Blogosphere Behavioral Scientists Bang On Their Keyboards

In the wake of the recent episode of death threats and obnoxious, boorish, and, what looks to be criminal, behavior being tossed at Kathy Sierra, (it might be too soon actually to say "in the wake of") there are lots of posts on lots of blogs. The majority praise and lend support to Kathy, calling out the folks guilty of the behavior. A few jump on that "chorus" and throw a penalty flag for piling on. Scoble is protesting by not blogging for a week. (That just makes no sense.) Defenses have been issued. Codes of conduct are called for and being written. Sturm and Drang everywhere.

There are a couple of interesting twists that puzzle me. I believe that the acts committed are reprehensible and the perpetrators should be punished. That's beyond my purview, other than to state my beliefs. But I don't think this is a blogosphere or tech blogger culture thing exclusively. I also don't think this is an anti-female thing exclusively either. It happened to a female blogger. I think that's where the exclusivity stops. The issues are much bigger and, sad to say, just as prevalent in all aspects of society. Many, myself included, began posts about this by saying you're going to get smacked sometime or the other if you hang out your blogging shingle. No different than any other walk of life. Heck, our political culture thrives on lying, deceit, and the destruction of others. The winners are the ones that do it best and we celebrate that fact. I hate that. But it is true.

This is one of those dark moments that we bump up against in life that come around every once in awhile that remind us, sometimes all too sharply, just how close we are to our baser natures, no matter how far we think we have progressed.

It is a disturbing moment. It is one that was perhaps inevitable, (with only the spark being in question),, and no matter how much conversation and good intent comes out of this, it will happen again.