FACEBOOK FRIENDS I CAN DO WITHOUT 22 May 2017
I have bemoaned the stuff facebook friends post, comment on and like before, which have resulted in reactions from unfollowing to unfriending some.
However, in the past it was because of irrelevancy and irritation. A shocker arrived on my time-line today. A facebook friend who is also a very good real life friend, liked a post from someone and the comment caught my eye; something to the effect of “it couldn’t have happened to a better person”.
There was an article about a big game/trophy hunter from South Africa who died in Zimbabwe when an elephant fell on him. My first reaction was to reply to this comment as I cannot recall when, if ever, I was so repulsed by anything I have ever heard or read. Realising that whatever I said would be from a seriously agitated frame of mind and would solicit a string of justifications and condemnations.
I recalled a saying to this effect and after googling it, found that it is actually from the Bible;
Proverbs 9: …7He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonour for himself, And he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. 8Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you. …..
And here I thought facebook was something only recently thrust upon the earth!!!
Thank goodness I refrained from commenting on this post. Proverbs saved me from a lot of aggravation.
I eventually read the article causing this person to post this hideous comment. I decided to phone my friend and ask what their relationship is before I ruined another real friendship. The reply was that it was a family friend. I could hear in my friend’s voice that there was something I interpreted as agitation. I remarked that it was a sick comment to make and that I was disappointed that it landed in my time-line due to the ‘like’. A further comment from my friend was that the deceased was a poacher, as if this justified the facebook post and subsequent reaction.
The article itself described the incident that caused the hunter’s death and then gave back-ground information to the person’s hunting methods which I definitely do not condone, but that is irrelevant and a totally different debate.
I concluded that my best reaction on facebook would be to point out that this person’s post would not reach the man who died but that of his family and friends. According to article he was a husband and father of five. I planned to ask the following question: “if your husband/son/father/brother died under any circumstances, what would your reaction be to someone so insensitive who found it acceptable to state that it could not have happened to a better person?”
Fortunately the wise King Solomon or whoever, encountered the same illness among the crown of creation thousands of years ago and reminded me that it would be futile and to my own detriment to react to this utterly disgusting post.
I did the next best thing; I unfriended my friend.
