kurt

Socialism Responsibility

Communication carries a lot more meaning than merely the message and the medium. Try opting out for a while. What happens when your node disappears or just stops resonding to the network around it? Frequency and response. Depending on the individual, the feedback to the absence of communication could be immediate (say in the case of a CEO) or delayed (say in the case of a person whose death is only noticed by the smell). There are a lot of expectations for the frequency and response of communication across all communities (notice the similar word root), from the largest groups spread across the internet to the interpersonal relationships that define us.

So what is our responsibility to participate? Some groups seem to be much more tolerant of communication lethargy and other have very strict expectations about the performance to the point of duty. I suppose that we would all be better at balancing the multitude of opt-in networks if the expectations for good citizenship were always explicit, yet that seems to be an unrealistic expectation all by itself. People are not like companies, sending out bill reminders ("final notice: respond or lose service"), so we tune our sensitivity to the highest setting and try never to cross that threshold of silence past which relationships are harmed or even forfeit. But we're only human.

And so, my fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
-John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, January 20, 1961