the other Arab countries) against the Jews “invading” (in their eyes) their country since 1917, we have to see it as they see it if we are truly to understand their position. They see the Israelis as invaders and they (the Arabs) are trying to defend their homeland against an occupying army.
The other factor in all this is that, rightly or wrongly, the UN *did* vote for the partition. Therefore, under international law (which I agree with), the Arabs should abide by the decision and take only lawful measures to fight against it if they feel (as I do) that it was immoral.
However, if we accept that the UN has the power to decide such things, then Israel also needs to abide by the UN’s resolution in 1976 that Israel should go back to it’s pre-1967 borders. This is also a resolution that both Hamas and the Arab League have said they will support and, with it, will recognize Israel’s right to exist.
So – I am not anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist, I am pro-peace and pro-justice.
However, like in all things, I don’t claim to know everything about the subject, so I’m happy to be corrected. All I’m interested in is getting to the truth.
Can anyone tell me where I am misguided or wrong?
Today I had the pleasure to catch up once again with G’Day World regular Dr Peter Ellyard, futurist, environmentalist, and author of “Designing 2050: Pathways To Sustainable Prosperity On Spaceship Earth” which is published by TPN TXT. Buy your copy now!
I chatted with Peter today about the recent IPCC report, Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme and whether or not we are all doomed, as George Monbiot is suggesting. Peter told me that our politicians and media are focusing on the wrong thing. We shouldn’t be just thinking about reducing emissions, we should be talking about MINING THE SKY.
As always, I just loved talking to Peter. He never fails to inspire. He’s now on Twitter (I gave him a crash course today), so make sure you follow him. And we also have a Facebook group for Peter call “The Future Makers Club“, make sure you sign up for that as well.
If you are a journalist, blogger, twitterer or podcaster and you’d like a review copy of Designing 2050, please email me.
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I’ve had a couple of people suggest I should compile a book of transcripts of the top 50 or so interviews I’ve done on G’Day World over the years, including people like Noam Chomsky, Ray Kurzweil, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hunter Lovins, etc.
Is there a market for such a book? Would you buy it?
Let me know here.
Calling yourself a religion should no longer be a get out of jail free card for criminal behaviour.
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This episode was recorded LIVE on Tuesday March 17, 2009. We have an audience following in a chat room on the G’Day World uStream page and my guests include:
Ian Kath – The Polyamorist
Nick Beaugeard – The Climate Change Skeptic
and
Kate Edwards – The Polyamory Skeptic
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