Hackers to the Rescue! (Maybe)

by Major Mule

Without getting into the whole "what is a hacker" debate, I am sure this article will create enough of a discussion based on its contents.  That is the whole point of this article.  Bottom line up front, I am asking the hacker community to band together and save the United States of America.  The battlefield is the current U.S. climate.  At every turn, corporate interests and greed are dividing us.  However, it is not the normal players that are creating the tensions.  I hope that I have your attention, so please keep reading to see how hackers can optimistically save the country.  I do apologize for the U.S.-centric nature of this article.  I am sure similar issues exist everywhere; it is just that the U.S. is where I am most familiar.

Every day, news stories inundate us and try to divide us.  No matter what side of the political aisle you are on (more about that in a minute), corporate media is doing its best to divide, upset, outrage, and manipulate each one of us.  All this manipulation is in the name of promoting their agenda, which ultimately is to sell advertising.  In fact, I will go as far as to say that most U.S. media outlets fit accepted definitions of terrorism, insofar as they are using scare tactics to affect political change to meet their needs.

What can us hackers, as a community, do about it?  I am not suggesting that I have all the answers, but I can tell you what will be a great start.  If we stop being manipulated and divided by this yellow journalism and start thinking for ourselves.  If we start thinking differently about the issues and the people behind them.  As humans, it is hard not to let the constant media drone affect us, but that is why we need to think about this in new ways.  Hackers are the perfect community to start this movement.  We represent every background, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation across the spectrum.  (I purposefully leave the word "race" out because there is only one "race" and that is human.)

Before I talk about how we can make real change, I need to get back to talking about the political sides in America that divide us.  This is really the crux of the issue.  We need to focus on what we have in common and not what divides us.  I think people on both sides of the aisle have the same goal: to make our world better.  We want to live in a safe country and have opportunities to grow and prosper.  We just have different views on how to get there.  This is good!  It keeps a balance.

I do not want to boil political affiliations down to a simple sentence, but here is a way to think about it.  (Again, politics are much more complex than this, but it is just an attempt to get us to think differently about the other side.)  The "left" is often concerned with compassion and the "right" is concerned with "practicality."  Neither side is right, nor is either side wrong.  Both sides keep things balanced and working.  I know you are most likely reading this and saying that your side is the best way, but it is not.  We need each side to strike a balance to continue to function and prosper.

What does this mean for you?  It means that each time you read or hear a story, consider the other side.  If the other side is not represented (there are two sides to every story), make every effort to find it before you make up your mind.  Demand that the media get back to reporting facts and leaving their opinions at the door.

Encourage those around you to do the same.  Tell the people that have the same views as you to consider the other side.  Help them understand the other side.  Reach out to people with the opposing view to engage in real conversation.  Start by agreeing on what you have in common.  Talk about the result you both would like to see.  Try to find unique and creative solutions that may fit both objectives.  Hackers are amazing at creative solutions!

If you find yourself "hating," step back, take a breath, and try to calm down.  No one person is right about everything.  Nor is any solution to a complex issue perfect.  Hating is not going to solve anything.  Only through reasonable discussion and compromise can we solve issues.

There is that word: "hate."  Do you really "hate" someone because they are more compassionate or practical than you?  If so, how is that constructive?  Again, let us look at what we have in common to find solutions, not just yell at each other and let hate get in our way.

This is where we hackers come in.  As a group, we can come up with creative solutions to fact sharing.  We can find ways to expose the mainstream media's biases on both sides.  We can show how people, acting reasonably, can solve complex problems.  We can work together (I want to emphasize that word "together") to show that just because people think differently, or have different solutions, we do not need to hate each other.

Before you dismiss this article as a fluff piece, understand that it is challenging you to change your very core reactions.  It is trying to make you "think" more than you "hate."  It is throwing the gauntlet down, for you to come up with new paradigms to how to report news and how people conduct debate.  It is asking you to put a human face on your opposition.  It is presenting the idea that real solutions come from working together, and not by fighting, name-calling, and closing off discussions.  This is not fluff.

There are no easy answers to this situation.  We are up against the most powerful entities in the world: the mainstream media.  However, the hacker community is up to the challenge.  Let this little article spark a movement to bring the United States together, bring the political divide together, bring people together.  Let us find ways to agree instead of being more polarized and separated.

Let us hackers save the day!