Lives of Quiet Desperation . . . Not!

One wonders what Henry Thoreau would have thought of the media circus we now live in, with various pundits holding forth twenty-four hours a day on dozens of television and radio stations, not to mention the thousands of blogs and assorted websites on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Well, actually, anyone who has ever read him would not wonder for long. The man thought newspapers were a waste of time. Surely he wouldn't have bothered to check his email, let alone sign up on Facebook or Twitter or browse the Web. But he would no doubt be astounded to learn that most of us are no longer condemned to lead lives of quiet desperation, then go off to the grave with our songs still in us. No, not any more. Now we can publish our thoughts for the world to read (or not).

For some reason another famous quotation from a nineteenth-century American writer comes to mind. Mark Twain is reputed to have said, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." Some say it was Abe Lincoln who said this, but either way I've always thought it was good advice, especially when I've failed to follow it.

But with that as prologue, I have to ask, has anyone else noticed how many nuts there are out there? It reminds me of a column I read by John Dvorak in PC Magazine years ago when the Internet was just cranking up for ordinary folks. He remarked that one of the downsides with such a network is that it allows all the nutcases who would otherwise be isolated and marginalized to find kindred spirits and join together with like minded wackos who believe the end is near or the moon landing was a hoax or the Commies are trying to destroy our purity of essence by putting fluoride in our tap water.

Apparently all you have to do to get some of these folks going is send them an email. The power of text is so great that if it's in writing someone is guaranteed to believe it, no matter how far fetched. All of which is okay, I suppose, but then they want to send it around to everyone else they know, lest we be left in the dark. That's where you find out what's really going on with your tax dollars. Check your email. But first be sure you remove all those spam filters. That way the really good stuff will be sure to get through. Otherwise I would never have found out about this wonderful pill that the medical profession has been keeping a secret. It's better than Viagra, lasts longer, and makes you more than you ever dreamed you could be, and it works for men and women. Thoreau and Twain knew all about it, but they kept it to themselves.