Cowboy towns

Eva: Your PM says the internet is a haven for cowboy towns.

Darkness: That doesn’t surprise me, bad carpenters usually blame their tools when they can’t seem to get things to fit properly. He is no exception. Coming to think of it Eva, why should he even be an exception?

Eva: Why, are you disappointed?

Darkness: Disappointment is a lovers word Eva. No, I just don’t see the point any longer. Insanity is defined as doing something again and again with the expectation of getting different results. Let’s just say, its time to shift gears and go where we choose to go. Besides whatever he has to say has absolutely no influence on either the trajectory or speed at which the internet will unfold. So I really don’t see anything compelling about what he has to say.

Eva: That’s it, no windbag rhapsodies about how, who or why?

Darkness: May sound like nothing, but trajectory and speed just happens to be everything and much more Eva. You see I know where the internet is heading – that’s to say, I can stand up on a soap box and talk about this subject for a good 2 hours without even peeling off the veneer of the deeper substrate – but he can’t do that, neither can his advisors – all they see is a blank wall with dots.

Eva: Elaborate please.

Darkness: I take the world as it is Eva and not what I expect it to be. I work and plan within those constrains and if any opportunities arise its usually what I make of it and not what I am waiting to come about – do you understand what I mean Eva?

Eva: What you’re saying is you accept the internet for what is it and you work with its strengths and weaknesses.

Darkness: Sort of, but you’ve missed out on one thing Eva.

Eva: What’s that?

Darkness: I can accept the idea the internet will never ever be a place that resembles anything we regularly see or experience in the real world – that doesn’t quite hit the spot – let me try again – I can accept the reality the internet will be what it is, the wild wild West.

Eva: Doesn’t that frighten you?

Darkness: Not really.If you look at the internet it’s really not so different from how the Sierra’s used to be when the first wagons scissored their way into the red indian territory – sure, you can say its hairy and you could even fear getting hurt or ending up 6 feet beneath the ground – my point is most of the risk can be effectively managed to create opportunities. I mean let’s get real Eva – where do you think we are? We are in the middle of the jungle. There is no running water, no gas, no law and order – but do you see anyone dying? I mean anyone could just come in here at night and take their chances like one of those high noon shot outs – if he pulls his gun out cleanly without blowing off his foot and aims it right – that man takes the high ground.

Eva: And you don’t consider that wrong?

Darkness: No. it may well be wrong Eva in the normative sense. Because you can say that’s not the best way to organize any society – but that’s just the way it is around here – I mean most people work with those constrains and make the best of the situation – that’s really all I am saying. We have to work with what we have and not what we wished we have. There is a world of difference Eva. For example, I can’t stop people from harassing me here from time to time. But I can make it darn expensive for them. And if you just keep the pressure up. A time will come when they will just say, “OK, this isn’t working out, let’s try happy families.” I think, the internet is not so different. One just needs to go through the grief and hope that somewhere in the tumble and grime, you get spitted out like a seed and emerge out from the other side.

Eva: So you feel that he hasn’t got the right attitude to succeed in a cowboy environment.

Darkness: That’s up to him and his crappy advisors to figure out. All I know is the internet is the new frontier and if history serves to tell us anything; all new frontiers attract the brightest and most agile to take to the high seas, Prairies or that place the Spaniards once called Terra Incognita – I don’t ever see the world or for that matter humanity negotiating around those realities.

The Suriman Tales – The Brotherhood Press 2011