This is a comment left after the editorial on this page: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11783

The editorial is great but I think this comment gives us a lot to consider. It is the ninth one below the piece: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11783

First, kill the Internet

I've been thinking for a long time now that one of the biggest problems we have -- as well as one of the biggest benefits -- is the Internet.

On the benefit side, we can meet up with and discuss things with people we never could have done before. On the negative side, though, we mistake that meeting up and discussing for "taking action."

People ask what is different now and in the '60s. One big thing is that I can remember in the'60s going to two or three meetings a week, and those meeting resulted in direct action locally. I met a lot of people. I took part in protests -- at first small and then huge. Things happened.

Today, we (and I'm as guilty as anyone) sit home, sip tea, have close personal relationships with people we've never met, who have made-up nicknames, and who, like us, will peck away on their keyboards all day. Then, they fall into bed exhausted because they feel they have done something.

There's a similar phenomenon, I'm told, in the personal relations world. I have (gay) friends who are into the dating scene. In the old days, they would have gone to a gay bar, socialized and maybe met someone -- or not -- for either a one-night stand, or maybe more. Even if they didn't meet someone for dating, however, they met other people, made friends, had relationships, and some conversation.

Today, the news is that gay bars are dwindling. Too many people are staying home trying to "hook up" on the Internet. They peck away at their keyboards all day, talking to people with made-up nicknames and often phony "stats," and think they have had a series of personal relationships, when they haven't.

They may hook up once in a while, but, I'm told, most of the online encounters fizzle before the actual meeting. In other cases, the actual meeting is disappointing because the 28-year-old, 6'2, 180-pound, blond hunk is a 38-year-old, 5'8, 220-pound bottle-blond hulk (who is married and cheating on his wife). But they also miss out on the serendipity of maybe meeting other people, making friends, and forming useful social networks.

It's the same in the political arena. While the Internet has a value in sharing information and circumventing the MSM, it also gives us the illusion of action, when what we're really doing is isolating.