Dehumanization - bad communications: RobCalls. call filtering by corporations, other?

SO... there are too many robocalls... made by robots and spoken by recordings and controlling them would alleviate a lot of frustration experienced by people.

These are dehumanized and dehumanizing.

They try our patience.

They have a negative effect of real communication amongst people...much more so then posting on Facebooks, etc...

SO STOP THEM...

And then there are the incoming call filtering systems one is up against when calling a corporation such as your bank, or Xfinity or ATT, etc... Those try one's patience, too, as you want to talk to somebody... a real person! But first - type you account number (long and easy to make a mistake) and this even as they know from what telephone number you are calling and thus who you are AND THEN -- if/when you get to a person you need to repeat that again (and sometimes again and again....). Another dehumanizing experience.

Terrible! And truly and really changeable WITHOUT adversely effecting privacy or free speech or humanity.

Robocalls can be stopped by legislation requiring callers to fully identify themselves and by allowing we who get the calls to opt IN if we want to.... rather then having some opportunity to opt out.

Call filtering is somewhat mitigated by those companies who give you the option of being called back when it is your turn so you don't have to wait listening to music and advertisements. That is the best solution I think. While it is true companies can hire and make available more customer service representatives I can understand there are limits to how many people companies want to have -- just in case. Call-backs are ok, by me.... as long as when the call back comes I get connected rather immediately to a person.

Daughter's book question/challenge..

TEXT OF CHALLENGE:

"The 10 day challenge- to post a book cover that has been significant, meaningful, important to me without further commentary."

HOWEVER -- I will comment on my choices...!!

AND THERE ARE MORE.... maybe later.... Thanks for your considerations. Thanks, Sarah -- for the impetus.

SO:

First I posted:

And my comments were:

ok... here is one book... and there will be commentary since books have lots of words and so do I... AND - hey -- someone took one of my 10 -- The Man Who Planted Trees... wow! Anyway here is one with an image from Amazon since while I think I have a hardback copy I did read it on my Kindle:

AND

furthermore... The several chapters about the Bishop/Priest really impressed me as well as the war story about The Battle of Waterloo... And love, love, love... AH - Victor Hugo. I've got to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame sometime.... soon.

AND THEN.... someone posted they liked the book: The Testament by Elie Wiesel... (W)RIGHT-ON. Yes a true favorite of mine which didn't come to mind on this challenge since I wend to a different area of my book. SO many by Wiesel are wonderful, of course!

I TOOK PICTURES OF THE FOLLOWING COVERS.... while at my bookshelves. 

He, she and it... is a book with two Golem stories (a Golem is being created mystically from clay to protect the Jewish community. He is considered to be an early version of Frankentein). This telling has two parallel story-lines - one the old Golem story from 16th Century Prague and then there is a fulture/sci-fi story about a robot. And there is LOVE.

Lost Horizon was also made into movies (old and new... good and maybe not so good). It was sort of one introduction for me to the world of Eastern Philosophy. A feel good story! And there is LOVE.

Mordecai of Monterey caught my eye because of its seemingly Jewish title character. It is an "art" book, I think.... and is about a man who has the opposite of paranoia... and what happens to him and his friends. Odd. Not a lot of love in this one.

This book... Unbearable ,,,,,, is very much about LOVE and sex and the sensual and POLITICS and I liked the movie, too (the author did not like the movie). And there is a hat.

The Man who planted trees came out first as a story titled: "The man who planted hope and harvested happiness". Enough said. No love... but compassion.

Lots of love in Stranger...free hippie love... and more. Sci-fi... one of my passions.

Escape from freedom is a VERY important book about how we are and are not as free as we might be. Published in 1941 it is, according to wikipedia, sometimes titled: Fear of Freedom. Read it

Uncomfortable...  is a real way to be and live and learn and grow. It was one of the first books I came across when I was connecting to Buddhism. The author has written many helpful books. I also read books by Thích Nhất Hạnh. 




AND 100 Years of Solitude seems missing from my shelves AND I do not have a hardback copy... Need to get one. Wonderful book -- for me the MAGICAL REALISM main deal. On the subject of "magical realism -- there are the stories by Jorge Luis Borges. Wonderful stories magical, mystical stories.

Be an American - Be Bravely compassionate

The United States of America is the home of The BRAVE. So let us stop being afraid and acting on fear. 
BE BRAVE! Be bold. Be good!

Bravery is not too difficult. It is a matter of knowing what is the brave thing to do... It is easy,  The brave thing is to do is the RIGHT THING to do, the good thing, the loving thing. 

In a word: COMPASSION.... Be compassionate to the stranger... to the immigrant... to the poor...  While it is not easy giving and accepting. While it is not easy sharing and trusting....  Giving, accepting, sharing, and trusting are the right, good, and loving things to do .... The compassionate things to do.

The American Thing To Do... Be bravely compassionate. 

Water cooler talk - NOT

So - I could begin by saying something I think could be true... such as: The SONY walkman and the 100's of TV stations now available... and email, texting, facebook, myspace, instagram, etc... etc... etc... explain why we the people are soo divided.  The fact is... being divided by these many, many distractions and fragmenting media opportunities seem to provide choice and freedom and diversity... AND THEY DO... and they ALSO fragment us so while once upon a time... 20 or 30 years ago... or maybe a bit more... people would go to work and then go home and at home they would watch one of three national news networks and several tv shows on any one night from maybe five or six stations... with the BIG THREE being most watched for their current/new shows... and then back a work -- people would share their recent viewings and feeling about the shows/news they saw. Today, however, there are so many possibilities our co-workers are often not on the same page, so to speak... and thus sharing conversations are less likely to take place face-to-face with people we actually see. SO -- onto Facebooks, etc... where we can find community... BUT in a certain way a mere (yes MERE) virtual community. A community of compassion and intellect but not a community of hugs and kisses and ???? Well... maybe I am on the wrong track..... Maybe all that compassion (the words and the offered feelings) is a good as one gets... even from a friend at work or next door or a live-in family member...

HOWEVER --- ideas from the media DO FRAGMENT US... and we all have lots of very different experiences each day if/when we watch tv or stream tv or listen to spotify or pandora or something on SiriusRadio, or NPR or PBS or ... etc. etc...

SO - in my experience we all need to know how to talk to and listen to others who do not share our experiences but with whom we want to connect. Good listening skills AND good STORY TELLING skills needed!

I began this with a thought about how I plan to "cut cable" and not necessarily see current tv shows - such as the new Doctor Who... and instead I will watch older seasons and other shows from the past... and so my "water-cooler" sharing will be complicated and disrupted by the old mixed in with the new with the new already overloaded and fragmentary...

AND so... welcome to the MANY NEW WORLDS OF THE 21ST CENTURY.