August 6, 2008: Waah! I Don't Like Porridge!
Two recent news items wonderfully illustrate what I see to be a pervasive cultural sickness:
- A number of fans of the video game franchise Diablo have seen new screenshots of Diablo III and, unsatisfied with their appearance, doctored them up to be as they "should" be.
- Thousands of angry teenage girls are rioting over the ending of Stephanie Meyers's Twilight series for not ending as they think it "should."
We somehow have embraced the idea that all opinions are sacrosanct and, worse still, that they should have impact in the real world.
Maybe it has something to do with being a democratic society, based on the idea that opinions can rule a nation. Maybe it also involves the Internet, that aching hole of want where everybody's yelling and crying but nobody's listening.
Whatever the cause, I'm perplexed that so many people expect their opinions to matter. Or, more importantly, that others should do something to make them matter.
Opinions themselves are fine; this blog couldn't exist without a lot of ill-considered ones. Go ahead and hate the new screens of Diablo. Go ahead and be disappointed with the last Twilight book. Don't buy either of them.
But don't expect the world to change solely by the power of your indignation.
Maybe there's such a thing as too much communication, especially when so little of it is listening.
