“It’s not for man to interfere in the ways of God.”
The quote above is the last line of a 1957 movie few people have seen but many of heard of. “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” was one of those movies from the post-war era about science showing us places we could go but we probably shouldn’t go.
Michael Landon plays Tony Rivers, a troubled teenager with temper problems. Good old Doc Brandon gives him an experimental treatment that he says will solve the problem. That’s true if the problem is that there aren’t enough werewolves in town.
If you think about it, “unforeseen consequences” might be one of the most overlooked themes in the modern world.
Which brings us to today’s theme.
Unforeseen consequences.
Actually, unforeseen consequences resulting first from home computers and then from smartphones and the Internet.
As is often the case with this subject, my inspiration is my somewhat brilliant and somewhat misanthropic English friend Steve Carter.. I’m copying his Facebook post word for word. I’m telling you this because he uses a word that Americans find extremely offensive. When you see it, don’t read it the way Americans read it. Think “asshole” instead.
***
“Someone once asked me what’s the worst thing about the Internet. For me it’s hands down being subjected daily to what far too many people think.
“This becomes even more disconcerting when they make it very clear that they can’t think, especially not for themselves. Or when they regurgitate some mindless slogan or tawdry, plastic political retort tragically believing it to be an example of their ability to think for themselves.
“In the ’70s and ’80 you rarely got to hear what people thought. When you did, say on BBC 2 late on a Tuesday evening, it was generally because the fucker telling you what they thought had served some kind of apprenticeship on thinking and proved to some cunt that they could actually do it.
“And there was only about ten of them, all on the BBC and none on ITV at all.
“Then the Internet came along and even the thickest of daft cunts started to erroneously believe there was some actual fucking merit in the utter bilge that they were thinking so they should tell everyone. It was utterly horrendous but it got even worse.
“The number of thick fucking people telling you what they think then got multiplied by an almost infinite number of thick fucking things to think about. We’re approaching the point soon where they will all write the complete works of Shakespeare again but only by trying to explain how nice their tea was.
“Anyway That’s what I think.”
***
First off, let me say I both agree and disagree with my friend’s statement. What he calls the worst thing about the Internet might be one of the top two or three things, but it isn’t quite the worst. We’re subjected to as much or as little as we allow ourselves to be. In that respect, we have only ourselves to blame.
I can choose to read, listen to or watch a right-wing incel like Nick Fuentes or not. I just my own discretion enough to know that most of what he’s saying is bullshit. But I also know that the simple fact he can post it on YouTube or anywhere else doesn’t go even 1 percent of the way to giving him any claim to authority.
But there are far too many people — many of them on the right — who will tell you he couldn’t post it if it weren’t true.
There used to be editors.
There used to be filters.
In the 2012 election the Romney-Ryan ticket tried to tell us there were two kinds of people in our society — Makers and Takers. There are also Fakers, far too many of them.
I have been writing for one form of media or another for nearly 45 years. I have been writing on the Internet since 2000, and I can proudly say one thing. I have never written, posted or replied with something I know is wrong or untrue. I write to further an agenda, but it has never been to make money or acquire power for myself.
I have served long apprenticeships and earned the right to say I am intelligent enough and informed enough to have an intelligent opinion. If I don’t have the answer to something, I admit it.
I know what I know and I know what I don’t know.
And it’s pretty obvious to me that my friend Steve Carter does too.
Now if we could only get at least a few of the daft, er, wankers to know sides of the ocean to try to learn more and at least turn the volume down, maybe we would have a chance.
After all, it really isn’t for man to interfere in the ways of Hog.