'Net Wars: Attack Of The Trolls

If you've ever been around middle aged or elderly people, you are no stranger to their constant bickering with regards to the way the world is today, and how much better things were back in 'the good old days', even though the so-called 'good old days' for a 50 year-old may be considered a part of the 'modern era' for a 70 year-old. Still, the premise is simple - before 'now', everything was 'better'.


Most of us cringe during these conversations, but I must say that in some ways I have to agree. However, while most of the older generation complain about music, fashion and cell phones, my main grouse with today's world would have to be the way we fight.


Travel back in time with me a couple of centuries. If modern theatre and books are to believed, living in the 19th century was a difficult proposition! If you survived child birth, it was a miracle! And then you had to pray for a succession of miracles so that you wouldn't die from smallpox, cholera or tuberculosis, because thanks to the non-invention of modern medicine, once you got one of those diseases you were doomed to spend the rest of your short life surrounded by other sick people in some dungeon quarantine. And then if you made it into your twenties, just when you'd turn to pat yourself on the back for a job well done you'd most likely find a dagger, sword or some other sharp object protruding from it. But at least that you might have deserved!


See, back then there was a strict code of honour surrounding the way we solved problems, at least among the higher social classes. If you ever insulted or mocked someone, it was their honour-bound duty to challenge you to a duel to resolve the quarrel. I'm talking about the sort of duels written about in Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers". It may seem medieval to us now, but back then it was a socially acceptable form of conflict resolution, that left no room for errors, was swift and decisive.


Fast forward back to the present, and look around you. The world has become one where it isn't the law makers that rule the land, it's the lawyers! A few punches thrown at an annoying customer or a rude waiter and we get sued for everything we own. Hey, God bless the judicial system; they may have resolved countless disputes over the years, but for every 100 cases there's always one where somebody sues McDonald's for making them fat.


So somebody goes and says "the pen is mightier than the sword", and all of a sudden we have an answer - hate mail. Bring on the internet, and now we have hate boards for everything under the sun. Of all the sad and lamentable changes that have occurred in the last quarter century, the internet wars have to be the saddest. On kottu we have our resident trolls, and while some may find them witty, funny and/or pure evil (depending on whether you've been 'outed' by them) I am decidedly neutral about them. Faceless, nameless people pontificating from the shadows - I'm bored already. However, my concern is not so much about the trolls, but our reaction to them.


Personally, this whole drama with NB is just a reflection of how sad we as human beings have become. I'm not saying this because of what he did, but rather for the way we all retaliated. We somehow got it into our heads that this 'war of words' could actually be won by the party with the most scathing and sarcastic post written about the other. So we have a little back and forth between the forces of evil aka Bawa and his chocolate-covered minions and the forces of the little downtrodden people aka the rest of the blogosphere (except The Whackster, who is firmly on the fence). The same argument applies to the trolls, who scour the blogosphere looking for 'unworthy' posts and go on to eviscerate them in agonising detail. Then we get all offended and try to retaliate by feeding them more material to 'troll' on.


Really, what is the point? I for one am as sick of these trolls as I am of internet threats and blackmail. "Do this else I will publish your address". If you HAVE my address, why not come ring the door bell and we can settle this like men? "Look at what so-n-so wrote. It is utter tripe! Laugh with me at his idiocy!" So someone doesn't like your writing. Oh no. This means you must either a) retaliate and try to one-up them or b) crawl under a rock and die from embarrassment.


Sad.


If only we had people like this in World War II. I can only imagine the look of utter incomprehension on the Polish head of state's face if, instead of being invaded, he was 'bombed' with hate mail by Hitler.



Bottom line? Bloggers are generally considered to be 'lame' - don't vindicate that accusation by getting into a virtual battle of insults.