Hi Linda and Norm.
I love this discussion. I think you both have valid points (there I go Norm, agreeing-ACKK!)
But I think the critical mass that I am observing here at Adlandro is a building of momentum towards being kinder people.
We are so innundated with war and terror and natural disasters and molesters and every possible distraction to happiness and a calm spirit. In the escape we all make into cyber space, we can at least exchange pleasantries with others whose company we enjoy.
That's not to scientific a comment but it comes from the gut.

Hi Deb!

I love discussions like this!

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I think this theory is being tossed about again because it causes the masses to have an optimistic scenerio of the future, especially now, with the war raging on. It is much simpler to think that if we all do good that the bad can be alleviated. But we have to remember what the pervasive archetypes in our society are, fear and hate. This will rage on forever until there is a change in the socio-economic levels of certain cultures.
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There always has been war waging somewhere. I think perhaps people are more conscious of it because of the amount of media and Internet coverage events have today compared to 10 years ago.  

Thing is, good *does* alleviate bad. I think, to some degree, what we're seeing is a gradual growth in social responsibility. More people protesting cruelty to animals. More people refusing to buy from companies that run sweat shops. More people speaking out against child abuse and spousal abuse and crime. More people protesting war and abuse and corporate greed. More people giving kudos to the socially responsible. We see all of those much more today than 20 years ago.

And in doing that, we do affect the overall picture of humanity.

Change in the socio-economic levels of certain cultures isn't going to happen on it's own. It will happen with help. With the help of every day people that spend their lives trying to share the right messages. Not so different than the change affected by Rosa Parks. She was but one woman - but she made an impact on society.

Personally speaking, if I had to choose between two mindsets, a] being that hate and fear are pervasive and I should accept that.... and b] If I do good, I can alleviate bad -- I will choose the latter. :)

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 The whole idea of what is true for a "critical mass" becomes true for everyone, is ultimately a rather far-fetched and frightening scenario
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It is only frightening if the critical mass we envision is negative. If we all walked around with the attitude that we can have different opinions, different skin color, different beliefs, different religions -- and still co-exist in peace.... that would be a wonderful critical mass to achieve. Far-fetched - probably - especially given the current conditions. But then, once upon a time, we humans *knew* that automobiles were a fad, The Wright brothers were lunatics for thinking man could fly and space travel was a pipe dream of the mentally deranged.

: )
Linda

 

Hi Linda,

     I think you misunderstood my meaning. I agree with what you are saying.

     I guess what I was trying to dispute was the trend toward "New Age" sciences.

    I have seen the line crossed more and more, nowadays, the line between good science and pseudoscience.

    Pseudoscience wants it both ways. They want the authority of science, but are unwilling to abide by scientific rules.

    They use peoples ignorance and fears, and use this as a mantel of credibility.

    I am not saying that the theory of critical mass, in the positive perspective is a bad thing.

    On the contrary, it would be a perfect world.

    But there will always be Hitler's in this world, who achieve their own forms of critical mass. Do we want that type of devastating effect?

    What I do not want to see in my lifetime, is good humanistic science being discredited by these pseudoreligious, pseudoscientific superstitions.

     It goes back to the old saying "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it".

Your Good Friend

Deborah

Hi Linda!

Thank you for sharing your reading.  It is nice to ponder something different, I mean I am feeling overwhelmed with all this business jargon and you come in with this 100th Monkey critical mass question. 

I just had to take a few moments to thank you for bringing me back to reality.  Just to put things back into perspective for me.  It feels great.  I want to be in group 2 of your senario.  I want to learn before I jump into anything.  I just don't understand what some of this internet stuff means.  I will continue to look for explainations before I jump into anything.  It all kind of scares me a bit. 

I try to be honest, and sometimes I feel like I don't know where to turn to find honest people out there not just trying to take my money.

Thanks again for bringing me back to a sane place.  I am still pondering this.

Thank you,

Tina

 

Hi Tina

You're very welcome. I've been working online for 11 years. One thing I have noticed is that people who ran a business offline before the internet tend to do better in the long run than people who have little or no experience running a business. There's a reason for that.

People that have run a business offline understand a couple of basic concepts.

1) You have to sell something you can be proud of. Really proud of.
I mean really, would anyone tell their gramma to invest her retirement funds in a HYIP, but keep it hush because it's illegal?  Would we walk up to our Mom and yell "YOU CAN EARN 5,000 THIS WEEK. GET IN ON THIS OPP TODAY, MOM!" You can tell the fakers and posers by the way they present stuff that no one would show their mom.

2) You must sell something you actually know and are qualified to sell
There is a reason for this. It's called earning trust. For example, if you "recommend" an antivirus program that turn out to be a virus (which people do and have done) anyone that bought from your link will never buy anything you recommend again. Ever. Same thing with sham internet marketing programs and illegal biz opps and any other items we recommend.

3) If you don't have customers, you don't have a business. You have a hobby.
You earn customers by serving them and providing something they need at a price they are willing to pay for it. You acquire them one at a time. This is a concept a lot of posers and newbies haven't seemed to grasp... mostly because of the vast number of scams that make false promises that contradict reality.

Thing is, the internet isn't a place. It's a communication method.... not so different than telephone, fax, newspapers, etc.  It's a way we can communicate our message to other people. That's all it is. If our "message" is empty, sounds fake, sounds too good to be true, looks dubious, sounds pushy - people react the same way they do to telemarketers.  Bye bye instead of buy buy.

: )
Linda