Random Social Commentary.

Just a few random things this morning.

One. Our neighbors are putting in a fence. The American labor that they hired have taken 4 days to this point to build the fence and they are yet to be 50% complete. Every time I go outside they are sitting and talking and drinking. It hasn’t even been hot the last 4 days. It’s been overcast, cool, and damp. Meanwhile, other neighbors in our community have had their fences put up in less than 4 hours with the same amount of company. The only difference . . . they were built by foreign, immigrant labor.

Two. Facebook has a very cool new application (one of the only ones in my opinion). It’s called the Friend Wheel. It shows how all of your friends are connected and integrated as one. And is a great picture of the decentralized structure of the web and it’s social networks. Instead of their being a linear line with each friend popping up along the way . . . in our hyper-connected, global world, it shows the mosaic-web that we live in. Very flattened and without a hierarchy. Interesting picture. Here’a a full resolution picture of the image.

Three. We watched another great documentary last night, Why We Fight. I’ve got a review forthcoming . . . but in the meantime you should watch it. It’s a look at our foreign policy set against the backdrop of Eisenhower’s outgoing speech as President when he warned us of the military-industrial complex. It’s really insightful. And it’s the first movie besides Super Size Me that has made me sick to my stomach. The only thing that upsets me is that most people continue to ignore the truth. Or at least maintain ignorance of it because they are unwilling to take a look at some of the “real facts” that get buried. Which leads me to my next point.

Four. We’ll be starting a film night soon. Probably after the summer when everyone isn’t out of town. But it’s coming.

[tags]Social+Commentary, Labor, Immigrant+Labor, Facebook, Friend+Wheel, Decentralized, Eisenhower, Military-Industrialized Complex[/tags]