The Second American Civil War

The venerable Dr. Oxford, resident intelligentsia of the website Pointless Waste Of Time, has outdone himself this time. Jumping onto the political discussion bandwagon with both feet, he has elected (pardon the pun) not to take sides, but simply to illuminate. His latest scholarly article: The Second American Civil War, takes on us. Yes, us, the bloggers and journalers of the world. He writes:

Who is influencing the opinions of American youth today? It is a core of cyber peers, massively popular untrained and uneducated writers on the internet that, together, command an audience of tens of millions of future voters and leaders and fighters. They do not have editors or real publishing costs. They answer to no one. They relate to the web surfers as friends.

We are not alone in cringing from the scathing words of the good Doctor. So-called internet news sites also fall under his scrutiny. Regarding a recent movie review on Ain't It Cool News, he writes:

Harry turned his review of a... movie starring CGI robots... into a treatise on the evils of the Bush administration. And he did it for a horde of readers who do not watch Meet the Press. For hundreds of thousands of them, that review was the only reading they did about politics that day.

He goes on to warn us of our rapidly polarizing population, and where he thinks it will lead. Many of his points echo thoughts of my own. Just several weeks ago, I expressed to accquintances on an internet message board the concern that the dramatic swing away from the center currrently going on in American politics was disturbing. When we stop seeing the shades of grey, we can be fooled into thinking that we have to choose between black and white, and that such absolutes actually exist.

If you are going to visit Pointless Waste Of Time to read the article, and perhaps comment in the forums there, please take heed of these two cautions:

1) You will encounter language that some deem offensive. I do not believe it is used frivolously.

2) All may not be entirely as it seems on the surface. Read carefully. Take advantage of the two-for-one offer wisdom. Think about what you have read before commenting. Have a thick skin.