Zuckerberg In Congress
He was so damn SMART!
I know, I know, I’m supposed to resent him, he ruined the fabric of America, THE WORLD, but I’ve got to say I’m impressed with his performance today, the brilliant student schooling his inept teachers.
I grew up knowing I was going to college. Never a doubt in my mind. I remember standing on the steps, ready to walk into the first day of kindergarten, telling the other kids I was gonna be a lawyer, that’s how heavy the Jewish programming is. Hate us, like you now hate the Asians. But after the Holocaust, after wandering through the world for millennia, our parents were establishing themselves and their goal was for us to have a better life than they did, back before anyone knew who a Palestinian was, when anti-Semitism was rampant, before it became de rigueur as anti-Israel disparagement. If you can’t separate Judaism from Zionism you’re uneducated. Then again, everybody hates the Jews.
So you had to get good grades to get into a good college. Pepper your resume with all kinds of extracurricular activities. Jews inventing do-gooding for college, now everybody does it. Back when legacies meant that the Christians could go straight from prep school to the nation’s finest universities.
We were judged by what we got on our SATs. We ran for office whether we wanted to or not. We were told to try. And our parents were right. They reinforced that the popular kids from high school would be forgotten. That there was a big life ahead of us if we’d just hew the line.
Then the joke was on us. All us baby boomers who became professionals. We wanted to color outside the lines, but our parents taught us not to, to keep our heads down and stay the course.
And the truth is it does matter which college you go to. Not because the classes are any better, they could even be worse! But because of the people you hang with. The better the school, the more intelligent your classmates, it illustrates the POSSIBILITIES!
Critical thinking. Analysis. Questioning perception. That’s what the elite institutions teach. It’s a hothouse from which you emerge scorched but ready.
Especially if you’re the sons and daughters of our generation.
That’s right, we did not know about big money. Driving a Cadillac and having a vacation house was rich. Flying private was unheard of, we wouldn’t even pay to sit in the front of the plane. But our children…
I think it would have been better off if Zuckerberg stayed in college. Hell, I think EVERYBODY should stay in college, to show you can complete something, that’s what life is all about, completing stuff, kinda like playing HQ Trivia to go all the way. It’s the essence of marriage. If your significant other is a drug addict, or is physically harming you, get out, that’s cool. But even if they’re having an affair, WHY DID THEY? It takes two to make a situation, it’s best to dig deep and solve it. But no one wants to dig deep anymore.
Kinda like these Senators. So busy primping for the camera and appealing to their constituents that they are inauthentic, Ted Cruz scrolling his phone while others talk, after trying to box Mark into saying Republicans are abused on Facebook. Making inane jokes. Not understanding the essence of the social network.
Zuckerberg ran rings around them.
Of course he was media-trained. He started every response with “Senator,” and never lost his cool and…
Couldn’t stop talking.
He was fleet on his feet. Knew the answer to nearly everything. Didn’t even want a break when offered one. It was like he’d prepared his whole life to do this, knowing it was b.s., like the SATs, like all those tests, he couldn’t wait to get back to his real work.
And all the reporters are looking for gotchas, for headlines that will immediately be forgotten. And the truth is all these Silicon Valley institutions know the lesson of Microsoft, if you heel to the government you blink and are toast, which is why Facebook isn’t gonna listen, ain’t gonna change unless forced to, because it’s too exciting doing what they are doing. Sure, they’re all rich, but they haven’t got time for the trappings.
How often do you see a techie on TMZ? Almost never. They might go out to dinner, but mostly they’re working. They’re the antithesis of the Kardashians, even though mom Kris can hold her own, she’s truly brilliant. But entertainment is fake, now more than ever, the people can’t handle the truth, they’re fed pabulum, while the real movers and shakers, the truly brilliant, run the country.
Kinda like Robert Mercer, the hedge fund king.
But he’s an old fogey nerd, not a young’ un like Zuckerberg. His parents protested with long hair and jeans, Zuckerberg protests with code, which his elders can’t understand like ours couldn’t fathom rock and roll. As for all the venerated entertainment stars of today, they look like dummies unaware of the universe next to Zuckerberg. Sure, we need poetry, but we’re getting too little of that in the world today, who do we look up to?
Do I trust Zuckerberg will heed the warning?
HELL NO!
Do I even think he’s aware of the holes which can be manipulated in Facebook’s systems?
HELL NO!
Did you read the story in “Businessweek” about the spammers triumphing with ads on Facebook? If you haven’t, dedicate yourself, which no one seems to do these days, they’re too busy posting how great they are on Instagram, but the truth is all that data works…it gets the vulnerable to buy what they shouldn’t, in volume.
So Zuckerberg’s appearance makes me feel good about humanity. That there are people who can answer the question before having to pause and think first. Come on, speaking is instinct, just like sex, let it out there.
But you’re judged by what you have to say. And too many are uneducated and far from brilliant.
Brilliant Zuck is. Leaves you feeling both inadequate and wanting to go to Harvard, to get some of that juice.
I used to read “Rolling Stone” from cover to cover, I just couldn’t get enough of my generation, the musicians speaking truth to power.
But when I tuned into NPR on the satellite today I couldn’t turn it off, I watched for hours at home, even though the last time I viewed this extensively was during Watergate. Just to see Zuckerberg eat up these bozos.
It was a better show than you’ll see at the arena. There was little artifice, Zuckerberg came across as honest and genuine. And convincing too, even though there were holes in his story.
Furthermore, he didn’t get impatient and talk down to his audience, which Steve Jobs was famous for doing. And when Elon Musk talks he sounds like an alien.
But Mark Zuckerberg sounded like one of the top kids in your high school, who you grew up with, played basketball with, played tricks with, who stayed the course and…
Ended up ruling the world.
That’s right, Facebook is more powerful than any media institution. One could say it’s more powerful than the government, because it can reach more people.
And it’s scary to think one man is in control.
But watching him today you thought that Zuck earned it, the Winklevosses could never do this, he kept control of his company, he continues to innovate, even if it’s through acquisition.
And if you ask me you should delete your Facebook account. Instagram too.
But you can’t resist that hit of dopamine. Zuckerberg has created a hit record that never leaves the chart, that keeps on spinning, give him credit for that.
At the same time you’re excoriating him.
