Wall Street

Et pendant qu'ils marchaient, un jeune activiste plein d’entrain les arrêta.
- Vous savez que Dieu a changé d'adresse?
- Ah bon, il n’est plus au Paradis? lui répondit Noémie d'un ton sarcastique.
- Eh non, il a déménagé, et le pire c'est qu'Il n’aime pas du tout où on l'a logé. Parce que les Hommes contrôlent Dieu tout autant que Dieu contrôle les Hommes. Et cette fois Ils ont eu le dernier mot.
- Et quel est ce lieu infâme où l'on peut trouver le Tout-Puissant? demanda Marc amusé.
Et avec un air de dépit le jeune perdit sa fougue et leur dit: On lui a donné un appart au Etats-Unis ; Dieu habite à Wall Street.

Chess

Et alors le vieil homme demanda à Marc et Rei combien de pièces il y avait dans un jeu d'échecs.
- 32 pièces, répondit Marc, presque instantanément.
-16 blanches, 16 noires, ajouta Rei.
Et l'homme les regarda d'un air distrait et dit:
- 34 pièces...
Et il se tut, comme le font ces vieux maitres des temps anciens, juste pour savourer une certaine illusion de sagesse et leur faire sentir une certaine illusion d'ignorance.
Les deux jeunes comprirent assez rapidement le « jeu » et, comme pour lui faire plaisir, lui demandèrent avec des yeux ronds comment ca se fait qu'il leur dise ca.
L'homme, exalté par cet élan de confidence leur dit:
- Vous oubliez les 2 joueurs. Ce sont des pièces comme les autres. C'est vrai que chacun bouge ses propres pièces, mais il bouge indirectement aussi les pièces de l'autre et donc l'autre lui même. Quand un joueur va bouger sa pièce, ceci affecte inévitablement le jeu de l'adversaire. Et donc le premier coup va avoir son impact sur tout le reste des pièces, qu'elles soient humaines ou de bois. C’est ce qu’on appelle l’avantage des blancs car ils ont la chance de dicter le ton dès le premier coup. Mais on se trompe de penser qu'on contrôle ou qu’on manipule seulement nos pièces d'échecs car on contrôle tout ; tout autant que nous sommes contrôlés par ce même tout. On est en même temps manipulateurs et manipulés. Cela va de même pour la vie. On manipule et sommes manipulés par la même essence: L'autre. Et prendre conscience de ceci nous montre que beaucoup de choses ne sont que des illusions crées par nous, pour nous-mêmes et pour l’autre; ou des illusions crées par cet autre pour nous, aussi bien que pour lui-même. Car la façon dont on perçoit l’autre affecte nos décisions tout autant, si ce n’est plus parfois, que notre perception de nous-mêmes.
Et le but du jeu n'est atteint que par ceux qui arrivent non seulement à distinguer les illusions qu'ils portent de ce qu'ils sont vraiment ; mais aussi et surtout les illusions que portent ces autres de ce que ces autres sont vraiment.

Il s’arrêta le temps d’un petit sourire: "Comme les illusions des maitres et de leur disciples."

Facebook

As i was having a "collective" nervous breakdown with my "coloc" (he chose to watch lost), i decided to go look at what my facebook "friends" are up to...
This thing is one of the most time-wasting creation i have ever seen in the cyberworld! It classes way in front of cybersex, online meeting sites, peer to peer file sharing, porn, and i pass on the rest...
The first thing i did was look at the "profiles of my friends" since on my own profile facebook had the kindness to tell me "This is you". Wow how user friendly that is! While skimming through my "friends" profiles one question hit me: Why would anyone want to expose their lives this way???? I mean It's good to put your email since it's practical to find people you might have lost from your view, but "religious views", "political affiliations". Isn't this the essence of discrimination?? And please don't tell me it's because you're proud of it, i mean you could be proud of your political affiliations at some point, but i don't think any religion tells you to brag about it! Why don't they add a "race" and "ethnic affiliation" and an "are you homophobic?" question while they're at it, and that way the lovely head-hunters recruiting you can really know everything they need to from your oh-so confidential facebook account.
And if we can say that that criticism can be directed at the creators of facebook, i think it's mainly the users mistakes.
Add to this your status: "x needs to pee" and then its a real time GPS system.
I mean, every one is tracked down to his every motion, each and every move, it's like an electronic collar they make us wear 24/7.

And how can people upload pictures so fast???
Uploaded pics from last nights party, from my travel, my family etc... Some people write even what they plan on doing. And if your girlfriend or boyfriend ask you what you're up to you shrug it and say "i dont know yet" whereas she/he could check your facebook profile and see what you're up to for the next 3 months (that was the record i found) of your life. You may say it's for sharing, but i don't think uploading from the cam to facebook every single move you do, even pictures of you alone or sleeping, or eating your pizza is really to share, but instead it's just to have a bigger and bigger "Pictures of you" number on your profile, that makes people real proud apparently :S

Then i went into the groups! And that's where it becomes really ugly: "Mr. & Ms. Facebook Lebanon" ?!?!?!?! it's not personal but i mean the real thing is already dumb enough that you need to go and CREATE a facebook one! and that is still fine, but then you have thousands and thousands of groups or comments in groups like "General aoun fo2 rasna", "Walid bek", " Future movement is the best" etc... but its not like it's centralized it's hundreds and hundreds of people actually going and making the effort of creating, managing, and inviting people to support guys that on any other day they would say "we don't want any of them in lebanon". I even found "chanting" posts like "Allah, mar maroun, hakim wou bass" - that's the whole comment by the way- At least use a place where you have time to think (the internet vs. a live situation where we tend to scream at each other when it gets to politics) to be constructive and stop being followers of politicians even in the CYBERWORLD and please start having ideas instead! (and if possible not the ones that you read on your political leader's site a few minutes ago)
Some people even have the picture of their "za3im" instead of their own as a profile picture!!!!

I'm sure facebook has benefits, and it's a tool that should be used, but please, some uses are really hard to take...

Well i guess my crisis has passed, and i insist on saying that there are also good things in facebook but creating a group called: "X should come back to facebook" is definitely not one of them.

PS: If the group reaches x number of users then the world would become a better place isn't either.

***** Oh and if I'm on facebook that doesn't mean i can't criticize it or i should leave.*****