A Generation of Narcissists

I have just read a Tanith Carey article “Why do people become so vile online?” in the Daily Mail of Thursday 11th August 2011. Generally it is a very good article, that is to say I largely agree with her arguement, apart from one arrogant and contemptuous comment.

“The downside of the free speech offered by blogs, Twitter and social networking is that it has created a generation of narcissists obsessed with their own opinions.”

The fact is we have always had these “narcissists” ever since newspapers began to publish the letters of their readers. There are two sorts of journalists those who report the news and those who comment on events, those who comment on events are just as much “narcissists obsessed with their own opinions” as a blogger or Twitter user; that someone is paid to express an opinion does not make them any more qualified, or less self absorbed than the unpaid letter writer or blogger. Frequently the online specialist commentator is better qualified to write than the columnist who covers a range of subjects.  Who is to say that a member of the general public has an opinion that is of less value than that of one paid to express an opinion? The papers are full of people like Littlejohn expressing opinions on a thousand and one things of which they have no experience or knowledge. Parliament is full of members who appear to believe that a public school and university education is a substitute for experience, and that a law degree somehow qualifies them to have opinions on such diverse subjects as military expenditure and fish farming. The downside of the free speech offered by blogs, Twitter and social networking to the professional pontificator ,is not that it has created a generation of narcissists, but that it has allowed ordinary people to share their narcissism.

Topiary - A Cruel and Unnatural Punishment

I suppose one should be pleased that Jake Davis aka Topiary – the hacker alleged to be a spokesman for LulzSec – has been released on bail, but I have reservations. Davis has not as yet been found guilty of any crime, but his bail conditions are tantamount to “cruel and unusual punishment”. For many people being denied access to the Internet is not a punishment, but to deny them human interaction would be considered inhuman. Some people’s normal human interaction is over the Internet because face to face interaction is unpleasant and confusing, to condemn them to only interacting face to face is the equivalent of placing a normal person in solitary confinement. Without access to the Internet one is deprived of the means to express one’s feelings and opinions to others, a denial of the Internet is like expecting a normal person to converse while wearing a gag, blindfold and earplugs. The Internet is a realm in which many autistic people can move freely and to exclude them from it is as restrictive of their freedom as incarceration in a jail cell would be to a “normal” person. I find a day without going on line difficult, the Internet has given me a freedom I never had as a child, but at least I have in the past managed without it, I am in my fifties, to deny Davis – who is only eighteen and has not grown up without the Internet –  Internet access is cruel!

I think our reaction to LulzSec and Anonymous is totally disproportionate. A politician who fraudulently claims expenses may go to jail for a few months, most did not. Journalists and editors who hack into voice messages and bribe policemen may go to jail for a few months, most get away with it. Bankers and financiers can indulge in rampant brinkmanship with other people’s money, very few are punished and many are rewarded. The activities of Lulzsec and Anonymous have not been for material gain, but they cause such ire in the establishment because they embarrass those in power who do not accept that ordinary people have a right to question their behaviour. It might be argued that if government departments, institutions and large companies like Sony behaved responsibly there would be no LulzSec or Anonymous, if they were not so desperate to conceal the truth, there would be no Wikileaks. Rather than pursuing those who are revealing incompetence and abuse, we should be calling for those they have embarrassed to correct their errors, and allow the police to focus their efforts on real criminals who are abusing the internet for dishonest gain.