The Internet: the "worst of
times" pessimism
Through
the Net you can present yourself as
you want—not necessarily
as you are. What freedom!
You can creatively imagine "me" over and over, endlessly. What
fun! Moreover, you
can use the Net to deepen your
communication with others and actually create
profound intimate moments.
So say the optimists.
Others—Sacred and Non-Sacred Secularists—see
the Internet as a “worst
of times.” It is a treacherous venue of trickery.
It is a Fool’s
Adventure.
For them, your venture into cyberspace is like Alice in Wonderland
falling down the rabbit hole. They
caution you that
all that can be found in cyberspace is a web of fakery,
fraud, deception, betrayal and the rape of
innocence.
Their warning: the Net is intimate hell. No one is
who they say they are! Worse, if you expose who
you really are, your offline identity will be stolen!
The Net is a den of thieves, pure and
simple.
They
caution that your individual safety is always best secured by
being part of an identity group, and that, when online, there is
no protection from
those whose
only motivation is to cause harm. Even your family, sitting in
the next room watching TV, cannot protect you. Yet, for many
Secularists
who hold
the “best of times” perspective, this perilous
exposure is worth the risk. They believe that there is more to be gained
from the Internet than lost.
Continue—Pessimism
