Drinking the Hater-Ade

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, 

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

-Romans 12: 2

I have been part of the twitterverse for about a month now.  Culturally speaking, Twitter is a lot more interesting than Facebook, because Facebook functions more or less like a gathering of friends.  Twitter, however, has a Matrix-like quality in the way that it moves and breathes with a sort of collective consciousness.  Over the last few days I have been following what amounts to a fairly continuous thread of responses to a blog about the ways that hate can spew forth on the internet like vomit from that girl on the Exorcist.  The blog was by Amanda Palmer, who I know about because I'm a music geek (she was the lead singer of The Dresden Dolls), and a literary/comic book geek (she's married to Neil Gaiman).  Ms. Palmer has written a rather wonderful, touching commentary on the phenomenon of Cyberbullying.  Be warned that she likes to use some fairly adult language, but if you can handle that please read: http://www.amandapalmer.net/blog/20130105/

Don't skip the comments and responses, they may be the best part.

For those of you who don't want to here's the gist: Amanda is a successful artist, while perhaps not a household name, she has enough fanboys and fangirls to keep her ego well stoked and cushioned against criticism, yet hate and bile can bring her down.  What about your average 15 year old girl who has rather intractable self esteem issues?

The anonymity of the internet allows those who would hate carte blanche to do so whenever and however they want, with no fear or being punched in the face (not that violence is the answer, but sometimes...).  See, I'm hating on the haters!  It's almost irresistible!

Just this morning, the twitterverse provided me with a shining example of how hate pollutes things.  Besides Amanda Palmer and her husband Neil, two of the most essential twitter follows for me are the Dalai Lama and the Pope.  I am neither Buddhist nor Roman Catholic, but these are two of the most important religious figures in the world today, and I am interested in all things related to God (even a few atheists, because negative space is important in any picture).

So here is the Pope's morning tweet (@pontifex): "Following Christ's example, we have to learn to give ourselves completely.  Anything else is not enough."  Just the kind of thing one might expect the Bishop of Rome to say to his 1.4 million followers (that's just on twitter, the Catholic Church has way more than that).  The remarkable thing is that most of the responses to that were negative, and I'm not talking a little negative.  I'm talking priest-molestation scandal / Nazi Germany kind of stuff.  It makes me glad that the Pope probably  doesn't spend much time actually following himself on Twitter.  Even if he did he would probably understand that those poor people are in need of Christ's love as well and forgive them (JPII forgave a guy that shot him, it sort of comes with the big hat).

Just so you know that this kind of bile is not reserved for Christianity here is the Dalai Lama's morning tweet (@DalaiLama): "We forget that despite the superficial differences between us, people are equal in their basic wish for peace and happiness."  And I thought to myself, "isn't that a nice thought!  I'm not Buddhist, but I could go around for a few days thinking about that and it would probably make me a better person.  In fact, I would probably find it easier to truly love my neighbor and follow Christ's example like the Pope says Christians should do."

Then I read the comments...

Bad idea, I'm going to stop doing that.  There are just so many morons... AHHH!  There I go, judging and hating!  This interweb thing is really insidious!  Maybe I should just stop, get off of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+.  Maybe I should take down my blogs and shoot my computer like Elvis did to his TV.

Then again probably not.

Maybe I should try to be in the middle of all this sin and try not to let it get to me.

Maybe that's what I can learn from the Pope and the Dalai Lama, because that's probably why they're on here.  They obviously don't need the publicity.  Maybe these two holy men are on Twitter because they see the potential for raising the cultural consciousness above nip-slips and the latest celebrity divorces.  Maybe Benedict XIV puts his encouraging Christian messages out there every once in a while so that someone will know that we can use these computers and iphones for something besides porn and hatred.  Maybe the Dalai Lama actually believes that even the haters have that basic wish for peace and happiness.  I want to believe that too.  And in the end most of our faith decisions come down to what we really want to believe in: God, nothing or something in between, love or hate, anger or forgiveness.  I think I know what side I want to be on.

I guess Twitter might be useful after all.