Nobody asked me, and that's why I'm telling you, but I think the phenomenon of internet flamage is best explained by starting at the beginning, which is the origin of written language in ancient Sumer, the first examples of which are inscriptions on pots used to store grain. The purpose of the inscriptions was to keep track of inventory; the development of written language was spurred by the needs of accountancy, the establishment of trade and a system of credit and debt. This accounting is carried over into the religious and historical sphere in the bible, which contains meticulous catalogues of who begat whom, and who smote whom, emphasis on the smiting. Writing was a technology that increased the persistence of memory, enabled systems of trade and credit, preserved enmities conducive to war, codified religion, and expanded the frontiers of history (wha?). That's why the reason the mideast is such a mess today is the reason it was a mess centuries ago: all that history, nobody can forget anything. You might even say that the admonition regarding the Holocaust -- "never forget"-- is the exact formula that guarantees its reappearance. Now, with the advent of digital technology, networks, and databasing, we've reached the point where no one will be allowed to forget anything and every scribble will be preserved and replicated countless times. And what does this mean for you, Mr. Gatsby? Why you won't even get the chance to remake yourself and then pine for the past-- from here on in it's one strike and you're out. There is no x-factor. The record of your sins, debts, imbecilities, infidelities isn't locked away in some musty filing cabinet in the basement of the county office building. Twenty years from now, somebody will search google and come up with some puerile remark you committed to disk and flame you for it. And it'll be a corruscating flame because there's something about the virtuality of networked communications, the instantaneity, the lack of boundaries, the malleability of personality and identity, that brings out the sadist in people. Which is how the internet, a system originated, significantly, by the military to insure redundancy and duplication, is going to be the ultimate means of waging war, bringing it to the micro-level, every day, all the time. You're either a Hatfield or a McCoy, and have all the shame of your average Jerry Springer guest. Brave Old World, more like it.
Actually, that might not be correct.
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