There are times the madness of all of this almost overwhelms one..
We have spoken of Time. most recently, it's elasticity, subjectivity; we have spoken of the impending war in the Middle East, for which preparations are almost complete and waiting the order; we have spoken of 'truth' as it applies to this new medium, with it's anonymity and sheer physical coverage.
Well for a moment, let us address once again what is said in chat rooms, the thoughts of those hinged, unhinged, and completely left banging in the metaphorical wind.
For there are some 'ethical truisms' expressed within the chaos. There are short periods when conversation surpasses the ceiling set by the mediocre and overpowering, and issues of substance are examined. It is this fleeting moment, this momentary glimpse of rational that keeps these wells from running dry.
A comment made by a chatter who had been away for a month ago summed it up.
"..been gone for what..three weeks..and still the same arguments..?"
That's the point. Compare these groups for a moment, to those rabbinical schools who have been meeting, generation after generation, at the same tables in Jerusalem, or Prague, or Warsaw, and arguing the exact same points, endlessly. Compare with the groups of any faiths' Holy Men', who have gathered, discussed, pondered, the same questions for millennia.
Here were have thousands doing it every day, admittedly few with anything near the actual education or insight that has been developed in these venerable religious discussions around the world over thousands of years, but, consider the head start.
We are not the majority... those among the users of the Internet We who debate the meaning of life or denigrate any particular 'faith' for the sake of argument, are certainly a minority. However we do in our various forums, represent hundreds of thousands of people representing, in all the various stages, 'faith'. And we are all in one way or another, debating points that occasionally verge on the brilliant.
Not bloody often mind, but occasionally.
Marshall MacLuhan said 'the medium is the massage'.. this medium, even in it's nascent form, is immense.
Spiritually speaking, this meeting of minds, over time, could indeed formulate a 'truth'.. a concept that has no meaning now simply because there are none. There are no universally accepted 'truths', perhaps because there has never before been anything akin to universal communication.
There is now.