Facebook conversations, chats, and talks.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written years ago, unedited/not updated.

I HAVE been reading thoughts and discussions/debates from FB page/s of friends and acquaintances—mostly former professors, writing mentors, editors and media colleagues, emanating from four corners of the universe. Facebook, thank you for this one-click wonder... 

       Interesting, intriguing, endlessly enlightening. I recall those days of yonder as a zealous youth hungry for knowledge and adventure, reading up on stuff from Freire to Nietzsche to Thoreau to Sartre to Camus to Mao to Toffler to Dylan to just about anything that is worth food for thought, chased down by a bottle or two of scrounged cerveza. It's always cool to sit down over a drink, whatever drink, with anyone who knows some—not simply a smartass agitator or trickster devil's advocate. Even in heated and intense joust, lessons are harvested. I learned a lot from those... 

       Meantime, it is kind of easier now to engage in a discussion since words and stuff are easily double-checked via google. Yet if a prospective conversant reasons, “I don't believe in Wikipedia anyways...” or “I don't google...” and we ask, “So what do you know?” and get, “I don't need to know...” then what is the point of a talk, right? I say, what we get on the internet are all 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand data. However, it is a common progression in knowing stuff and things to follow through—get out, go to the library, talk with people, visit places. But who wants to do that these days? 

       Ah! Still though I like talking with someone who has a baseline info about anything. Where did CD originate, are the Bee Gees British or Australians, what is Treaty of Paris, how significant is WTO, who is Sylvie Legere, was Genghis Khan really a jerk, how dumb was Columbus, how powerful was Isabella I of Castille, who is Tom Joad, how good was Duane Allman on slide guitar, what makes Ho Chi Minh a military genius, does fortune cookie exist in Beijing? But it is sad that today's humanity is generally interested in cryptic, 3-word lines only—short attention span earthlings who are so busy yet they haven't left their seats in the last 14 hours. Anyways… 🗣👥📲