Don't Do Evil

Originally Posted Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I used to view the internet as a tool, but more and more I read about it being used as a weapon.  It was inevitable, I guess.  Why are people so basically mean?  We keep telling ourselves it is otherwise.  We will point out a story where somebody does something selfless like jump into an icy river or onto a subway track to save another person's life. 

"There, you see?" we'll say.  "There is an inherent goodness in people." 

It matters little if the person who just acted heroically beat his wife or pistol whipped a convenience store clerk ten minutes before.  As a matter of fact, it makes the story all the better.  We love it when a murderer is redeemed. 

I used to watch the PTL Club and Pat Robertson's show on television when such things first came on (and I told people then that this was the biggest danger in America but was pooh-poohed away), and the draw was always the same.  Someone would start off telling what a bad person s/he was, talking about all the sex and drugs and craziness.  This would go on for quite awhile with everyone transfixed by the "horror" of it all.  Then, in a quick reversal, they would quickly tell about their awakening to Jesus and how wonderful their lives had become.  I wasn't doubting whether their lives were better without illicit sexual encounters and mind-numbing drugs.  I was simply interested in the weight given to each part of the tale.  Like any good story, it was around four or five to one. 

That, I believe, is the inherent goodness in people.  Four or five to one. 

It might be different on the internet.  Like all other technological inventions, it is a powerful tool, but it is also an overwhelming temptation.  Good and Evil. 

My first statement is an oversimplification, of course, and disingenuous, too.  I am playing the naif as is my wont.  I rarely believe that "good" won't turn into "evil."  That is human history.  We are supposed to learn something from the lessons of the past. 

When I was young, I remember what doing the right thing got you.  If you good all the time, it was expected that you would continue and there was little said.  But if you were bad, especially if you were really, really bad, any little speck of good behavior brought breathless praise.  Being a very good boy, I would watch that and think, "Really!  Really!"  Or words to that effect. 

In the end, of course, they make it harder and harder to be good.  They make up too many rules. 

"Don't use that word.  Don't go over there.  Go to bed.  Get up early.  Don't read that.  Don't look at this.  Quit playing with your peter!" 

As a kid, I mostly got into trouble for being the classroom lawyer.  It always felt good to stand up to injustice.  Did I do it because I was a good kid?  I don't know.  They didn't think so.  It has always landed me in trouble.  Did I do it because it is the right thing to do?  I don't know.  Perhaps I did it because I did so many things that they thought were wrong that I disagreed with.  Perhaps it was because I saw so many people they called "good" doing the wrong thing. 

In the end, I have a hard time knowing.  But I do know that the internet has become a dangerous place. I have a friend who was arrested but not convicted.  His mug shot is online now and a company wants money to take it down.  Anyone can Google him and see.  Capitalist entrepreneurship, I guess. Part of the American Dream.  A buck's a buck, and these are hard times, right? 

What a world.