ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

What prompted me to write today was a Facebook friend invitation that I received recently.  Mostly, I am indifferent to accepting cyber friends.  Who are they exactly?  I don’t think that I truly want to know or care to know.  It is extremely hard for me to warm up to people.  To tell you the truth, I still struggle to understand the purpose of having a Facebook account.  One day, I received an email from a cyber friend.  He informed me that he had stopped blogging and started interacting with others via Facebook.  He gave me his Facebook account information.  In order to view someone’s Facebook information, you have to sign up for a Facebook account and that was how I got a Facebook account.  I suppose that I am somewhat old-fashioned and out-dated.  Am I alone?  Not really.  I can’t seem to find any of my real world friends having a Facebook account.     

So, what is the point of keeping a Facebook account?  I often wonder.  Right now, you will find little to no updates from me on my Facebook as I am still trying to figure out the meaning of keeping my Facebook account.  Maybe one day, it will be flooded with my political views.  Maybe, I should just shut it down.  I already have a personal blog and have spent time interacting with others at a social networking site.  What's the point of maintaining another account at yet another social networking site and duplicating all the information?   

Talking about my viewpoint, I know that nobody is alike which makes human beings such a unique creature.  We all have different views and perspectives.  You might prefer living in a country, highly humid, with temperature that goes up as high as 43 degrees Celsius or 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  I might prefer living in an igloo where temperature barely breaks negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 29 degrees Celsius.  That is why I don’t preach to people to conform to my belief and values.  We all believe what we want to believe.  Truth is such a relative term.  That said, I still can’t help but voice my concerns. 

As I stated earlier, I have a strong political preference.  I like to write about it and state the obvious as there would be no reform or improvement if there is no criticism.  However, I don’t like to discuss it as all it achieves is nothing but relentless and meaningless debate.  You are free to have different point of views and determine how your future should look like.  Nobody can force you to think otherwise unless you are in a Communist Totalitarian society.  Still people living in a Communist Totalitarian society might disagree with me.  Some might think that blindly following the leaders is a good thing as long as you are fed.     

If you read my personal blog, you will probably notice that I like to criticize the current Taiwanese government, the Obama Administration or any Administration which gives in for the short term profit.  I can't understand why we would tolerate terrorists.  I am all for sanctioning countries supporting terrorism and violating human rights. 

I know it is not my place to dictate the future of the Taiwanese.  You would likely say that it is so easy for me to criticize since I don't live in Taiwan and will not suffer the consequence of making the wrong choice or uttering the wrong word.  Yes, that may be the case.  However, it is also true that the actions of those who live in Taiwan do drive their own future.  Remember how revolutions occurred.  That said, all my family members, I mean all except my brother and I, do live in Taiwan and have no desire to move to the United States.  

Anyway, there is really not much I want to say that I haven’t said already, other than sharing with you the quotes from two people whom I admire.       

Martin Niemöller once said:

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I remained silent;

I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,

There was no one left to speak out.

Bejamin Franklin also said:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

What Benjamin said might sound harsh to many of you.  We all tend to focus on short term profit, discrediting the long term damage that our action might bring.  It is so easy to bury our heads in the sand, to shut all our senses so we will see no evil and hear no evil.    

Written by Elisa English