The Dark Mirror

... or what do you see when you stare into the internet abyss?

Sometime in my distant youth an unknowable combination of genetics, upbringing and experience conspired to turn me into what I am today,  that most hapless of internet inhabitants, the 'Voice of Reason'.

To me, everything boils down to logic and fairness. You don't lash out at someone or something unless there's a supportable, logical reason, and the lashing on balance is fairly dealt.  Better still don't lash out at all.  Fairness is the Be All and End All, and logic its guide.

This attitude put me at risk in my high school and long-haired college days during 'discussions' with local constabulary.  I can say in retrospect only my absolutely obvious innocence saved me from my righteous (but logical) indignation landing me in the clink on more than one occasion.  Does Right Make Might? No, not in the real world, Dorothy!

This attitude, though tempered with age and experience, still today makes me an outcast, weirdo, and sometimes unwelcome commentator to my 'friends' Facebook rants.  

I too often interject with what I see as a reasoned appeal to calm and careful appraisal. Logic and fairness the goal. You'd be amazed (or maybe not) on how this goes down.  

And something even nastier happens from time to time.  Just as I sometimes reveal myself on the internet to be a lame-ass 'Dudley-Do-Right' know-it-all, some other of my 'friends' who are totally nice people to meet and interact with in person, reveal themselves as ideologues only slightly to the right of Genghis Khan's right-hand man, or slightly to the left of Karl Marx's dentist.  And being me I have a hard time deciding whether I should hate these people that I normally 'like' just because they are odious baboons on Facebook or Twitter. It's a logical dilemma on what constitutes fair appraisal.

Its been a difficult lesson and I am still trying to learn it fully.  Its a lesson on what the internet really is (or at least what certain social portals within it are). 

What we post on the internet is frequently our unfiltered, unedited, innermost thoughts.  Some of us spew out amazingly toxic vitriol which we'd never say to someone face to face.  We don't want discussion or gainsaying or an appeal to logic and fairness. We want to vent and we want the world of our 'friends' to support or stay silent.  

Perhaps its cleansing internet therapy, but it shows the World, or at least our circle of 'friends' exactly how dark our dark sides can be.