Four Steps Forward, Five Steps Back

I try to be optimistic. I try to think the best of people, to imagine that while we make occasional backslides, we eventually come out ahead.

After reading this blog post, and more importantly the racist and bigoted messages from all sides in the commentary, I'm not so such anymore. The post itself isn't so bad, but the comments are.

And I can't just write it off to online posturing or a "virtual spine," either. I tend to think those terms are just excuses, and I become more and more convinced of that fact every day. It's an imperfect comparison, but posting on the Internet is like letting your Id out to play without the Superego there to keep it in check. It's the raw material and thought that's underneath, the kinds of things that will come out if all of a sudden we weren't accountable for our actions in a greater kind of civilization.

On the other hand, it's given me a lot of food for thought about a post-apocalyptic story I'm considering writing.