Some of my go-to “too tired to read anything new” books are the Callahan series by Spider Robinson. In the first of that series, Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, we meet a pair of telepathic twins. I remember vividly the description of the first time one of them “flashed” and got a glimpse into someone’s brain. It was his sweet young girlfriend, and what he saw in her mind nearly broke his own.
It wasn’t that she was a closet serial killer, or even otherwise a bad person, but consider if you will the thoughts that might go through your head on a daily basis. Leaving out entirely those urges and impulses that might live in our subconscious, that our reasoning mind automatically suppresses as part and parcel of being a higher-function animal, it is a fact that people have thoughts they wouldn’t necessarily share with others. All that was exposed to him when he flashed on her mind.
In watching the horrifying events of yesterday – and the utterly disgusting and immediate slime-throwing that ensued – I have decided that the internet has made us all telepaths. People toss off things on Twitter and Facebook and their blogs – even in the mainstream media – that they would NEVER dream of saying to a person’s face. Some might be just plain venting – as I myself am often guilty of – but most are simply frightening. It’s an unwanted glimpse into the darkness we all have but are generally too civilized let see the light of day.
I work on the ‘net so I am reading constantly, and the level of vitriol directed by both political sides makes me continually wonder how this country manages to continue functioning. How do we walk down the street and not punch each other in the face?
The answer is above of course. People do not speak to each other in person the way they do on this cursed internet. Had we all been in a large room when the news of the Congresswoman’s shooting broke, we would have talked, and comforted each other, and – most importantly – waited for more information before automatically assigning blame to the right wing or left wing.
I love the internet. I would feel as if something had been amputated if it were gone. But days like yesterday – and I see it continuing today even though the shooter has been identified as your garden variety crazy person – make me want a week-long Silkwood-style decontam shower.
We are all Americans, are we not? Countrymen? Whether we agree with each other politically – which to me is just about as important as agreeing with each other on which shade of blue is the sky – we should remember that, and save our vitriol for our actual enemies. There are quite enough folk outside our borders who would be glad enough to see us tear ourselves apart. Let’s avoid giving them the satisfaction.
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