By Loretta Kelly
Buffalo, NY – What is the scoop on chat rooms?
People act like they are completely insane when they enter the illusion of anonymity in the chat room. I can't help but think of how people act when they are driving alone in a car.
Imagine sweet mild-mannered Madge getting behind the wheel of her humongous SUV and next thing you know 99lb. Madge is driving the slowpokes off of the road. Flipping the finger wantonly while singing the Stones at the top of her lungs, cell phone attached to her ear...hey! Who's holding the steering wheel???!!!
People who know her would think her evil twin has carjacked the family van.
Chat rooms are just as lethal. And I often wonder if there is actually anyone steering the wheel. The words are aimless, yelling, screaming, raging anger at any target too slow to get out of the way.
Here is a sample of one evening in the chat room.
I entered an AOL chat with the topic addressing the recent torture of prisoners in Iraq.
People were absolutely rabid that night. Veterans who were upset because they know that war is always this way. Misogynists attacking the female soldier in the pictures by greedily flinging out every foul derogatory comment possibly imagined towards the feminine gender. People defending the horrific photos...saying that the prisoners "deserve" what they got...
And then I read this one lone voice.
"I thought the pictures were funny."
That was it...I snapped and went after funny pictures guy using the double edged sword of my words.
I asked him to elaborate.
Finally getting the attention he was pathetically digging for he responded... "I have a sense of humor."
And then the challenge was raised...I asked him what do you mean by that? He remained in the Chat Room...but, now he was silent.
I was not satisfied...I was not going to let this one go.
Come on wise guy...what is so funny about torture...enlighten us.
His ego failed him and he made the mistake of taking the bait.
"I don't know. They are just funny."
And then I dropped the bomb...
WHAT ARE YOU? SOME KIND OF PSYCHOPATH?
The room went dead silent.
No scrolling. No yelling from the unfaced voices of 47 people in that Chat Room on that night.
The chatter stopped dead in its tracks.
I threw the gauntlet down... and no one touched it. All words, but no one really willing to shave away at the core of the Abu Ghraib horror.
This event is not about a fallen female soldier taking the dive for her superiors. The torture is not about revenge against supposed war criminals. This horror is not about the tragedies of war.
This issue is about what are you harboring in your own soul?
This awful event is a mirror which reflects our innermost thoughts.
Under such circumstances would I have behaved the same way?
And if I have thought "YES" ...then I have to examine what type of soul rot has creeped in on me. And how did I ever allow myself to get comfortable with such evil?
That is the discussion that is NOT being discussed.
And the silence held in the air for a brief moment.
Then the chatter began again...slowly, tentatively, lest someone else be targetted as a sociopath...oh no...not anyone in this chat room surely?
We would know a sociopath if we saw one, right?
Wrong.
And that is how evil works.
It chisels away...slowly, deliberately...eroding the soul...washing the mind with apathy...distancing ourselves from each other. Using words as a web to protect us from the honesty of silent introspection.
Evil hides behind smiling faces and confusion and noise....lots and lots of noise.
Evil loves a good road rage...so unless you are willing and strong enough to face evil head on...step aside...because it is raging through the Internet and it's waiting to flip a finger at you.
Listener-commentator Loretta Kelly lives in the Buffalo area.