Because a standard net attitude is that it is rude to make posts "not in keeping with the tone of the group", ie. to think for yourself, and honestly post what you think. Cowardice is not merely being accepted, but mandated - and is then relabeled as "civility". Cowardice, having found habitual expression in one's actions, becomes part of one. One becomes timid, making the attitude that helped one become so, even more appealing than it was before, and harder to resist. A sick value system, begins to take on a life of its own, and it lives on in one.

What will this value system be? Well, it is crafted out of a desire to keep everything upsetting away, and that implies a great degree of control over the forum. There will be a major show of bravado, even vicious fanaticism, in order to maintain this, if challenged in any sense. A moderate and reasonable response to such a challenge leaves the community with the fear that its fears won't go away quickly, and it just simply can't cope. This much having been said, one should remember that quick and easy peace is what is being sought by a group of people who have been getting out of the habit of questioning what they read and hear. So, the initial choice of what to support, will tend to be determined by what the level of hostility each choice will generate seems to be at the time.

In other words, we will have attitude following the path of least resistance. The group begins by siding with whoever seems to be the worst to oppose, and then hopes for the best. If the guess proves to be wrong, the group will then stubbornly stick to its original choice and try to look tough, to scare off those who scare it. Kind of like one of those little puffer fish that will inflate to many times its normal size by sucking in water when confronted with a perceived attacker, and hope that the bluff will work. Like that fish, the group will hold on to its pathetic charade even when a stronger opposition sees through it, and will fight on until the bitter end for a peace that won't be coming its way.

Ironically enough, this cowardice may inspire them to step into far more serious trouble than they were running from, because once they get out of the habit of thinking for themselves, the members of our group will have turned off the very faculty that allows them to see that staying with their clique is leading them into trouble. There be few to no limits on how far the group will go in getting its way (as, by its very nature, it will be taking its cues from the most belligerent individuals present). It becomes a lynch mob if it faces even the least opposition, once it takes a stance.

But then, stepping into greater harm is what it has been doing all along. By advertising the fact that it will reward belligerence with fanatical support, it encourages that belligerence, making it more common and destroying the very peace it craves. Those of equal belligerence, finding their opposition has captured the support of one group, will seek another, and so the confrontations escalate rather than fade away. People like this serve to radically destabilise the societies they are part of, replacing calm and civilised discussion and the possibility of peaceful settlement with unending conflict that deepens the hate they so often claim to oppose. Where there was once understanding, now only shouting matches and fist fights remain.

And then there are the tattered psyches of those who've been set on, by one too many mobs, and slowly become more like those in them out of sheer fatigue. These people recruit many, and terrorise the rest.

There can be no question of living in peace with those like this, for their very presence is the end of peace. One must be cruel with them in order to be kind with others, tearing into their lack of character until they either change their ways or retreat into a corner, where they need not be seen and are not heard. A little hostility will not suffice - they will just get their pack of friends together and have a fight (many, against one). You must destroy them in spirit and in the eyes of the society around you.

Not a happy thought, but an honest one. Let's start offering those more often while we still have a chance.

continue back