With the release of our newest introduction video, I’ve noticed a response pattern I first thought unfortunate. People weren’t very civil in their criticism of me and Copiosis as described in the video. Every criticism is worth responding to, even if they themselves hold no validity (as it stands, not a single critique of Copiosis has held up). But the anger and vehemence with which people expressed themselves surprised me.
But after spending hours responding to commenters, calmly responding to their attacks with reason and civility – and at times some snarky humor – I realized something I hadn’t before: The vehemence, emotional outbursts and taunts were how people asked for more information. For each time I responded to someone, that person continued to ask more questions. As they did, their language expressed more reason, more….civility.
That’s when I asked myself is it possible aggression is a cry for help?
“Absolutely,” A new member to the Copiosis Social Group said when responding to my question which I posted in the group. He continued:
“It is common for people to grab at the negatives of something rather than the potential positives, people have been somewhat boxed (social conditioning and bakground stress) into a process that if there’s something that is not perfect, not right, not what you expect, COMPLAIN! This mentality is magnified by the internet whereby (even on Facebook) people can maintain a relative obscurity on the medium and so are much more vocal with their thoughts (both good and bad, see: porn and politics). It’s curious how many of these people would say what they said in real life, to your face.”
(HT: Martin Heaps)
Martin goes on with great eloquence:
“Also it is a factor that to DISCUSS a topic takes mental effort and reasoning (how many people say why they hate the idea? With clear understanding?) rather than an easy emotive reaction to simply dismiss a topic because of an opinionated response “I don’t like it” People have a baseline of being scared of NEW. This can’t be easily fixed, but this unfortunate baseline is encouraged by the various money and lifestyle stresses that people have. Happy people are more constructive, but happy people have to be happy.”
So here we again have an example of how or system keeps our heads down so much, we rarely engage our brains enough to consider the new as possibly beneficial, and therefore worth learning more. Then again, it just may be that people are asking for more information when they call your idea “stupid”, or label it something it totally is not.
Welcome to the leading edge of fundamental change.