Is there Truth on the internet? Would I ever lie to you? Of course I've never lied to anyone in a chat room. I just invent my own truth for the occasion. If I want to be a Kurdish tribesman from Afghanistan, then, by golly that's what I am! Of course, since I can't come up with the recipes for any of the traditional Kurdish dishes, I've really got to be inventive about my truth or somebody's gonna get suspicious and want to meet me in person. I mean, I just know everyone is eager to buy themselves an airline ticket to Afghanistan to meet a real live Kurdish tribesman.
Would anybody ever lie to me? Of course not! What do you think I am? Skeptical or something? I just know that a teenage girl could never be a law enforcement officer trolling for predatory perverts. I'll just travel right out to meet her! And the dude who offers me a brand new racing bicycle with all the glow-in-the-dark extras for $100 has certainly got to be describing it accurately, and I just know it's not stolen, either! I'll just send a certified cashiers check on the spot! Can't pass up a deal like that!
Is there Beauty on the internet? Yes indeed, folks! Every day we receive at least 5 obscene e-mails featuring filthy language and pictures of naked women doing strange things into our bicycle club e-mail account which is automatically forwarded to all club members, some of whom are under 18. In fact, one is only 7. Oops! I guess that wasn't the kind of beauty we're supposed to be talking about here.
So, is there really Beauty on the internet? Yes indeed, folks! So far, I have not bothered to learn how to create my own graphics because the freebie graphics available for anybody's use are sufficient enough that I can always find something I need for my site. But the folks who want to create their own graphics have done some truly beautiful work.
But even more beautiful than the mere pretty pictures is the range of ideas expressed by people on their web sites. Since you can put anything you jolly please onto the internet without going through a lengthy process of peer review and editing and publication and distribution, you can state your beautiful ideas in their purest form without anybody else getting their grubby little paws into your nickers.
And so we see there is Freedom on the internet. You can put up anything you please. But if you're going to put up anything worthwhile, that takes time and effort for site design and content research. Time doesn't come cheap for ordinary folks who have jobs and family responsibilities, so that severely limits your freedom.
There are some very nice and well-researched sites on the internet that took a lot of effort and require the support of advertising banners on the page. Many times these sites have become targets for evil and powerful opponents who have boycotted, mail-bombed, and otherwise harassed the advertisers, thus causing them to withdraw their support. Then the site owners may suddenly find themselves without the freedom to continue expressing their views. So, it's sad to say, but freedom on the internet often costs money.
Now, of course I can sit back and smugly say, "If I want to promote my own views I'll do it on my own nickel, and you can do the same!" But that ignores the higher reality that my own views are pretty simple and didn't take any significant research to figure them out and post them. I would also be out of line to claim that anybody is really going to learn much of anything from my inane drivel.
Is there Love on the internet? Well, any place there's Truth, Beauty, and Freedom, there's got to be Love. Now, I lead a reasonably active social life off-line, so I certainly don't need the internet to find friends. Nevertheless, I have met a lot of people on the internet that I could have never met otherwise. In fact, I have even met two of my internet friends in person. Both of them are fellow bicycle riders who participate in some of the same events that I do, so I probably would have eventually met them anyway, but the internet definitely helped facilitate our acquaintance.
So therefore, to me, the internet is lotsa fun. Hey, what would life be without fun?
Oh by the way, I see that El Fugue Maestro has magnanimously credited me with inspiring this topic. I certainly hope I've at least pretended to do it justice.
